OUTLINE
Thesis statement: In Dante's Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy, Dante develops many themes throughout the adventures of the travelers. The Inferno is a work that Dante used to express the theme on his ideas of God's divine justice. God's divine justice is demonstrated through the punishments of the sinners the travelers encounter.
1) Introduction
A. An overview Dante Alighieri's life, writing style and the Inferno
B. Dante Alighieri's life during the torrential times of the Florentine history
C. His writing style not only consisted of some literature firsts, but also his ability to make the reader feel present in the story
2) Main Points: Dante's Inferno enables man to understand that the punishment of the soul is
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The city-state was divided at the time into Guelphs--the party of the pope--and Ghibellines--the party of the Holy Roman Emperor. The Alighieris belonged to the former party until they were driven out in the late 1200s.
The Guelphs assumed power but split themselves up into Whites and Blacks, the Whites taking the antipapal position of the Ghibellines. Dante eventually cast his lot in with the Whites. When the Blacks seized power in Florence in 1302, they condemned him to death, forcing him to leave his wife, Gemma Donati, and their four children in his beloved native city for the rest of his life. Dante spent most of his time in exile writing new pieces of literature (Siegal). It is believed that around 1307 he stops work on Convivio to begin The Comedy (later known as The Divine Comedy). He completed it shortly before he dies in 1321. The Divine Comedy is
recognized as his greatest literature accomplishment not only for the multitude of themes and literature firsts, but also for the beauty of his writing style.
With his writing style and the implementation of some literature firsts, Dante assured his name in history. His mastery of language, his sensitivity to the sights and sounds of nature, and his infinite store of information allow him to capture and draw the reader into the realm of the terrestrial Hell. His vast store of knowledge of Greek mythology and the history of his society assists Dante in 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.
Inferno is the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy. There is no doubt that inferno is talking about the world of hell, which looks like Virgil’s Aeneid. In people’s mind, the under-earth world always seems dark and terrified. They also believe that most evil souls who do horrible and immoral things will go to hell after they die. Hell is the place that no people want to go to talk about. However, in Dante’s poem, hell is his first journey. He cannot avoid it to approach haven. Dante shows many vivid images of hell to readers and lead the readers to go through the journey with him. His inferno contains general facts of hell, which are evil people, horrible punishment, and eternal surfing, but it also involves an unexpected element that is love.
More commonly known as Dante, Inferno, The Divine Comedy: Inferno is a telling of Dante the pilgrim’s journey though the many rings of Hell by Dante Alighieri. At the time of its creation the poem carried a lot of weight by using nearly all of the prominent figures of the time to establish the dos and don’ts of Christianity. For example, when Dante’s journey begins he finds himself in the circle of the lustful where he lays his eyes on many recognizable figures that even those of us today can recognize, those such as; Dido, Helen of Troy, and Achilles. The story very carefully exaggerates the cardinal sin of these people in a way that clearly lines out how it lead to their doom, a brilliant teaching tool for new Christians. However, this
In Dante Alighieri's The Inferno, the themes of justice and eternity are interwoven throughout Dante's journey. As he wrestles with questions of pity, grace, and forgiveness, readers do the same. With each encounter with sinners, views of justice and God's mercy are questioned. Dante's Hell judged people in terms of their actions, not their hearts. Just because they had affairs or were hypocritical, they were sent to Hell.
Born and raised in Florence during periods of political instability and fragmentation, Dante Alighieri, a devoted White Guelph and poet, became very familiar with the conflicts rising between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines––and between the Blacks and Whites. When the Blacks eventually overpowered the Whites, Alighieri was exiled and wrote The Inferno, in which he directly described the politics of his life and pressed on the topics of sin, treachery, and loyalty, while mentioning specific Florentine people he respected and others who, he felt, were deserving of harsh punishments because of their actions throughout their lives. In this epic poem, Alighieri writes himself as the main protagonist, Dante, in describing his journey through the nine circles of Hell, while meeting several sinners and witnessing their tormenting punishments along the way. When Dante encounters both loyal and traitorous Florentines, Alighieri uses diction, imagery, and actions to express compassion to three Sodomites––Jacopo Rusticucci, Guido Guerra, and Tegghiaio Aldobrandi––and Farinata Degli Uberti, and hostility to Bocca Degli Abati, revealing that Alighieri’s amount of sympathy and malevolence towards the sinners depended on their loyalty or betrayal to Florence.
Dante’s Inferno is One Hell of a Body Dante’s “Divine Comedy” is an exploration of extraterrestrial dimensions, ascending from the tortured universe of our own reality, into purgatory, otherwise defined as the hell of the inferno. The structure of the comedy is utterly intricate as an attempt to understand the journey of one man, a man strikingly similar to us, Dante, a soul in motion, a commendable Pilgrim, a man whose isolation ultimately leads him to destruction. Dante’s Inferno not only speaks to us individually, but also as the present voice of the universal collective unconscious. The personal component of the voyage through hell in Dante’s Inferno literally seeks the decline of one man into sin; through his construction of contrapasso, the work of poetic justice, and through the use of both modern and historical characters in Canto V, Canto XII, and Canto XXVI.
Dante Alighieri lived during a period in time where the political sphere had a direct influence on the factional strife of Florence and on the greater Italian country as a whole, where corruption and greed impacted every aspect of society. The events Dante encountered, both before his birth and during his lifetime, deeply influenced his political mentality that is reflected in the first section of his work the Divine Comedy – Inferno. The atmosphere created by the long lasting discord between the Guelph and Ghibelline factions within central and northern Italy allowed for corruptive politics between the Church and the state of Florence. This corruption overflowed onto Florentine society, where the “White” Guelph and “Black” Guelph turmoil resulted
Finally, Dante’s hell was representative of a man who believed that he was possibly the only holy man in the world. Dante believes that he is the only man living correctly in the world, and he therefore creates a punishment that will endure for all those who do not repent. Dante is a Catholic man and his writings represent that. For example, Jung says the Inferno is an “archetypal representative of Dante’s belief system and values” (
On May 21, 1265 in Florence, Italy the authors most influential in changing the Christian vision of mankind’s eternal fate was born. His name is Dante Alighieri and he was born into a very well to do family of Florence Italy. The Alighieri family had a long history of involvement with the Florentine political scene, and this involvement went on to influence Dante’s book, Inferno. Dante’s early life was rough, at a young age his mother died, and at the age of twelve he was forced to marry the daughter of a promise to marry the daughter of a prominent family friend, Gemma Donati. While, Dante was married to Gemma he fell in love with another woman: Beatrice Portinari.
Dante Alighieri was one of the most inspiring Italian poets in the middle ages. One of his greatest writings is about the afterlife, from the depths of Hell in his own made Inferno, into the mountains of Purgatory and in the ever lasting spirits of Heaven called the Paradiso. But my main focus on this essay is what in Dante’s life inspired him to write like he did, particularly his Inferno. Questions and history may lead us to believe that was it was his love, war or political view that shaped him as an artist. There is a gap in his history with some unknowns for the simplest things like what was his birth date.
Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy is a series of epic poems that begins with The Inferno, otherwise known as hell. Dante’s Inferno was an extraordinary piece of European literature that influenced many aspects of literature during the renaissance era and still continues to influence literature up to this date. More importantly, however, Dante’s Inferno was significantly impacted and influenced by many ancient Greek heroes and stories. During the 14th century, ancient Greek myths were returning back into society and with Dante’s help, these stories were introduced and vastly acknowledged during the renaissance era of Europe. With allusions to many important and significant heroes such as Achilles, who is seen in the second circle of hell, the
Inferno portrays God’s justice as derived from primal love, and is conditioned with compassion. One important theme that Dante hits in his poem is JUSTICE. The settings in the Inferno reveal Dante’s opinion about justice by using locations and punishments that quickly correspond to the sin.
In The Inferno of Dante, Dante allows the reader to experience his every move. His mastery of language, his sensitivity to the sights and sounds of nature, and his endless store of knowledge allows him to capture and draw the reader into the realm of the terrestrial hell. In Canto 6, the Gluttons; Canto 13, the Violent against Themselves; and Canto 23, the Hypocrites; Dante excels in his detailed description of the supernatural world of hell.
Dante’s The Inferno was very important when it comes to the development of literature. It has made such a large impact on literature because it helped standardize Italian as a language of literature, it is a work that many people draw inspiration from, and helped to introduce Dolce Stil Novo.
Inferno by Dante Alighieri is part of the Divine Comedy and is one of the most influential poems of all time. Countless sculptures, paintings, films, and videogames were influenced by Inferno. Over time some of the cantos and sins that was part of the poem have become outdated due to the change of human culture. The human mindset has evolved and changed so much 700 years after it was written. In today’s world Dante’s Inferno is now considered irrelevant due to the human mindset changing and the media promoting sins.