Essay On Divine Punishment In Oedipus And Dante's Inferno

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Divine punishment occurs in Oedipus and Dante’s Inferno. Divine Punishment is an endless punishment where your fate is determined and you cannot escape it. It is known as an irreversible occurrence that creates attitudes within characters that harms themselves and others. Oedipus faced a punishment that he had no choice over and couldn’t escape it. In Dante’s Inferno, people chose to sin and make their own decisions when sinning. The difference is that in Dante’s Inferno, some sins could’ve been escaped by man. People in Dante’s Inferno chose to sin while Oedipus had no choice and couldn’t escape it. Divine punishment can be escaped by man after a certain age of maturity, and control of their own actions. The question is, can divine punishment …show more content…

An example would be the the Christian suicides. These are people who killed themselves because they couldn’t take the pain in their lives anymore. They are punished by Harpies who represent the passions which these humans tried to escape with suicide. Now these humans are being punished because they committed suicide. This is an example of divine punishment because humans in this circle tried to escape the punishments and pain that was happening in their lives with suicide but are now being punished by God because they committed suicide. They tried to escape one thing without knowing the consequences to another. This could’ve been escaped if the humans didn’t choose to commit suicide. Committing suicide is not done by force but by choice. The suffering in their lives could have forced them to make this decision but it could’ve been prevented. If the …show more content…

Oedipus is born realizing that he would execute a man, and that man would be his father. Also, he knows that the lady he would marry would be his mother. The malicious action that he commits is living this obligation by killing his father and wedding his mother despite the fact that he is completely mindful that it is an improper thing to do. Sophocles writes, "Then let him go. And let me die, if I must, or be driven by him in shame from the land of Thebes. It is your unhappiness, and not his talk, that touches me" (Sophocles). Oedipus understands that what he has done was terrible, and he feels that his life as well, ought to be taken, which in the long run drives him to tear his eyes out. The way he encounters divine punishment is how he feels he will be punished if he does not commit the two immoral deeds. Then again, he is still punished when he slaughters his father and marries his mother since it is such an unethical, incomprehensible act. Oedipus realized that he would execute a man and marry a lady and it was those actions which prompt to his divine

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