The Divine Comedy By Dante Alighieri

Imagine a place where tyrants stand up to their ears in boiling blood, the gluttonous experience monsoons of human filth, and those who commit sins of the flesh are blown about like pieces of paper in a never-ending wind storm. Welcome to Dante 's Inferno, his perspective on the appropriate punishments for those who are destined to hell for all eternity. Dante attempts to make the punishments fit the crimes, but because it is Dante dealing out the tortures and not God, the punishments will never be perfect because by nature, man is an imperfect creature. Only God is capable of being above reproach and of metering out a just punishment. While Dante 's treatment towards the tyrants is fitting, his views on the

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.

The speaker, “Dante”, addresses his audience, the sinners of Anetenora and Ptolomea or the First and Second Rounds of the ninth Circle of Hell, with a sense of hostility and aggressiveness. In previous Cantos, Dante was portrayed as sympathetic and forgiving soul as he walked through Hell showing pity for them. However, the ideas that the speaker portrays in this Canto is one of having a lack of pity for the sinners of Hell Dante’s language throughout the Canto demonstrates the hatred that is to be had for sinners because of his told actions against the sinners. As he tells Friar Alberigo, “If you would have my service, / tell me your name; then if I do not help you / may I descend to the last rim of the ice” (ln. 115-117). He then goes back

Dante structures the Commedia in such a way as to enable the pilgrim to function as a progressively more sophisticated reader of confessional texts throughout his journey, and as such he becomes a reflection of our own possibilities as interpreters of these canti. Our initial attempts at interpreting the equivocal texts provided by the sinners are fitful, inadequate, and constantly in need of later correction and reassessment, thus reflecting the pilgrim's own progress. In the reading and re-reading, these confessional passages and canti define themselves as exercises in humility: as understanding becomes the product of a series of misreadings and revisions of the text. In the case of Francesca we have a confession that is more a literary rationale for her offense than an admission of individual culpability, for Francesca seeks to use the language of dolce stil novo poetry as a kind of cloaking device to hide herself as the historical agent or subject who bears responsibility for her

That simple shift in language shows his high regard for Brunetto and the respect he still has for him. Brunetto asks if Dante would like for him to walk with the poets. Dante’s willingness to have Brunetto in his company creates additional emphasis for his high regard of his mentor. In the other Cantos Dante is indifferent to or purposefully acts in a way to increase the suffering that the sinners he interacts with. As he recognizes Brunetto through his blistered and burnt features Dante leans forward to close the gap between them. Dante is seemingly shocked by finding Brunetto in hell. His surprise reveals the positive opinion that he has for Brunetto, he didn’t expect him to be there. In the same way Brunetto seems shocked at Dante’s presence in hell before his time. Brunetto grabs at Dante’s cloak, calls Dante his son, and then asks if Dante would mind him walking with the poets. Both characters actions provide motivation for Dante to continue on through hell and to a better

Throughout Dante’s journey into Hell, he sees many horrors regarding the punishment of sinners. Each punishment has a touch of irony; the so called fortune tellers have their heads turned to face backwards since in life they claimed to see ahead into the future, the virtuous pagans that were born without knowledge in God wander around without hope, and those who were violent against their neighbors are covered in boiling blood forever, since in life they wallowed in blood. The Inferno is full of symbols and metaphors about the journey of a person finding his or her way in life. In circle two of Hell, Dante the pilgrim meets Paolo and Francesca, two lovers swept together.

Dante cannot gasp the idea that love can condemn someone to a eternity of suffering. Dante’s emotions of pity and sorrow toward Francesca and Paolo make him faint. In order to understand why Dante has such a strong and unintentional reaction such as fainting, I will analyze Canto V by using Dante’s own fourfold method of interpretation: literal, allegorical and moral with the exception of the anagogic method. `Even thought Dante is already in hell, he has not yet seen the suffering of the sinful souls.

The human spirit is a complex and fascinating phenomenon which rises and falls during the day to a week to even in a moment, but have you ever thought what leads this expression of human emotions? Multiple people of many different occupations have tried to figure out this leader in the human spirit that sways between rashness and logic. Writers such as Dante Alighieri question this hope of the spirit and where it originates. He realizes that there is more to person damnation. While another poet Omar Khayyam encourages people of his time to question authority and logic behind the rules that force them to adhere to a strictly regimented lifestyle. This paper will compare the notion of Cicero's

Dante’s Inferno begins in a dark forest, a place of confusion, because he lost his way on the “true path”. Seeking an escape, Dante finds a hill where the sun glares down on him. This light seen in Dante’s Inferno symbolizes clarity as the sun represents God. After encountering three beasts and turning back to the murky forest, Dante crosses paths with the great Roman Poet, Virgil. Virgil is an aid and guide to Dante to Heaven, the ultimate Paradise. He warns Dante he must pass through Hell and Purgatory in order to reach his salvation in heaven. Virgil is depicted as nature or human reason perfected by virtue. It is strongly emphasized that Virgil can only take Dante so far in his journey by guiding him to heaven. Much like St. Thomas Aquinas’ reasoning, nature or human reason can only bring you so far in the journey to God. As Virgil and Dante approach the mouth of Hell, Virgil preaches to Dante about a woman in Heaven who took pity upon Dante when he was lost in hell. The woman Virgil speaks of is Dante’s departed love Beatrice. After Dante hears that Beatrice is heaven he now sheds the fear of traveling through Hell and Purgatorio.

From the very beginning of Dante’s Inferno, a difference in the characterization of Dante the Poet and Dante the Pilgrim is very evident. While Dante the Poet is the one essentially writing the epic poem and shamelessly assigning each sinner’s punishment, Dante the Pilgrim is traveling through the different Circles of Hell and experiencing each sinner’s emotions first hand. Dante the Poet has a different perspective on each sinner which permits him to be aware of details that Dante the Pilgrim is oblivious to, thus leading to their differing viewpoints on each person encountered. By examining Dante the Pilgrim’s actions towards sinners through the duration of this epic poem, specifically when interacting with those placed in Limbo, Francesca and Paolo, Phlegyas, and eventually Bocca, a transition within Dante the Pilgrim’s attitude towards the sinners is very apparent. Because the sins became more and more extreme in both God and Dante the Poet’s eyes as they traveled through each circle and ultimately approached Circle Nine of Hell, Dante the Pilgrim transformed into a character very similar to Dante the Poet.

Throughout the Inferno, Dante has often presented characters in a way that reflects his own personality: there is the amorous and suicidal Dido for whom he shows sympathy and gives a lesser punishment, while there is the suicidal Pier delle Vigne to whom he gives a much harsher punishment. This difference in placement should reflect a strict moral code that agrees with a pre-established divine order, and yet Dante demonstrates such obvious favoritism. Why? Dido loved Aeneas too much, as Dante loved Beatrice. Therefore, Dante can easily sympathize. Similarly, when Dante faces Francesca da Rimini and her lover Paolo, he experiences an immense amount of understanding and compassion – yet they are there in Hell. While these characters may come

Dante is one of, if not the only character who could be argued develops throughout the poem and this paper will discuss how each character and canto he comes into contact with effects his development. While there is never any mention as to how

Dante had his fair share of the real human experience, whilst traveling through hell in Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy”. Characters in literature have been popularized since this masterpiece to favor sins as a type of personality trope. The lazy bum, the angry husband, or the prideful peacocks; the list goes on and on. The cause and effect of these traits have served well to teach generations of readers, the ideas and meanings of our actions as humans. Although it is rare, some works leave open ended plots for us to contemplate the meaning of said sin. In conjunction to some of the deadly sins, the main characters from “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Veldt”, and “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”, all display a truth about human nature.

Dante Aleghiri 's Divine Comedy is widely taught and written about. In it Dante, the author, details his trip through Hell, Purgatory, and then Paradise. The Divine Comedy was written during Dante 's exile from his beloved city of Florence Italy. The work itself is read at various different levels. One could read it as a theological work, a political work, simply as a poetic work, or even as a philosophical work. In his work, "Dante’s Paradiso: No Human Beings Allowed" philosophy professor Bruce Silver argues that, ” Dante is not a philosopher," instead he just deals with philosophical issues, "including the relation between reasoning well and happiness." Dr. Jason Aleksander, the philosophy department chair at Saint Xavier 's University, would disagree, stating, "In short, for Dante, wisdom, 'the body of philosophy, ' results from the proper ordering of earthly desires or, in other words, 'from the order among the moral virtues. '" Aleksander sees Dante as a philosopher tackling philosophical issues and because he takes that stance he interprets Dante differently than Silver does.

In The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri, illustrates a man on his journey through three stages of differing setting. One, being hell, and the other two being purgatory and Heaven. However, the most frequently read section of the book is when Dante writes about the Inferno, or hell, due to the prolific details of punishments distributed to the sinners. When he writes, Dante appeals to all readers by completely and vividly describing all events as he makes his descent through hell. And, complementing those descriptions, Dante strategically places historical figures throughout history in hell to make The Divine Comedy real and very relatable. In other words, by doing this Dante enables the reader to connect on a more deeper level with the comedy. Not to mention that Dante also bases his Inferno off of Christian beliefs and well known mythology also connecting the reader further into the writing. However, Dante purposefully and masterfully does this for a reason. In The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri, Dante realistically and vividly portrays hell in a violent surreal manner in order to educate the reader, and the living for that matter, about their potential eternal after lives if they do not follow the true path God provides.