Dante's Inferno Moral

622 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The inferno dante analysis

This starts with Dante and his journey towards redemption. The “moral plot” is less visible because Dante descends into hell. Dante is constrained by plenty and feels free to make hell colorful and lively. It all begins with Dante being lost in a metaphorical dark wood that is sin. On his journey he meets the spirit of Roman epic poet, Virgil that says he has been sent by Beatrice to lead him to salvation. Beatrice was the spirit of a woman Dante loved whom had died years before. Virgil explains to Dante that they must go through hell. One earthquake that left Dante unconscious put them in the first circle of hell, Limbo. Limbo has virtuous non-christians (Ancient Greek and Roman heroes and philosophers) Virgil was one of the spirits from Limbo. Slowly they started to progress and …show more content…

One of them Ciacco, predicted Dantes future. In the fourth circle they had to pass the demon which praised Satan. They then got to the Styx where the wrathful and the sullen to the styx where the wrathful and the sullen were tormented. Then they came to the walls of the city of Dis. A Messenger from heaven came to open the gates and left. The sixth circle held heretics who was imprisoned in red hot sepulchers. Dante spoke with Farinata and also met with Cavalcante De Cavalcanti. They passed the tomb of a heretical pope. Once they got to the first ring of the seventh circle they passed Minotaur and met a group of centaurs who shot the sinners that tried to escape with their arrows. The ring was made up of the violent against others: tyrants and murderers. They were tormented in a river of boiling blood. The Phlegethon the second ring they found a black forest full of twisted trees, these were suicides. In the third ring there was the violent against god: blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Geryon then took Dante to the eighth circle that was Malebolge, this was formed by ten different kinds of

Show More
Related

  • Dante's Inferno and The Afterlife

    1808 Words  | 4 Pages

    For centuries humans have been drawing parallels to help explain or understand different concepts. These parallels, or allegories, tell a simple story and their purpose is to use another point of view to help guide individuals into the correct line of thought. “The only stable element in a literary work is its words, which if one knows the language in which it is written, have a meaning. The significance of that meaning is what may be called allegory.”(Bloomfield) As Bloomfield stated, it is only how we interpret the words in an allegory that matters, each person can interpreted it in a slightly different way and allegories are most often personalized by a reader. Dante’s Inferno allegory is present throughout the entire poem. From the dark wood to the depths of Dante’s hell he presents the different crimes committed in life as they could be punished in death.

    Read More

  • God's Just Punishments and the Inferno of Dante

    439 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Elements Of The Eight Circle Of Hell In Dante's Inferno

    272 Words  | 1 Pages

    The eight circle of hell called Malebolge which translates to "evil pouch" which is surrounded by a dull iron colored walls. It is divided into 10 stony ditches with bridged between them. This circle is inhabited by those who commit fraud and a demon named Evil Claw who guards it. As Dante walks along the right of Virgil, Dante is able to see the nude sinners as they march while being whipped by demons. Those who are in the Symonist are in the rocky ground, they are buried upside-down in holes the size of baptism basins and their feet protrude, only to be burnt by flames. Eternal suffocation and immolation. Dante's choice to create the setting with these elements creates a perfect place for the punishment of fraud. By describing how the men

    Read More

  • Dante's Sense of Irony

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Inferno we follow the journey of Dante as he wanders off the path of moral truth and into Hell. The Virgin Mary and Santa Lucia ask Beatrice, Dante’s deceased love, to send some help. Thus, Virgil comes to the rescue and essentially guides Dante through Hell and back to the mortal world from which he came. However, things begin to seem kind of odd. When reading the Inferno one may begin to question the way Dante describes Hell and the things that occur within, or even the things we have always believed about Hell. Despite the way it is described and well known in western civilization, Hell is not at all how we expect it to be because of Dante's use of irony throughout this poetic masterpiece.

    Read More

  • The Allegory of the Cave and Dante

    1237 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Divine Grace and Justice in Dante's Inferno

    1539 Words  | 4 Pages

    The purpose of the pilgrim's journey through hell is to show, first hand, the divine justice of God and how Christian morality dictates how, and to what degree, sinners are punished. Also, the journey shows the significance of God's grace and how it affects not only the living, but the deceased as well. During his trip through hell, the character of Dante witnesses the true perfection of God's justice in that every sinner is punished in the same nature as their sins. For instance, the wrathful are to attack each other for all eternity and the soothsayers are forever to walk around with their heads on backwards. Furthermore, Dante discovers that hell is comprised of nine different circles containing sinners guilty of one type of sin, and that these circles are in order based upon how great an opposition the sin is to Christian morality and the ultimate will of God. We see here how Christianity plays a major role in the structure of hell and the degree to which each sinner is punished. Lastly, we can look at the story and see the importance of the grace of God not only to Dante during his journey, but how it affects the souls in hell and purgatory as well.

    Read More

  • Dante´s Inferno

    959 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Early in the spring of 1300, "midway along the road of our life," Dante is lost and alone in a dark, foreboding forest. To survive this ordeal, he must visit the three realms of the afterlife, beginning with Hell.” (Smith) Dante’s Inferno, one of the great classical poems that have come out of literature that’s topic is hell. Dante’s Inferno, gives a descriptive look into hell, from the eyes of Dante. Dante goes into detail about every part of hell. The people, what it looks like, sins to go there, the whole shah-bang. Dante splits up hell into nine different parts. In which he sends different types of sinners to each part. Each hell is made up differently, each has different systems that make up that particular systems. For example, circle three, has Cerberus the three headed dog, and another circle is completely frozen over. There are three circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno that are the best in the book: Circle one, circle six, and circle three.

    Read More

  • Dante's Divine Comedy - Symbolism in the Punishment of Sin in The Inferno

    4191 Words  | 9 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Divine Love In Dante's Inferno

    1273 Words  | 3 Pages

    Inferno begins with Dante lost in a dark wood. When he tries to exit, three impassible beasts blocked his path. Dante is rescued when Beatrice sends the spirit of Virgil to lead him to salvation. However, Dante must journey through hell first. Dante and Virgil then journey through the nine circles of hell, with the occasional help of a heavenly messenger sent to aid Dante in his journey. Dante meets many significant people and hears their stories in each circle. The First Circle of Hell or Limbo is resided by virtuous non-Christians and unbaptized pagans. In the Second Circle, Dante and Virgil find people who were overcome by lust. In the Third Circle, they find souls of gluttons that are seen as more than the usual excessive eating and drinking but also drug addiction. In the Fourth Circle, Dante and Virgil see the souls of people who are punished for greed.

    Read More

  • Punishments in Dante's Inferno

    592 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dante Alighieri's The Inferno is a poem written in first person that tells a story of Dante’s journey through the nine circles of Hell after he strays from the rightful path. Each circle of Hell contains sinners who have committed different sins during their lifetime and are punished based on the severity of their sins. When taking into the beliefs and moral teachings of the Catholic Church into consideration, these punishments seem especially unfair and extreme.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis: Dante's Inferno

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Weakness of Human Nature in Dante's Inferno

    2210 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Divine Comedy vs. Paradise Lost

    3039 Words  | 7 Pages

    Dante experiences a vision, at the age of 35, after experiencing traumatic events in his hometown of Florence. The events that are occurring in Florence at the time are associated with papal corruption and cause Dante to be forced into exile. Following the vision, which confirms to Dante that he has strayed from the right path in life, Dante begins his travel through the three realms, which contain the possible consequences following a person’s death. Dante’s journey begins on Good Friday, when he is escorted to the gates of Hell, moves to Purgatory and ends in Heaven. However, an escort accompanies him for duration of his journey. Virgil, who Dante has long admired, escorts Dante through Hell and...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Dante's Inferno

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Dante's Inferno: The Sixth Circle Of Hell

    761 Words  | 2 Pages

    While Dante and Virgil are leaving, they go through path in circle five. The Sixth circle of Hell restrains the Heretics that have died. Heretics believe that the body does not contain a soul. In the middle ages if someone did not believe in God or questioned the Catholic Church, that person would be labeled as a Heretic. Many people that are held in this circle are followers of Epicurus, the Greek philosopher whose philosophy was the attainment of happiness, and more.

    Read More

More about Dante's Inferno Moral

Open Document