Analysis of the Inferno of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is considered by many as the first great
poem in the Italian language and perhaps the greatest poem written in Medieval
Europe. The poem is so famous that one of the minor characters, Capaneus the
great blasphemer, has his name on a mesa on one of Jupiter's moon Io (Blue, 1).
Also, the poem is divided into three canticles, or sections, "Inferno,"
"Purgatorio,' and "Paradisio." For the purposes of this paper, only "Inferno"
will be discussed.
In "Inferno," Dante the Pilgrim is lost. In his wanderings he encounters three
specters, the leopard, the lion, and the she-wolf. Dante runs away from these
three foes and is stopped by Virgil, a Roman era poet. Virgil promises to show
Dante hell, purgatory, and then Beatrice, a dead friend of Dante's will show him
heaven. Dante agrees and they embark. Dante and Virgil see many scary and
terrifying sites in hell. He first sees the indecisionists who in life could not
make up there mind who in death are forced to run after a flag. They visit
Limbo, where those who were not baptized but lived a virtuous life stay. They
see various sinners of the lesser circles, Paolo and Francesca, the adulterous
lovers and the sinners who committed anger, greed, avarice, and gluttony. They
enter the City of Dis and see the heretics in their coffins. They travel down a
river of blood where the murderers are kept. As they travel farther down into
hell, they see worse sins and even worse punishments for those sins. Finally
they see Lucifer. Then, they climb a rock cliff and escape hell....
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understand these levels, literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical, one must
first understand Dante's symbolism.
Works Cited
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Trans. Henry F. Cary.
New York: P.F. Collier & Son Corp., 1960.
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Trans. John Carlyle. New York: Vintage Books, 1959.
Blue, Jennifer. "Io Nomenclature Mensa." Io Nomenclature. http://wwwflag.wr.usgs.gov/USGSFlag/Space/nomen/jupiter/ioTOC.html > (30
December 1999).
Forman, Roberts, J. "Dante Alighieri." Magill's Survey of World Literature. Vol. 2. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corp., 1993. 500-503.
Kashdan, Joanne G. "The Divine Comedy." Masterplots. 1727-1731.
Pirandello, Luigi. "The Poetry of Dante." Dante. Ed. John Freccero. Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1965.
War can be as damaging to the human body as it is to the mind. In Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, this idea that war causes psychological disorders is represented throughout the book through the main character, Paul Baumer. This book follows the lives of young soldiers in World War I. Together, these men create powerful bonds. They go through terrifying experiences that continue to strengthen their bonds, but also destroy their mental state. Through Paul’s eyes, Remarque shows the devastation that war has on the mind.
Everyone knows what war is. It's a nation taking all of its men, resources, weapons and most of its money and bearing all malignantly towards another nation. War is about death, destruction, disease, loss, pain, suffering and hate. I often think to myself why grown and intelligent individuals cannot resolve matters any better than to take up arms and crawl around, wrestle and fight like animals. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque puts all of these aspects of war into a vivid story which tells the horrors of World War 1 through a soldier's eyes. The idea that he conveys most throughout this book is the idea of destruction, the destruction of bodies, minds and innocence.
The narrator is trying to get better from her illness but her husband “He laughs at me so about this wallpaper” (515). He puts her down and her insecurities do not make it any better. She is treated like a child. John says to his wife “What is it little girl” (518)? Since he is taking care of her she must obey him “There comes John, and I must put this away, he hates to have me write a word”. The narrator thinks John is the reason why she cannot get better because he wants her to stay in a room instead of communicating with the world and working outside the house.
When Virgil was writing the Aeneid he gleaned his theory from Greek and Roman mythology. An example of this is Charon, the...
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy I: Hell, trans. Dorothy Sayers. New York: Penguin Books, 1949
World War I had a great effect on the lives of Paul Baumer and the young men of his generation. These boys’ lives were dramatically changed by the war, and “even though they may have escaped its shells, [they] were destroyed by the war” (preface). In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer and the rest of his generation feel separated from the other men, lose their innocence, and experience comradeship as a result of the war.
All Quiet on the Western Front is the story of Paul Baumer’s service as a soldier in the German army during World War I. Paul and his classmates enlist together, share experiences together, grow together, share disillusionment over the loss of their youth, and the friends even experience the horrors of death-- together. Though the book is a novel, it gives the reader insights into the realities of war. In this genre, the author is free to develop the characters in a way that brings the reader into the life of Paul Baumer and his comrades. The novel frees the author from recounting only cold, sterile facts. This approach allows the reader to experience what might have been only irrelevant facts if presented in a textbook.
Ruud, Jay. Critical Companion to Dante: a Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On
While soldiers are often perceived as glorious heroes in romantic literature, this is not always true as the trauma of fighting in war has many detrimental side effects. In Erich Maria Remarque 's All Quiet On The Western Front, the story of a young German soldier is told as he adapts to the harsh life of a World War I soldier. Fighting along the Western Front, nineteen year old Paul Baumer and his comrades begin to experience some of the hardest things that war has to offer. Paul’s old self gradually begins to deteriorate as he is awakened to the harsh reality of World War 1, depriving him from his childhood, numbing all normal human emotions and distancing future, reducing the quality of his life.
Hell, it isn 't a place where anyone really wants to end up, well permanently that is. Dante Alighieri however really enjoys taking a “trip” to hell to teach us and enlighten us on the ins and outs and where exactly all the sinners end up. Alighieri tackles this daunting task of making all of hell fit into a small pocket-able, yet very enjoyable story by using a variety of literary styles and devices. However, let’s take a look at one specifically, symbolism. This is one of the most prevalent and obvious device, but it is the most important because it not only makes the story easier for the reader to understand, as well as make the book as enjoyable as it was.
Rudd, Jay. Critical Companion to Dante: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York. 2008. Print.
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.
David Lummus. Dante’s Inferno: Critical reception and Influence. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.stanford.edu/dept/DLCL/cgi-bin/web/files/lummus-inferno-influence.pdf. [Last Accessed e.g. 10 December 13].
The Divine Comedy is a poetic Italian masterpiece by Dante Alighieri composed of three parts which he called respectively: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso. As this edition’s translator, John Ciardi puts it, originally Dante simply entitled his works as The Comedy, however, in later years, it was renamed The Divine Comedy for the connections that the public saw it had with human behavior and morality (Ciardi, 2003). For the goals and purposes of this review, we will focus specifically on the portion of the book called The Inferno. At a time when religious and secular concerns were at their peak in fourteenth century Italy, a tone of conflict broke out between the church and the government. Beyond the commonalities of corruption
Leadership is trait that is extremely important in any society. Leadership is known as the way people attempting to make a difference in a situation. However, I believe that it is better said to be a way of influencing others actions. Leadership is usually connected to a great leader that affected his or her followers in a dynamic way. Throughout the semester for my leadership class, I have expanded the knowledge in numerous ways. I now have fully understanding of the purpose and process of leadership to a society. Being a leader one must maintain an image of being the role model. I believe that this is leader should be who is someone who has the ability to influence, encourage, listen, and nurture. They are able to inspire, stimulate, persuade, shape, and have an effect on others.