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The concept of punishment in dante's inferno
The concept of punishment in dante's inferno
The concept of punishment in dante's inferno
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From Dante’s (The Pilgrim) journey throughout the “Inferno”, his encounters of different souls, and how he personally perceives the “Inferno” will lead to the recognition of how the sins that are committed while one is alive will reflect on where in the “Inferno” one will be placed, and how severely the punishment that sinner will endure. Through distinctive description from Dante (The Author), and interactions within Dante’s (The pilgrim) visit to the 9th Bolgia in Cantos XXVIII, it is shown that one will have to accept their sins, and suffer the severity of them for eternity. The beginning of the Cantos, Dante (The Author) start off by vividly describing the 9th Bolgia while he is with his guider Virgil on his pursuit for Beatrice. As he …show more content…
These souls were all describe with a horrible appearance typically because in the “Inferno” the souls placed in level depending on the severity of the sins, they are also punished accordingly to the severity of their committed sins. Dante’s (the author) appalling descriptions of the appearance of the 9th bolgia resembles to how describes the souls Dante (the Pilgrim) encounters. Both of these descriptions are to give a sense of how disgusting and harsh sinners of the 9th bolgia were punished, and to show that they had to pay the consequences for their sins. His description correlates with the souls that he interacts with to show that they to had to be punished for their sins. Dante describes the soul of Bertan de Born with the same appearance of death just as the rest of the souls, but he is headless and walks around with his head in his hand just like a lantern. Bertan de Born then proceeds to explain that he was the one to cut ties between a king and his son, and make them turn against each other. His sin of mutiny between a father and his some earns him the punishment of living the rest of eternity with his cut from his body. Which portrays how the sinners are punished in correlation of their sins. As they commit some of the most awful sin that Dante (the poet) believed to be, they are placed the most disturbing bolgia. The sins of the …show more content…
He states “ Because I cut the bonds of those so joined, I bear my head cut off from its life-source, which is back there, alas, within its trunk. In me you see the perfect contrapasso!” There is shows that the people in the “Inferno” true identity begins to show. Bertan de Born’s act of mutiny is shown through how deathly he looks, and how his head is displaced from his body. Throughout the “Inferno” there are many examples of contrapasso. It shows that as these sinners committed their sins in life, their actual sin becomes them in the afterlife. As they become their sins, it also their punishment. Amongst all the souls encountered in the 9th bolgia, Bertan de Born is a clear representation of all that souls in the “Inferno”. There isn't much of a disgusting description of Bertan de Born, but as him and Dante (the pilgrim) speak it is understood that Bertan de Born has accepted his sins by introducing himself to Dante (the pilgrim) and explain his punishment. Although he suffers for his sin, he states that he is a perfect example of the “Inferno” because he has accepted the person he has become. Dante’s (the author) lack of description during Bertan de Born’s encounter shows that Bertan’s words are more powerful than his
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.
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
...have different experiences with sin and their path to Heaven, they share similar overall goals in their excursions. Both of these thought provoking works can open one’s mind as to what may lead to a path towards heaven. They equally describe conversion as a journey and they provide answers through the journey of their characters for those that pursue them. Augustine and Dante both re-create a conversion experience and make the readers weary of sin in their lives and in the lives of those around them. Accumulation of wealth, life achievements and greediness could be sins if they lead someone to lead proud lives and therefore should be shunned. Through their dramatic first-person narratives both Dante’s Inferno and Augustine’s Confessions are successful in getting their point across and help to clear doubts that someone may have in the pursuit of heavenly grace.
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.
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.
Indeed, as the poem progresses, a striking contradiction emerges. Dante the writer, in keeping with Christian doctrine, presents the desire for fame and glory among the souls of Inferno in order to replace it with humility among the souls of Purgatorio. Yet this purification of desire is not entirely embraced by Dante, who seems preoccupied with his own personal fame and glory. Therefore, how do we reconcile the seemingly hypocritical stance that the souls must strip themselves of pride and become humble, yet Dante can continue in his quest for fame and glory and still be saved? This contradiction is developed as the reader and the character Dante travel through Inferno and Purgatorio and is resolved in the second sphere of Paradise.
...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.
Upon entering hell with Virgil, Dante becomes witness to the true perfection of the justice done to sinners after their earthly life is over. This divine justice inflicted by God chooses to punish the souls in hell in a way very similar or representative to how the souls sinned on Earth. For instance, those guilty of the sin of wrath "tear each other limb from limb" (133), a punishment which directly relates to the actions of the sinners. However, there are also punishments that are more symbolic of the actions of the sinners, such as th...
This is the Initiation stage of the Hero’s Journey and also part of the long journey in the Temple Pattern. In The Divine Comedy II: Purgatory, Dante finds souls who are purging themselves from sin and perfecting themselves for Heaven. He learns this place is, “Where human spirits purge themselves, and train / To leap up into joy celestial” (Purgatory, p. 73). The souls in Purgatory are different than the souls in Hell, because they have hope of redemption and know they will go to Heaven. Virgil, much like a father figure in the monomyth, leads Dante up Mount Purgatory, through the seven layers of misery and purging. The trials that Dante faces as he journeys from one level to another, is part of the hero’s initiation, and symbolizes the long journey back to God. Purgation ends when the soul is cleansed from within. With each layer of Purgatory, Dante’s desires to overcome sin and reject the things of the world become stronger and he learns to have compassion for those who sin. Still part of his hero’s challenge, as he gets ready to leave Purgatory, he is told that all sinners who leave Purgatory have to go through a wall of fire, as a cleansing process, much like baptism which cleanses the soul, “Holy souls, there’s no way on or round / But through the bite of fire” (p. 281). Again, he has to make a choice to follow the path or to turn back. Dante hesitates, but Virgil encourages him, telling Dante that they are rising to the
Inferno, the first part of Divina Commedia, or the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is the story of a man's journey through Hell and the observance of punishments incurred as a result of the committance of sin. In all cases the severity of the punishment, and the punishment itself, has a direct correlation to the sin committed. The punishments are fitting in that they are symbolic of the actual sin; in other words, "They got what they wanted." (Literature of the Western World, p.1409) According to Dante, Hell has two divisions: Upper Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of incontinence, and Lower Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of malice. The divisions of Hell are likewise split into levels corresponding to sin. Each of the levels and the divisions within levels 7,8, and 9 have an analogous historical or mythological figure used to illustrate and exemplify the sin.
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's "Inferno" is full of themes. But the most frequent is that of the weakness of human nature. Dante's descent into hell is initially so that Dante can see how he can better live his life, free of weaknesses that may ultimately be his ticket to hell. Through the first ten cantos, Dante portrays how each level of his hell is a manifestation of human weakness and a loss of hope, which ultimately Dante uses to purge and learn from. Dante, himself, is about to fall into the weaknesses of humans, before there is some divine intervention on the part of his love Beatrice, who is in heaven. He is sent on a journey to hell in order for Dante to see, smell, and hear hell. As we see this experience brings out Dante's weakness' of cowardice, wrath and unworthiness. He is lead by Virgil, who is a representation of intellect. Through Dante's experiences he will purge his sins.
... Moreover, such belief in human reason signifies Dante's hope towards a bright society and the pursuit of God’s love as the other part of self-reflection. 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.
Seeing as this work was written by Dante, and the journey is taken by Dante, he has a unique opportunity to judge his fellow man and decide how they will be punished. He also gets to place his enemies in hell, forever besmirching their names for generations to remember. Perhaps unknowing to Dante, that is worse than any of the punishments that he placed his enemies in. The reality of The Inferno is unlikely and therefore these punishments are nothing but a fictiona...
Dante’s The Divine Comedy illustrates one man’s quest for the knowledge of how to avoid the repercussions of his actions in life so that he may seek salvation in the afterlife. The Divine Comedy establishes a set of moral principles that one must live by in order to reach paradise. Dante presents these principles in Inferno, where each level of Hell has people suffering for the sins they committed during their life. As Dante gets deeper into Hell, the degrees of sin get progressively worse, as do the severity of punishment.