There are many different kinds of sins being punished in Dante’s version of Hell. In the seventh level, three different kinds of sins are being punished each in their own separate ring. The usurers, the sodomites, and the focus of Canto XIV, the blasphemers. These sinners committed the act of blasphemy, also known as violence against God. Actions that qualify as blasphemy include burning religious texts, vandalizing churches, worshipping Satan, and other similar transgressions. Sinners who have carried out blasphemous acts were trapped on an unbearably hot, sandy beach. The souls were not only being burned from the bottom where they laid on the beach, but also being burned from “distended flakes of fire [drifting] aloft” in the air, so from
the front and top as well (Pinsky.XIV.24). This sin of being thoroughly charred from every side reflects contrapasso because in life, these people directly offended God, typically by burning things of religious significance, thus in Hell, they were the ones being burned. Dante and Virgil traveled through this level without anyone impeding their journey until they meet Capaneus, “a huge and powerful warrior-king who virtually [embodied] defiance against his highest god” (“Circle 7, cantos 12-17”). Capaneus is not only an allusion to the Roman epic, the Thebaid by Statius, but also a prime example of a blasphemer. He “was one of the seven kings who besieged Thebes” and boasted blasphemously about his success (“Capaneus the Blasphemer”). He directly defied and held much contempt for the gods, so Jove struck him down with a lightning bolt. It is interesting that Dante chose a pagan king to be apart of the level of blasphemy instead of the first level of Hell, limbo, where the other pagans reside.
In most ancient literature some sort of divine justice is used to punish people's acts in life. This is that case with Dante's Inferno, where the Author categorizes hell in 9 circles. Circle 9 being the lowest sins and punishments as the circles decrease. From the time this was written to now in days many things have changed, and things are not seen the same no more. Back then sins like greed and gluttony were ranked as high sins but now people would probably rank those very low with other things like murder way on top. Yet the basic structure set by Dante remains.
Then he reached out to the boat with both hands; on which the wary Master thrust him off, saying: "Away there with the other dogs!"
One of the first punishments we observe comes from the fifth circle of Dante’s hell, the wrathful and the sullen, as the author expresses his thoughts of the fitting consequence with each sin. This portion of the text begins in the seventh canto and in it the punishment of those who lived in wrath are discussed, when Dante and Virgil first enter the circle they see a marsh containing people who endlessly beat upon each other the idea being that because they lived their lives in wrath they will live out their eternity with pure hatred for any soul they may encounter. Also addressed in this circle is the punishment for those who lived their life in a sullen manner, ignoring the goodness that the world around them contained. “‘Sullen were we in the air made sweet by the sun; in the glory or his shinning our hearts poured a bitter smoke. Sullen we begun; sullen we lie forever i...
Fire and brimstone, flames engulfing people, and the endless cries from the souls that are suffering are all things that are commonly associated with hell. It’s not thought of as some place of just punishment, but filled with pain and torment. The question raised is whether or not it is actually full of fire and heat, or is it something different. When we read about hell in Dante’s Inferno, he describes the place not only full of fire, but also of ice, wind, and rain. All of the elements sit on different levels that have been thoughtfully laid out by Dante himself. Carol Forman speaks of how Dante set up his hell, “Hell is structured around Dante’s concept of sin.
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 The Inferno of Dante, Dante creates a striking correspondence between a soul’s sin on Earth and the punishment it receives in hell for that sin. This simple idea serves to illuminate one of Dante’s recurring themes: the perfection of god’s justice. Bearing the inscription the gates of hell explicitly state that god was moved to create hell by justice. Wisdom was employed to know what punishments would be just, power to create the forms of justice, and love to show that the punishments are conditioned with compassion, however difficult it may be to recognize (and the topic of a totally separate paper). Certainly then, if the motive of hell’s creation was justice, then its purpose was (and still is) to provide justice. But what exactly is this justice that Dante refers to? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is the So hell exists to punish those who sin against god, and the suitability of Hell’s specific punishments testify to the divine perfection that all sin violates.
Throughout Dante’s journey, he encounters a lot of “fallen heaven” imagery, which exacerbates the souls’ punishments. For instance, in sixth circle—which houses the Heretics—there are burning minarets, “sepulchers glow[ing] with
Throughout the book, Dante puts in his opinion of what is a mortal sin and his criticism of the church. He makes many mentions to important church officials being in, and deserving hell, as well as many people that according to the church says should’ve been able to receive heaven like moral Seneca. He even makes mentions to an archbishop whose soul is in hell and his physical body being possessed by a demon. He wrote very scandalous things about the church, the sin of simony, and was exiled while writing, which more than likely constituted these
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...
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.
The Inferno is a story of Dante traveling through the nine levels of Hell. While Dante is traveling through the different stages of hell, he explains the different consequences for the different crimes that are committed. The most impactful moral lesson that can be learned from The Inferno is that one should understand you must take credit for your own actions and know with the action will be a consequence. One example from the story, Dante explains that during the second circle, Lust, the punishment for people who are overpowering lust. Dante explained the punishment as “The hellish hurricane, which never rests, drives on the spirits with its violence: wheeling and pounding, it harasses them. When they come up against the ruined slope, then there are cries and wailing and lament, and there they curse the force of the divine.” In today’s society, many believe that there should not be consequences for specific actions one makes, but this has been a fact of life for many years. During The Inferno, one can see the change in punishment depending solely on the crime at hand.
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.
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.
Seeing as this work was written by Dante, and the journey is taken by Dante, he has a unique opportunity to judge his fellow men 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 fictional insult, but generation after generation will read of the crimes, which Dante has illuminated, and punishments of these people, causing their names to be forever cursed and passed down as another evil sinner.... ... middle of paper ...
The intense and imaginative punishments Dante relays to the reader cause the reader to look at their life and think about the sins he or she has committed. The punishments for sin in The Inferno increase in severity with the greater the sin. In the vestibule of Hell, Dante come across the opportunists. They race round and round chasing a waving banner while constantly being stung with wasps and hornets that causes a constant flow of blood on the sinners’ bodies. Dante then encounters the sinners of limbo in circle one. Dante views these “virtuous pagans” as the least severe of the sins. “They did not worship God’s Trinity in fullest duty,” therefore the punishments for these sinners are that they have no hope (Dante, 28). This fits nicely for the story and the reader because i...