Calling for a Re-Write
Homosexuality has been a controversial topic for hundreds of years now and has grown in awareness and acceptance over time. Past mentions of the subject can even be seen in older works of literature and art although it was not easily found because of the lack of understanding or “Androgynous” context, according to author, John Boswell author of, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality. It was not until the past 50 or so years that same sex marriage and gay rights began to make a huge up rise and today is seen as common and for the most part socially acceptable. So my question would be if Dante were alive today would sodomy still be in the seventh circle of hell under homicide and suicide or in hell at all and should it have been in the first place?
Dante’s Devine Comedy was published in 1555; a time where homosexuality was around but had not been socially acceptable by any means. During this time the Catholic Church had a strong influence on peoples’ beliefs, which included thoughts on homosexuality. The history of homosexuality in the Bible may begin with Genesis 9:2-24, in which many Christian scholars believe that Ham, the youngest son of Noah, committed a homosexual act on his father, while the latter was asleep, having been overcome with wine. It was thought that the idolizing of false gods or the devils influence caused acts of homosexuality.
One of the most important figures in Dante's life and in the Divine Comedy is Brunetto Latini, placed among the sodomites of the Inferno. With the time period being the way it was, and having homosexuality be completely unacceptable and never talked about and religiously speaking sodomy would be enough to place you ...
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...uality, bestiality, and self-pleasure would be put into Hell together in the same circle just in different rings. But also Dante would have to accept that homosexuality will soon be accepted across the nation and those who read this book in the future will not understand how it was ever put into any part of hell and question his reasoning. Literature is an important part of our lives and history and as time moves on and ideals change it will give the ones reading it a chance to analyze and understand the context themselves.
Works Cited
Boswell, John. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1980. Print.
Boswell, John E. "Dante and the Sodomites." JSTOR. Dante Society of America, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
Dante, Alighieri, and Mark Musa. Dante's Inferno: The Indiana Critical Edition. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1995. Print.
Dante’s concept of sin and punishment conflicts with the modern American idea of morality. Not only sequence and grouping but also the punishments of sin in the original Circle of Hell are much different of that in a modern American version.
In analyzing this gradient of morality, it is useful first to examine a work from early literature whose strong purity of morality is unwavering; for the purposes of this discussion, Dante’s Inferno provides this model. It is fairly straightforward to discover Dante’s dualistic construction of morality in his winding caverns of Hell; each stern, finite circle of Hell is associated with a clear sin that is both definable and directly punishable. As Dante moves downwards in this moral machination, he notes that
To assume that norms from one place to another are the same is very dangerous to do because everything and everyone is different on how they handle and see things. This is shown on how sexuality is seen in today’s world vs. Caravaggio’s time. It could be said that Caravaggio when arriving in Rome that he noticed the norms and how society functioned within the high class was involved around the pleasure of sexuality when associated with the norms. Rocke, Ruggiero, and Gallucci pointed out that sexual relations between men and boys in Florence adhered to strict, ridged codes of behavior around the twin axes of power and gender (Gallucci 38). This is noticed with Caravaggio when he was working for Cardinal Del Monte, in which exposed Caravaggio to appreciate and love boys and young men. This was due to his high social ranking in
In the Inferno we follow the journey of Dante as he wanders off the path of moral truth and into Hell. The Virgin Mary and Santa Lucia ask Beatrice, Dante’s deceased love, to send some help. Thus, Virgil comes to the rescue and essentially guides Dante through Hell and back to the mortal world from which he came. However, things begin to seem kind of odd. When reading the Inferno one may begin to question the way Dante describes Hell and the things that occur within, or even the things we have always believed about Hell. Despite the way it is described and well known in western civilization, Hell is not at all how we expect it to be because of Dante's use of irony throughout this poetic masterpiece.
...ards monstrous figures and sympathy towards those who seem to be tortured unjustly. In his perverse education, with instruction from Virgil and the shades, Dante learns to replace mercy with brutality, because sympathy in Hell condones sin and denies divine justice. The ancient philosopher Plato, present in the first level of Hell, argues in The Allegory of the Cave that truth is possible via knowledge of the Form of the Good. Similarly, Dante acquires truth through a gradual understanding of contrapasso and the recognition of divine justice in the afterlife. Ultimately, Dante recognizes that the actions of the earthly fresh are important because the soul lives on afterwards to face the ramifications. By expressing his ideas on morality and righteousness, Dante writes a work worth reading, immortalizes his name, and exalts the beliefs of his Christian audience.
Everyone has a different perception of what really is heaven and hell and where people end up in the after life. Some people are not even religious and have their own personal thoughts about what is next after death. The Inferno or to be more precise “Hell” can be described and defined as a place where people end up after death in the natural world, when people have not followed God’s ways and laws of living. It is has been depicted throughout the years of time that suffering in hell is horrific, gruesome, and unimaginable. In Dante’s Inferno, Dante portrays the protagonist as he is guided by his ghostly friend Virgil the poet through the nine chambers of Hell. The transition from one circle to another is very shocking and graphic at what he witnesses through each circle. Dante uncovers where each sin will lead people to once the sinners souls face death. He faces many trials and tribulations through the beginning to end of the Inferno. Dante felt impelled to write the Inferno because he was going through his own personal struggles at the time. In a way he was extremely depressed because he was exiled out of Florence, and the love of his life Beatrice died. While Dante was in exile for so many years, it allowed him to write some of his most significant works of literature that people still read to this day.
Although most of the punishments may have been fitting and appropriate based on the sins that were committed, there are a few that the Catholic Church would disagree with, namely the fact that blasphemers against God received such a mild punishment and that souls in Purgatory and Limbo were punished at all. In conclusion, although Dante’s The Inferno does often allude to the Bible, it is not biblically accurate and was not meant to be a teaching of the Catholic Church, but a fictional story of his own vision of Hell intended for literary purposes.
Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with many questions and thought provoking dialogue to interpret. These crossroads provide points of contemplation and thought. Dante’s graphic depiction of hell and its eternal punishment is filled with imagery and allegorical meanings. Examining one of these cruxes of why there is a rift in the pits of hell, can lead the reader to interpret why Dante used the language he did to relate the Idea of a Just and perfect punishment by God.
Dante feels hell is a necessary, painful first step in any man’s spiritual journey, and the path to the blessed after-life awaits anyone who seeks to find it, and through a screen of perseverance, one will find the face of God. Nonetheless, Dante aspires to heaven in an optimistic process, to find salvation in God, despite the merciless torture chamber he has to travel through. As Dante attempts to find God in his life, those sentenced to punishment in hell hinder him from the true path, as the city of hell in Inferno represents the negative consequences of sinful actions and desires. Though the punishments invariably fit the crimes of the sinners and retributive justice reigns, the palpable emphasis of fear and pity that Dante imbues on the transgressors illustrates his human tendency to feel sympathy towards one who is suffering. For example, when Dante approaches the gat...
Dante Alighieri presents a vivid and awakening view of the depths of Hell in the first book of his Divine Comedy, the Inferno. The reader is allowed to contemplate the state of his own soul as Dante "visits" and views the state of the souls of those eternally assigned to Hell's hallows. While any one of the cantos written in Inferno will offer an excellent description of the suffering and justice of hell, Canto V offers a poignant view of the assignment of punishment based on the committed sin. Through this close reading, we will examine three distinct areas of Dante's hell: the geography and punishment the sinner is restricted to, the character of the sinner, and the "fairness" or justice of the punishment in relation to the sin. Dante's Inferno is an ordered and descriptive journey that allows the reader the chance to see his own shortcomings in the sinners presented in the text.
Despite the obvious flaws of Dante himself, he does give a clear vision of how punishments will be taken forth in the afterlife. He gives reason to fear and respect the law of God lest eternal punishment be your only promise in the afterlife. These punishments are as relevant as can be, so he offers a very vivid picture of hell. The men that he puts in hell give it a realistic twist, enhancing the fear that is felt upon reading this work
The purpose of Dante including the reactions of the sinners upon meeting Dante has an important role. Dante wants the reader to know that committing a less severe crime results in better treatment in Hell, and therefore a want to be remembered in the real world. Dante is not saying that one should commit a less harsh sin. He is just saying that if one were to do so, the punishment is far better off than the lower depths of Hell. This puts in the mind of the reader a sense to examine his or her own life and urges him or her to not commit sin.
It is hard to place St. Augustine within just one of the levels of Dante’s hell for his sins were varied and not great. Today many of his sins are commonplace. For example, most people attempt to better their own lives without regard of others. They attempt to increase their standard of living and gain more worldly possessions. They are neither good nor evil but are just trying to make a living and keep up in today’s fend-for-yourself society. Before Augustine’s conversion, this was his goal. He was continually searching for “honors, money, (and) marriage” (Confessions, 991). This allows Augustine to be placed in the first area of hell, the Vestibule. It is a place for opportunists such as Augustine was before his conversion. It is a place for the “nearly soulless. . . who were neither for God nor Satan, but only for themselves” (Inferno, 1295). Augustine never intentionally hurt anyone, but his actions were led by his instincts to succeed and gain praise. These actions included kissing up to the Emperor, his study of law and the art of persuasion, and the mocking of newcomers to his profession. Since each of these sins also falls within a different realm of Dante’s hell, they will be discussed later in this paper.
... of the characters portrayed in his epic poem shine light to the biased nature of his judgment. With Francesca, loving too much was what she was condemned for. Dante completely overlooks the elements of her sin that included those belonging to the ninth circle of hell: the circle of treachery. By kissing the man that was not her husband, Francesca not betrayed her husband but also her marriage. On the other hand, Pope Boniface VIII was predicted to receive condemnation for a severe sin versus a lesser sin while he was still alive. Dante’s damnation of souls in the Inferno may be based on their sins, but the placement of the sinner’s soul once in hell was somewhat skewed by Dante’s opinion of them. Dante’s Inferno does not portray god’s justice purely. It is in Dante’s humanistic feeling of emotion that make this Dante’s hell instead of a purely supernatural version.
The Divine Comedy is a poetic Italian masterpiece by Dante Alighieri composed of three parts which he called respectively: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso. As this edition’s translator, John Ciardi puts it, originally Dante simply entitled his works as The Comedy, however, in later years, it was renamed The Divine Comedy for the connections that the public saw it had with human behavior and morality (Ciardi, 2003). For the goals and purposes of this review, we will focus specifically on the portion of the book called The Inferno. At a time when religious and secular concerns were at their peak in fourteenth century Italy, a tone of conflict broke out between the church and the government. Beyond the commonalities of corruption