Allegorical Punishments: Analysis of Dante’s Use of Allegory in Inferno

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In Dante’s Inferno, those who never repented for their sins are sent there after death. Like the old Latin proverb says, “The knowledge of sin is the beginning of salvation.” (“Latin Proverb Quotes” ThinkExist) The punishments in his Hell are decided by the law of retribution, which according to Webster’s Dictionary is the total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny. (“Retribution” Merriam-Webster) Therefore, Dante creates a variety of reprimands for the three different types of sins: incontinence, violence, and fraudulence. These penalties can also be referred to as allegories because of their hidden moral meaning. The three best allegories in Dante’s Inferno describe the flatterers, fortune tellers, and suicides.
To begin, Dante creates an allegory within the punishment of the Flatterers in Hell. Circle eight of Hell holds these sinners who flattered people during their life but didn’t mean what they said and talked bad about them behind their back. These people are sunk in a river of human excrement for “talking crap” and being a “brown noser”. Whenever they open their mouth, the excrement enters their mouth, creating the term of “being full of it”. (Shmoop Editorial Team) In Inferno, Dante passes through this circle and finds Alessio Interminelli da Lucca here. He says, “Down to this have the flatteries I sold the living sunk me here among the dead.” (Canto 18 Lines125-126) This punishment may seem like just a sick joke but it has a legitimate reason; those who talk crap end up in crap after life.
In addition, another allegory that Dante describes deal with the Fortune Tellers sent to Hell. Their sin is reversed upon them ...

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...ally abused the innocent, and the people that put on a fake personality in public. These sins I feel are just as serious as some of those mentioned in The Inferno itself.

Works Cited

"Latin Proverb Quotes." Thinkexist.com. ThinkExist, n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .
Phillips, T. "Wood of the Suicides." Infernopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .
"Retribution." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster.com. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .
Sayers, Dorothy, trans. Hell. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Vol. 1 of The Divine Comedy.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Inferno Canto XVIII." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .

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