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Unjust punishments in dante's inferno
Unjust punishments in dante's inferno
Dante's inferno god's divine justice
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“How stern the power of Almighty God who crushes sinners with such righteous blows(Canto XXIV lines 109-110)!” In Dante’s Inferno, Dante Alighieri describes a trip through Hell, visiting the various sinners and circles of Hell. Dante also uses many experiences and beliefs from his real life to enrich his views of Hell and his idea of Divine Punishment. Dante’s perception of Divine Justice includes sinners whom he places in Hell for committing crimes without regret, they are placed lower in Hell according to the severity of their sins. Dante is not always just in his placement of sinners, his personal grudges and archaic Catholic beliefs get in the way of true Divine Justice.
In Dante’s Inferno sinners are in Hell because they committed a grave crime and did not seek repentance for their crime. Dante categorizes sinners in hell based on the severity of their crimes and how unrepentant they are. Dante explains, “Without repentance, none can be absolved. None can repent before a sin is done. No reasoning could be more fraudulent (27.124-127)!” In this
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quote Dante explains his belief that if a sinner does not repent, they cannot be forgiven and that attempting to find a loophole around repentance is fraudulent. Dante obviously believes that repentance is crucial to reaching forgiveness and avoiding Hell. Dante also categorizes sinners according to the severity of their sin. Dante writes,“But, in the eyes of God, A deed involving fraud is worse because It stems from man alone. The fraudulent Are therefore to a deeper circle sent And plagued by God with harsher punishment (11.23-27).” In this passage Virgil tells Dante that the sinners whose crimes were seen as being more evil by God received harsher punishment. This leads us to believe that crimes that Alighieri thought were especially malicious, such as fraud, were put lower into Hell and punished more harshly. In Inferno all sinners in Hell are unrepentant and ordered according to the cruelty of their sins. Dante places those who committed suicide and those who lived before Christianity in Hell also. This is an example of Dante’s flawed idea of Divine Justice because of the popular opinions of the Catholic Church in Dante’s time. Dante writes, “know that their lives were free of sin, And yet, despite their virtues, it is willed That they must suffer here, for back on Earth Baptismal water of your faith did not Cleanse them. They lived before Christianity And so they did not rightly worship God. (4.28-33).” Virgil explains to Dante that the souls who reside in Limbo committed no sins and did nothing wrong other than the fact that they were not baptised. They are being punished for living before Christianity and not being able to serve Christ. The belief that you needed to baptised in order to reach Heaven was common in Dante’s time so the thought that those who lived before Christianity and non-believers would be sent to Hell was shared by many Catholics. Perhaps, it’s because we live in a more diverse and connected world, but the thought of denying people who did not even have the option to worship the Christian God allowance to Purgatory or Heaven seems unnecessarily cruel. Many modern Christians believe that God’s love extends to all people regardless of race, country or even religion, so why not those born before Christ also? Albeit, the shades in Limbo aren’t actually punished it still seems contrary to the idea of Divine Justice to have these people residing in Hell without even giving them the chance to serve God. Dante believes that the souls of those who committed suicide should reside in hell also. Dante writes, “My leaves, please heap them at this bush’s base In which my soul lies ever prisoner...There in the very house in which I lived, I looped a deadly noose around my neck (13.131-132, 13.141-142).” In this passage a shade explains how he killed himself. He is stuck in the wood of the suicides, the part of Hell reserved for those who committed suicide. Suicide was also considered a crime that would send you to Hell by Catholics during Dante’s time. In Dante’s time society also had a very poor understanding of mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety which may push people to commit suicide. Now, we understand these ailments more and are able to realize that sometimes people don’t always have complete control of their minds when they commit suicide or self-harm. It seems unfair to punish people for a crime they did not necessarily mean to do. Dante’s outdated Catholic beliefs and poor understanding of mental illnesses make his punishments for those in Limbo and those who committed suicide seem unfair, far from true Divine Justice. Divine Justice is not supposed to be biased, but Dante’s choice in placing sinners says otherwise. There are many instances of Dante placing sinners he knows personally in the lower circles of Hell. Dante explains, “One Ulysses, the other Diomedes, In God’s just vengeance joined, as once in wrath. Engulfed in flames, they mourn (26.59-61).” Dante specifically places Ulysses, a Greek warrior, in one of the lowest circles of Hell, making him endure a very harsh punishment. Ulysses is a war hero to many people, who used his intelligence to win a war for his country. However, Dante portrays him in a darker way, this is possibly because Dante’s Italian roots stem from the Trojans who Ulysses helped defeat. This portrays Dante as having some sort of bias towards his lineage, however true Divine Justice should be unbiased. This is not the only example of political and nationalistic bias in Inferno. Dante writes, “I saw a thousand spirit purple-faced From frost. I shiver at the memory The sight of Frozen fords brings back to me…. And here You’ll find Gianni de’ Soldanieri (32.73-75, 32.127).” Dante places a politician who left his political party in the lowest circle of hell. This seems a bit extreme, people change their opinions and beliefs all the time but it's not worth throwing someone in Hell. Once again, Dante places Soldanieri here because he didn’t just leave any political party, he left Dante’s party. Dante felt that he had personally been betrayed, so he placed Soldanieri here. Dante’s personal bias get in the way of Divine Justice. In Dante’s Inferno, Dante ideas of Divine Justice includes sinners who are placed in Hell for being unrepentant and committing an intolerable crime.
Sinners are placed in Hell according to the severity of their sins, lower for those who commit more grave sins. Dante’s placement of sinners can sometime be unjust and biased because of his personal beliefs and the beliefs of the Catholic church at the time. Dante unfairly places those who did not even have the option of being Christian in Hell and his little knowledge of mental illnesses combined with his old-fashioned Catholic beliefs prompts him to put those who committed suicide in Hell. Dante’s nationalistic and political bias also leads him put people he feels wronged him personally in the lowest circle of Hell. Dante speaks heavily about Divine Justice and God’s punishment but his choice of sinners seems too biased and ignorant to be the product of Divine
Justice.
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.
God states that we treat each other with the love he gives to us as individuals; while us stating violent acts against love, fraud constituting a corruption and, greed becoming normal thing amongst people defines everything god had envisioned for mankind. Yet, while Inferno implies these moral arguments, it generally states very little about them. Dante discusses with each of the souls in the different circles of hell although it is not truly stated as to why they are specifically in that circle. Only because God justifies there sin belonged there. In the end, it declares that evil is evil, simply because it contradicts God’s will and justification, and since God is God, he thus does not need to be questioned about his morals. Dante’s journey of evil progressed as he winded down the depths of hell pitiless and was driven to make it to purgatory. Inferno is not the normal text that most people would read, then think about how it relates to todays morals; its intention is not to think about the evil discussed but, rather to emphasize the Christian beliefs that Dante followed through his journey.
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.
This notion of the suitability of God’s punishments figures significantly in the structure of Dante’s Hell. To readers, as well as Dante himself (the character), the torments Dante and Virgil behold seem surprisingly harsh, possibly harsher than is fair, Dante exclaims this with surprise. He doesn’t actually wonder who decided on these tortures. He knows it was god. What he is questioning is how these punishments are just, since they don’t appear to be just from a human’s point of view which views each punishment together with its conjugate sin only superficially. For example, homosexuals must endure an eternity of walking on hot sand, and those who charge interest on loans sit beneath a rain of fire. At first glance, each one seems too terrible for any sin. However, when the poem is viewed as a whole, it becomes clear that the guiding principle of these punishments is one of balance. Sinners suffer punishment to the degree befitting the gravity of their sin, in a manner matching that sin’s nature. The structures of the poem and of hell serve to reinforce this correspondence.
In Dante’s Inferno, hell is divided into nine “circles” of hell; the higher the number, the more likely the sin and the pain you will endure. However, I do not completely agree with Dante’s version of hell, perhaps due to the difference in time periods. In this essay, I will be pointing out my concerns with Dante’s description of hell and how I would recreate hell if I were Dante. The first level of hell in the Inferno is for those unbaptized yet virtuous. Although some did not have a sinful life, if they did not accept Christ, they were sent to Limbo.
Dante came a long way in reaching the lower part of Hell in the “Inferno” to not be to be highly satisfied with what he experienced from seeing, hearing, reflecting, and questioning. Throughout the journey we can see that Dante had two sides to him the one in which his felt sympathy for the sinners and felt frightened along the way and the other Dante in which he judgment that the sinners should have a more cruel punishment. Dante encountered many challenges as he progressed to each level.
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.
...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...
Everyone has a different perception of what really is heaven and hell and where people end up in the after life. Some people are not even religious and have their own personal thoughts about what is next after death. The Inferno or to be more precise “Hell” can be described and defined as a place where people end up after death in the natural world, when people have not followed God’s ways and laws of living. It is has been depicted throughout the years of time that suffering in hell is horrific, gruesome, and unimaginable. In Dante’s Inferno, Dante portrays the protagonist as he is guided by his ghostly friend Virgil the poet through the nine chambers of Hell. The transition from one circle to another is very shocking and graphic at what he witnesses through each circle. Dante uncovers where each sin will lead people to once the sinners souls face death. He faces many trials and tribulations through the beginning to end of the Inferno. Dante felt impelled to write the Inferno because he was going through his own personal struggles at the time. In a way he was extremely depressed because he was exiled out of Florence, and the love of his life Beatrice died. While Dante was in exile for so many years, it allowed him to write some of his most significant works of literature that people still read to this day.
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.
In Dante’s Inferno, Dante is taken on a journey through hell. On this journey, Dane sees the many different forms of sin, and each with its own unique contrapasso, or counter-suffering. Each of these punishments reflects the sin of a person, usually offering some ironic way of suffering as a sort of revenge for breaking God’s law. As Dante wrote this work and developed the contrapassos, he allows himself to play God, deciding who is in hell and why they are there. He uses this opportunity to strike at his foes, placing them in the bowels of hell, saying that they have nothing to look forward to but the agony of suffering and the separation from God.
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.