Analysis Of Dante 's Inferno ( Hell )

The Inferno is a tale of cautionary advice. In each circle, Dante the pilgrim speaks to one of the shades that reside there and the readers learn how and why the damned have become the damned. As Dante learns from the mistakes of the damned, so do the readers. And as Dante feels the impacts of human suffering, so do the readers. Virgil constantly encourages Dante the pilgrim to learn why the shades are in Hell and what were their transgressions while on Earth. This work’s purpose is to educate the reader. The work’s assertions on the nature of human suffering are mostly admonition, with each shade teaching Dante the pilgrim and by extension the reader not to make the same mistakes. Dante views his journey through hell as a learning experience and that is why he made it out alive.

When you think of Hell, what do you see, perhaps a burning pit full of criminals and crazed souls? Or maybe you’re like Dante and have a well organized system of levels in correspondence with each person’s sins. In Dante Alighieri’s epic The Inferno, Dante and his real life hero, Virgil, go on an adventure through a rather elaborate version of Hell. In this version of Hell numerous thoughts and ideals are brought to the attention of the readers. Through Dante’s use of both imaginative and artistic concepts one can receive a great visual impression of how Dante truly views Hell, and by analyzing his religious and philosophical concepts the reader can connect with the work to better understand how rewarding this work was for the time period.

Inferno, written by Dante Alighieri illustrates the idea of justice through the belief that with each action arise a consequence. What you sin above ground, you deal with under. Through this he gives examples of the sins done and the punishment that is inflicted from doing such thing as a disgrace to God. All through Dantes imagination and his views as to how it should be done, there is a punishment for each area of sin committed which is why a person who bribes will be in the further in the level of hell, as compared to someone who has killed an innocent.

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

Dante’s work Inferno is a vivid walkthrough the depths of hell and invokes much imagery, contemplation and feeling. Dante’s work beautifully constructs a full sensory depiction of hell and the souls he encounters along the journey. In many instances within the work the reader arrives at a crossroads for interpretation and discussion. Canto XI offers one such crux in which Dante asks the question of why there is a separation between the upper levels of hell and the lower levels of hell. By discussing the text, examining its implications and interpretations, conclusions can be drawn about why there is delineation between the upper and lower levels and the rationale behind the separation.

Journeys can be taken many ways. Some people take the path less traveled and some people take the easy way out. Dante happens to be on journey that is less traveled, by exploring the depths of Hell in the Inferno. The epic poem’s story is about self-realization and transformation. It sees Dante over coming many things to realize he is a completely different person from the start of the Inferno journey. Dante sees many things that help him gain courage in order to prove to himself and the reader that accepting change and gaining courage can help one to grow as a person and realize their full potential. After seeing people going through certain punishment Dante realizes that he must not seek pity on himself and others in order to fully realize his true potential.

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

Robert Herrick, an English poet, once said, “Hell is no other but a soundlesse pit, where no one beame of comfort peeps in it.” Picture any type of Hell with relief, happiness, or even the smallest crack of a smile. There is no place. In fact, one can only think of the complete opposite, whether it is a Hell filled with neglect, pain, disgust, or a never-ending life of horror. This is the place created by Dante Alighieri; The Inferno is exactly the type of Hell where no person would want to be. Even those who acted upon the lightest of sins suffered greatly. While each realm contained a different sinner, the punishment that each were forced to face was cruel, repulsive, and sometimes rather disgusting. Through grieving tears without an

The book begins by Alighieri saying that “I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood” (canto I 1-2 Inferno). Dante realizes that he is lost in the wood and that he is scared and alone. Alighieri is using him to represent us lost and alone when we are without God. When Dante goes through the circles in the inferno he starts by being overcome by his emotions and he feels sympathy for the sinners in Hell when he countered such “a swoon as death is, and I fell, as a corpse might fall, to the dead floor of Hell” (canto V 139-140 Inferno). Dante fainted because he was overcome by his emotions. Alighieri uses Dante to represent all of man so he uses this overwhelming emotion to show how Dante starts to sin in each of the circles. For example, in the wrathful circle Dante asks Virgil if he could see the “wretch scrubbed down into the swill” (canto VIII 50-51 Inferno). The other sprits then take the “filthy Hell-dog” and they tear him apart. Virgil says that it is a good thing to want them to suffer more. Alighieri is saying through Virgil that the sinners are getting what they deserve and that it is a good thing to hope for them to suffer more. When the two finally reach the ninth circle Dante describes Satan as “jutted up to his upper chest above the ice” (canto XXXIV 29 Inferno). Alighieri describes Satan as powerless; Dante and Virgil go on to climb over Satan and he does nothing to stop them. They also see Satan flapping is wings and crying showing that Dante and Virgil have the power. Alighieri is using the characters and the pronouns to show that you have power over sin and that it is your decision to sin or not.

The Inferno holds the idea of evil as the contradiction of God’s will. Dante illustrates this through a vision of the afterlife while taking on the world of politics, history and even the nature of Earth

Dante uses the Pilgrim’s journey through Hell and interaction with sinners to express his views on the nature of sin and human nature as a whole. By further examining Canto six, 19, and 26, this paper will argue Dante’s equal and fitting punishments due to the sins of those in Hell their applications to life today. In Canto six of Inferno, Dante the Poet writes about the Pilgrim’s journey through the third circle of Hell. In this region of Hell, the Poet punishes those who he would have placed in Hell for their sins of incontinence, and more specifically in the third circle for their sins of gluttony.

The story Dante the Divine Comedy Inferno is a captivating book because the book is primarily religious based. With Dante going through the different levels of hell and how evil disagrees with God’s will, and finally the perfection of God’s justice. Due to Dante going through the many different levels of hell, he begins to feel sorrow for the people who are held there for eternity. Hell is a place whereas numerous different religions such as Christianity powerfully believe that is a spiritual realm that is filled with evil and suffering. In this text, hell is the Inferno. The bible says that, “For all have fallen short and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). In this essay, I would present sequence parts of Cantos and hell in a nutshell.

To begin Dante’s trip to heaven to be with his one true love Beatrice, he must first travel through hell. Directly through the gates of hell is the outlying regions of Hell, or Ante-inferno. This is the area that houses those who did not commit to good or evil, but who lived their lives without making conscious moral choices. These souls have been denied by both heaven and hell. This does not mean Ante-inferno is much more pleasant than hell. Souls here must constantly chase after blank banners while flies and wasps constantly bite them and worms consume their blood and tears. Neutral angels do the tormenting in this place. These are the angels that did not choose God nor Satan in the war of heaven.

Within the nine circles of hell in Dante’s epic poem, Inferno, each circle represents a sin and houses shades who are undergoing a contrapasso, or a retribution that fits the crime. The poem vividly describes each circle of hell while giving the reader’s insight on Dante’s political and religious views. The nine circles are also separated into three parts: incontinent, represented by the she wolf, violent, represented by the lion, and fraudulent, represented by the leopard. These are the three beasts which initially blocked Dante’s path and forced him to go through the journey in hell. In this paper, I will analyze three circles of hell, each represented by one of the beasts. The three parts of hell which will be analyzed are circle IV, prodigal and miserly, circle VII, ring iii, violence against God and circle VIII, ring vi, the sowers of discord. All three parts illustrate that the shades suffer in hell because of their failure to progress in terms of the soul, the creation of new life, and the community.

The idea of making up a "Hell", or inferno, is not an experience in which I, even in my wildest thoughts, had started to imagine. Call me an optimist, but the idea of imagining Hell never appealed to me. However, as I read through the Bible, I have come across many images of hell and will now attempt to create a partial picture.