Throughout his life, Dante Alighieri faced many hardships and accumulated many rivals, stemming from his association with the Florentine White Guelphs, who adamantly believed in the independence from the papacy. After being exiled from his home city of Florence on false allegations of being a grafter, he wrote The Inferno, a religious allegory, in which Alighieri blatantly attacks many of his rivals, among them Filippo Argenti and Bocca degli Abbati through use of literary devices as dialogue, imagery, juxtaposition, diction, tone and characterization. However, Alighieri does not show resentment towards all the sinners in his epic poem, he fluctuates between hostility and benevolence. In one specific case, Alighieri shows a sense of pity and compassion towards a specific sinner, one guilty of sodomy, Ser Brunetto Latino. Alighieri’s compassion derives from his great admiration for the fellow writer who had been a lifelong inspiration. His compassion is shown through the utilization of diction, dialogue, and imagery. Alighieri integrates many techniques in his writings to deliver his judgment of the sinners, fluctuating between feelings of hostility and benevolence.
Alighieri places Filippo Argenti in Circle Five, the Styx, among the wrathful souls; here is the first time that readers see Dante express such strong emotions of hate towards a sinner. These feelings displayed through his use of dialogue, juxtaposition, imagery, diction, and tone. Alighieri’s hatred is justified, as it is revealed that Argenti has been a longtime enemy who had played perhaps the most decisive role in Alighieri’s banishment from Florence. Dante encounters Argenti trying to board the skiff on which the poets were crossing the Styx, and upon recognition ...
... middle of paper ...
...lighieri describes Latino as “gentle” only builds upon the paternal, caring and kind nature of how Latino is depicted. As Dante finishes his lamentations, Dante tells of how Latino’s actions “strike my [Dante’s] heart,” conveying how deeply Dante is affected and moved my Latino.
After acknowledging how Alighieri treats all three sinners in various ways, it can be concluded that through his use of literary devices, Alighieri conveys either hostility or compassion towards the sinners. Alighieri either attacks political rivals, showing great hostility, or he raises those who he admires upon a pedestal, showing great compassion and warmth. Overall it is Alighieri’s creative writing through the use of literary devices that demonstrate a man’s willpower to overcome his most tried enemies in Hell, as well as parting with his greatest heroes.
Works Cited
Dante's Inferno
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Inferno. Trans. Allen Mandelbaum. Notes Allen Mandelbaum and Gabriel Marruzzo. New York: Bantam Books, 1980
Dante and Virgil come across Filippo Argenti, a Guelph from Florence, and upon discovering his identity, they immediately treat him with great disdain and wish misery and harm upon him. Filippo is thought to be an enemy of Dante’s because he is from the opposing side in Florence and because his brother stole Dante’s possessions after he was exiled from the land. What this passage then poses is the question of whether Dante and Virgil are exhibiting righteous indignation or whether their wrath is unjustified. In other words, is it possible for anger to be legitimate or is it always wrong? Depending on how this instance is interpreted, the reader can either believes that they are justified in their vengeance or are committing the same sin they should be avoiding within the fifth circle of hell. Some may believe that their anger can be justified because of what Filippo did and who he was, since he was definitely not a very just man while living. They may come to the conclusion that Dante and Virgil did no wrong while harming Filippo and throwing him from the boat to be mauled because they had a reason for doing
Descending from the first to the second level of Hell, Dante witnesses the transition to greater agony and greater punishment for the damned. Overwhelmed by the sinner’s harrowing cries and the extensive list of seemingly innocent souls given to him by Virgil, Dante beckons for two lovers to approach him, desperate for some sense of comfort. The souls are known to be the historical figures Francesca de Rimini and her lover Paolo, forever trapped in the circle of lust due to their sinful adultery. Through her words spoken to Dante, Francesca shows how she feels she has been unjustly punished and is deserving of others’ sorrow, and Dante, despite his awareness that she is a sinner, pities her. A close reading of this passage is necessary to better understand Dante’s internal battle with showing compassion where it is not deserved and Francesca’s incessant denial of her sins.
Moreover, Dante urges Latino to “sit together” with him, which can reveal how much Dante sympathizes with this sinner as he tries to temporarily stop his punishment of running eternally in circles in order to talk to him. Furthermore, after asking this favor, Alighieri and the Latino have a heartfelt conversation, interrupting the sinner’s punishment, where Alighieri reveals his compassion further towards Ser Brunetto Latino through his word choice as he addresses the sinner a “...radiance among men,” and describes him as a “...sweet image, gentle, and paternal…” (Canto XV, lines 81-82). Just as Alighieri describes the sodomite as a “radiance,” he also gave the same description to the virtuous pagans which includes many of the greatest minds that Alighieri looks up to and was influenced by. This reveals how highly Alighieri thinks of Latino and that he is a great mind as well and thus an important figure to
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” This maxim applies to the poet Dante Alighieri, writer of The Inferno in the 1300s, because it asserts the need to establish oneself as a contributor to society. Indeed, Dante’s work contributes much to Renaissance Italy as his work is the first of its scope and size to be written in the vernacular. Due to its readability and availability, The Inferno is a nationalistic symbol. With this widespread availability also comes a certain social responsibility; even though Dante’s audience would have been familiar with the religious dogma, he assumes the didactic role of illustrating his own version of Christian justice and emphasizes the need for a personal understanding of divine wisdom and contrapasso, the idea of the perfect punishment for the crime. Dante acts as both author and narrator, completing a physical and spiritual journey into the underworld with Virgil as his guide and mentor. The journey from darkness into light is an allegory full of symbolism, much like that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which shows a philosopher’s journey towards truth. Therefore, Dante would also agree with the maxim, “Wise men learn by others’ harms; fools scarcely by their own,” because on the road to gaining knowledge and spiritual enlightenment, characters who learn valuable lessons from the misfortunes of others strengthen their own paradigms. Nonetheless, the only true way to gain knowledge is to experience it first hand. Dante’s character finds truth by way of his own personal quest.
Like some people, sometimes it just feels nice to see your own thoughts in the written word. Well, Dante wrote down these thoughts into these two works, how he felt about others at the time, how he felt about himself, what he believed about Catholicism, and the church at the time, what he believed hell would be like, and how he felt about sin, which is in fact the main subjects of his two works. So this brings us back to, Why did Dante write the Inferno? Because, he wanted to put his own thoughts down into paper In the form of a story, to let all read what he was thinking and feeling about everything is his life at the moment, as well as to in a way inform others about sin, what happens when you sin, and where sin causes you to go. It teaches moral lessons along with this, but also claims which sins he feels are the worst, the greatest of sins if you will. So this is why I believe Dante wrote the Inferno, to share his thoughts with the world, and imprint them on the mind for better or worse. Well I feel that for Mister Alighieri that he wrote to inform, and spread his ideas, his beliefs. Like some people, sometimes it just feels nice to see your own thoughts in the written
Moreover, Dante, the narrator of the Inferno, has succeeded in not only telling the frightening story of the Inferno, but also pointing out the importance of the relationship between human’s sins and God’s retribution, using the monsters as the symbols for each kind of sin and its punishment throughout the progress of the story, which teaches his readers to be well aware of their sins through the literature – a part of humanities; the disciplines that teach a man to be a human.
In circle three of Inferno, Dante conjures a despairing tone by use of vivid imagery and extensive detail to display the harrowing effects of gluttony. This is best exemplified through the weather patterns and general landscape of this circle, the Poets’ encounter with Cerberus, and Dante’s conversation with Ciacco, the Hog. These devices also allow for the conveying of ideas embedded within the text.
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.
Every famous author has something that makes them “special” or “unique.” Some are great at personifying inanimate objects. While others, find strength in their use of metaphors. Through studying Dante Alighieri, there is one particular writing tool he utilizes often. The tool that he uses throughout the entire Divine Comedy is allegory. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as: “a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life or for a political or historical situation” (Merriam-Webster, 2013) The ways in which he uses allegory is inherent throughout the entire tale. In his book, The Inferno he describes Dante the Pilgrim’s descent into Hell and the different things he sees. There are a variety of sins and punishments that are outlined in his book. Out of the many descriptions that are portrayed in Alighieri’s The Inferno, the punishments of the flatterers, the fortune tellers, and the traitors to God are the most allegorical.
Inferno is the first and most famous of a three part series by Dante Alighieri known as the Divine Comedy that describes his journey to God through the levels of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise written in the early fourteenth century. Scholars spanning over nearly seven centuries have praised its beauty and complexity, unmatched by any other medieval poem. Patrick Hunt’s review, “On the Inferno,” states, “Dante’s extensive use of symbolism and prolific use of allegory— even in incredible anatomical detail—have been often plumbed as scholars have explored the gamut of his work’s classical, biblical, historical, and contemporary political significance” (9). In the story, each of the three main characters, Dante, Virgil, and Beatrice, represent
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.
Alighieri, Dante. "The Inferno." The Divine Comedy. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: First New American Library Printing, 2003.
...ion. Dante cites now-historical and mythological figures to exemplify the sins and to make for the better understanding of sin to even the most inept of readers. This work stands alongside The Bible as one of the greatest religious-literary masterpieces of all time.
In conclusion, a great deal of tension and contrast between “dark” and “light” in The Inferno helps us to explore Dante’s self portrait—he fears dangerous desires and sinful darkness, but shows much courage and hope towards life since he nevertheless follows his guide Virgil to dive into horrible Hell. As shown in Canto I, such emotional reaction to dark and light symbols lays a great foundation for developing Dante’s broad and universal traits as his journey progresses.