Sinner vs. the Sin in Dante's Divine Comedy Essay

In Dante’s Inferno the recurring theme in the literary work is the punishment of sins, and the severity that the people in hell suffer as a consequence. Pierro delle Vigne explains the actions of that which: led him to hell, suicide, and how it condemned him to eternity in hell as a tree trunk. He confesses, “My

Dante's work, while to a great extent with regards to fourteenth century Catholic lessons, uncovers the vision of a person. For instance, Dante's tripartite division of existence in the wake of death into Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven takes after standard doctrine, however his portrayal of Purgatory as a taking off mountain in the southern half of the globe was his own development. Dante is never antireligion, in spite of the fact that he is now and again anticlergy. He at times reprimanded religious pioneers since he had an unmistakable individual idea of the otherworldly part of the congregation and the common part of the domain, each of which he saw as supernaturally appointed in its particular part. Dante additionally had a reasonable idea

Consequently, Dante transformed in verses his anger for the disastrous political situation existing in Italy: "Ah slavish Italy! thou in of grief,/Vessel without a pilot in loud storm,/Lady no longer of fair provinces,/But brothel-house impure! this gentle spirit,/Ev'n from the Pleasant sound of his dear land/Was prompt to greet a fellow citizen/With such glad cheer; while now thy living ones/In thee abide not without war; and one/Malicious gnaws another, ay of those/Whom the same wall and the same moat contains,/Seek, wretched one! around thy sea-coasts wide;/Then homeward to thy bosom turn, and mark/If any part of the sweet peace enjoy (Purgatory VI, 76-87). In describing the political scenario of the Italian cities, Dante said: "For all

Dante Alighieri cleverly uses his character Dante’s development throughout The Divine Comedy to describe his views and judgement on sin and love. In the literal interpretation of Alighieri’s allegory, Dante begins his journey lost in a wood but soon finds a guide, Virgil, who explains that he will lead Dante back to where he needs to be. Virgil leads Dante through the 9 circles of Inferno, showing him where the sinners reside, the levels of Purgatorio, for those who sinned but turned to God, and Paradiso, the eternal paradise for the blessed. Alighieri ends the story abruptly with Dante finally seeing God. There is, of course, the metaphorical and deeper meaning that Alighieri portrays through Dante’s actions, learnings, and revelations which are meant to enlighten and teach the reader. As Dante grows and learns from Virgil and his journey, the readers are taught what Alighieri wants us to learn about sin and love.

Obsession with the idea of revenge upon his enemies causes Dantes to forgo his ability to love others. Not only does Dantes crave retribution against his enemies, but he also desires their suffering. He explains, “But for slow, profound, infinite, and eternal suffering, I’d try to avenge myself by inflicting a similar suffering. ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ ”(139). His opinion of payback obliges him to withdraw himself from emotion towards others. His “eye for an eye” policy increases the need for justice which dominates his actions. After not experiencing love for over fourteen years, Dantes first visits Caderousse to gain intel on his plan for revenge instead of checking on those he loves. His actions reveal his prioritization of revenge over love. His fascination with payback against his enemies drives him further from those he

When discussing the tragedy that struck Paolo and Francesca, Dante feels his “senses reel and faint away with anguish” as he swoons and passes out (V. 137-138). Even though these sinners deserve their punishments, we as humans still connect with the sympathies of others. This is similar to when a murderer is incarcerated. While the family of the murderer wants justice to be served, they still briefly consider the misery the criminal will have to bear. Only about a day later, Dante’s pity for sinners deteriorates so much that he “[yanks] out more than one fistful of [hair]” from one sinner (XXXI. 104). Dante’s dramatic loss of empathy in such little time builds upon the idea that humans have a festering of emotions in their psyche and it is certain situations that prompt specific emotions to be released. For example, if I get a bad grade on an essay I might be grumpy to a friend that I am usually joyful with. Also, the justification for Dante’s scorning of sinners lies in human nature; this is the idea that those below us deserve to be ridiculed. This social construct is seen today through white supremacist groups and the proliferation of racial stereotyping. Just as Dante the Pilgrim’s journey conjures up volatile emotions as he attempts to understand his surroundings, our lives are full of mood swings and emotional highs and lows. Some important lows Dante experiences are at the gate of the Wall of Dis and while riding Geryon when he is stricken with fear. In times of distress Virgil reminds Dante the Pilgrim to “put back all sorrow from [his]mind and never forget that [Virgil is]always by[him]” (144-146 XXX). Emotions, in this case fear, provide the glue that gravitates Virgil and Dante towards each other, and in life: parent to child, friend to friend, and teacher to student. In empathizing

The first three terraces that Dante encounters are the terraces of the Proud, Envious, and Slothful. All three of these sins have in some way a perversion of love. The proud have perversions of love for self and instead have a contempt for their neighbors. Dante understands this after seeing that in order to cleanse this virtue they must be lowered to the ground so they are bowing to each other making them humble. The envious have a perversion of love of their own good which instead is the want of a neighbor's goods. Their eyes are shut and all they can hear are stories of generosity and mercy. Dante understands that in order to overcome their love of others goods the envious must find love again in their own goods by being in solitude. The

Furthermore, while sins of violence are not unique to humankind alone, sins of fraud are capable of only being performed by human beings with the capability to reason (Serio). An individual must choose to reject humanity in order to commit a sin of fraudulence, and this alone is enough to send said being into the lowest pits of Hell. Additionally, when considering once more the time in which Dante lived, friendship and loyalty were necessary assets in surviving commonplace violence; to betray a friend or benefactor for personal gain was an unthinkable and dastardly act performed only by the most despicable of people. In recent times, “…as life has come to seem less dangerous, it has come to seem more precious. The risk of death has become a characteristic fear, with life-threatening crimes correspondingly terrifying and grave” (Chevigny).

Dante Alighieri must have been an extremely strict and lecture-loving parent. In the first part of his collection, The Inferno, Alighieri filled his story with subliminal messages within the text to teach a greater lesson to the reader. Dante Alighieri purposefully chooses specific moments to express humankind’s weakness and how human reason can positively influence people to react in the correct manner in the eyes of God. Through the interaction of two of his main characters, Dante, who represents mortality; and Virgil, who symbolizes sensibility; Alighieri is able to provide insight and guidance to the character of Dante in the story and more significantly, to the people reading it. Within this passage, Dante projects a common human quality of wanting to give up in the face of struggle. As Dante becomes too tired from escaping from his journey into the 7th Bolgia and begs Virgil to stop and rest for a minute, Virgil strictly chastises Dante that if he ever wants to achieve fame in his life, he must never give up his goals. In such a simple situation lies a grander message. Here, Dante represents the limitations of humans in the form of his exhaustion and Virgil’s response of both sternness and compassion reflects the logic and the understanding qualities of human reason. In The Inferno, Dante Alighieri uses the physical relationship between Dante and Virgil to illustrate the allegorical connection showing how human reason directly guides the decisions of the flawed human

Dante focuses on how reason is limited in the face of evil and it is powerless when there is a lack of faith. Even Satan, the epitome of evil,

Abstract Through Schoder’s “Vergil in the Divine Comedy,” Ryan’s “Virgil and Dante: A Study in Contrasts,” Balassaro’s “Dante the Pilgrim: Everyman as Sinner,” Mazotta’s “An Epilogue,” and through my observations of the “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri, the two Dantes, Dante the Poet and Dante the Pilgrim, treat characters in “The Divine Comedy” very differently and have different motives. They use each encounter to display their personality traits, while also using each other to relay a message to the reader. For example, both the poet and the pilgrim treat Virgil with high respect and admiration even though he represents a pagan sinner in “The Divine Comedy.” Half the research I have done explains the relationship between Dante and Virgil, Virgil’s personality, and the treatment of the two lovers, Francesca and Paolo, and the two haters, Count Ugolino and Archbishop Ruggieri.

Dante’s favoritism emerges even more clearly as he assigns punishments of other souls guilty of multiple sins in accordance with their gravest crimes. Additionally, Dante the poet prioritizes God’s will in Heaven and believes things to be evil if it contradicts God’s will. The poet classifies the sins in ascending gravity, starting with transgressions caused by the abuse of human instincts, such as lust, to more severe violations that mar the human spirit. As the pilgrim journeys through the levels of hell, his response towards the punishments inflicted upon the sinners change. Through the evolution of the pilgrim’s pity

In Dante’s Inferno, we experience Dante’s journey through the circles of Hell, encountering different figures from history and learning about the sins in which they committed from least sinful to the worst sin a person can commit. Since the journey is written by Dante, it is shown through his eyes and as the readers, we get a one-sided, objective view of the events he describes. The story brings about questions of distinguishing between Dante the Poet and Dante the Pilgrim as he narrates himself in a world of his own creation. The objective view also describes the levels of Hell as Dante himself would see as the least sinful to the worst. Similar to Petrarch, Dante does have an arrogance about his character, however not as blunt as Petrarch.

Whenever we approach a written piece that has been translated from its original work we are faced with the challenge of determining whether or not this translation embodies the true spirit of the work and its original intention. Since a translation is a form of interpretation, we run the risk of the translator assuming that the author used certain word choices to convey a specific meaning, which could lead to an incorrect interpretation of the work based on the translator’s bias. In reference to Dante’s Divine Comedies unless we can read the original Italian words, we are dependent on the translator’s interpretation of Dante’s words to guide us on the correct path of analyzing the literature. This leaves lots of room for error and miscommunication which could lead to the wrong understanding of the allegorical purpose of this poem. However, without the help of translators and the ridiculous amount of time and effort they put into a translation, everyday people who don’t speak these languages would never have access to these wonderful works of art and would never be able appreciate the classic literature from other cultures.

Dante Alighieri lived during a time of various warring political sides and became strongly involved in politics as much as his education and writing. He was then exiled by the unstable political climate but remained determined to contribute to Florence’s well being through his writing of the epic poem, The Inferno, attempting to cleanse corrupt figures, who he believed contributed no positive aspects to Florence, by putting them in certain places of his Hell. He creates a protagonist, modeled off himself to do this and throughout the poem Dante, the protagonist, shows hostility towards sinners who contradicted his political stance such as the wrathful Filippo Argenti through diction. However, Alighieri seems to show sympathetic feelings towards the heretic Farinata Degli Uberti through diction and imagery, but he was on an opposing political side of Dante, yet Dante seems to overlook his opposing ideas and sin because the sinner states his good will towards Florence. Finally, another important sinner, Sodomite Ser Brunetto Latino, is shown compassion through Dante’s interactions and the author’s diction, which suggests that Dante Alighieri seems to only respect sinners who tried to protect or create a prosperous Florence, which is why he overlooks their political stance and/or sins.