Dante's Inferno Analysis

Tricked by Inferno

(A critique on how Dante’s Inferno can make you do the morally correct thing)

As the great Francois de La Rochefoucauld, “The intellect is always fooled by the heart.” When it comes to doing the morally correct thing, Dante’s Inferno is the text that scares people to do what they are supposed to do. By saying what will happen if a person were to go to hell, this will scare people into doing the right thing. As Tim Keller said, “Sin removes us from that aspect of his power that sustains and supports us. It is to us as water is to a fish-away from it our life slowly ebbs away.” In Dante’s Inferno he uses many tools to scare people into acting as they morally should, three of these critiqued tools include: pain, suffering, and misery.

To begin, pain is an ideal threat that Dante provides in the idea of hell. When the thought of hell arises, one of the very first things that comes to mind is pain. The pain of realization that you are going to spend the rest of eternity in purgatory is very excruciating. “May you weep and wail for all of eternity.” (pg.81) This quote from Dante’s Inferno states just what kind of pain there will be if a person went to hell. Weeping knowing that for the rest of eternity there will be only pain, and heartache. “Heartbreak is like one big emotional pain but it also seems to spark off hundreds of other emotions. We hate the feeling of heartbreak, and yet we find ourselves compelled to go over and over memories, ideas or fantasies which make the feeling worse. “ As Dr. Edward E. Smith states, heartache is one of the worst feelings that a person can face. After realizing the kind of heartache and pain that going to hell can cause, people will be more tempted to act morally correct. Hell has...

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...for no reason, but to bring themselves up they deserve to be punished. Hurting people is no way to make you feel better. Therefore they should get a taste of their own medicine. The people in this circle will be stomped on by a giant, over, and over, for all of eternity. They will be “be-littled” literally, after lifting the egos of all of the people that they were mean to during the time that they were alive.

Circle 6 (Rapists and Murders)

This is the worst crime that person could ever commit. These people will be shot over and over for the rest of eternity. They did the worst thing humanly possible. Raping someone and or murdering them is the worst thing a person can do. Taking everything that person has is the worst thing that someone could do. By being shot repeatedly they will be able to feel the pain that they have caused other people while they were alive.