Category: Dante Alighieri

Dante’s The Divine Comedy is a narrative poem that depicts the realms of the afterlife. It is comprised of three parts with Inferno(hell) being the first. Dante’s Inferno is based upon the idea of mortality and divine justice. In this part, he creates his own hell made up of nine different levels, each for various types of sins. He places many different people in different parts of his hell according to what he thinks is the best punishment for them and serves justice for their sins.

Similarly, we see almost everyone committing sins in today’s world. It’s natural. Making mistakes and committing sins are human tendencies. Even though The Inferno was created 700 years ago, it can still be related to modern-day problems. Dante got exiled from his hometown, Florence, which stripped him of his identity and heritage. This resembles the political turbulence that exists today in the modern world. Dante’s words connect to those who are held as refugees and are suffering political injustices. Speaking of politics, misuse of power is something that is happening almost everywhere. It was prevalent in the inferno and it’s prevalent in the modern world too. Hypocrisy is huge in today’s life and hypocrite people are found almost everywhere. In the Inferno, it was a big sin and the sinners were punished severely. But in today’s world, it’s different. Homosexuality is something that was considered a sin back then. But it’s not seen as a sin anymore, it’s rather seen as a form of love. Gluttony can be seen in the insatiability of modern capitalism. It shows the want to continuously consume and to always have the best and the newest products. The sin of usury which is lending money at high-interest rates can be widely seen in the modern-day banking system. So in today’s world, we see almost all the sins that existed back in The Inferno. Misuse of power and hypocrisy are two of the biggest prevalent sins.

Abuse of power is nothing new to us. We see power being misused everywhere in today’s world. From political and economical to physical and even social power abuse, it’s super frequent. Politically, leaders misuse their powers and corruptly make money. Taxpayers’ money is used to pull off big business deals that don’t even affect the taxpayers but only the political leaders, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Chasing popularity and glory leads them to abuse their powers. This corruption affects normal people to a great extent. Money, votes, and their support is won and used by political leaders for something which has nothing to do with normal people. Nepotism according to me is one of the biggest misuses of power. Promoting your unworthy generation, friends or family members over someone who’s worthy of something is very common in today’s society. The pressure of carrying the ‘legacy’ leads people to use their powers in order to elevate their generations. It’s bad because the truly qualified and talented people are subjected to injustice. Socially, we frequently see the stereotypes of men being greater or stronger than women. Because of these stereotypes, oftentimes men are favored more for some kinds of jobs even though it’s illegal. All this abuse of power is widely predominant in our society and we can’t really do much about it because that is how the system works. The sinners were punished in the inferno but in the real world, it’s hard to stop them. It’s almost impossible to prevent it. An effort to punish the sinners in today’s world would lead to more power abuse because in order to stop them you would have to misuse your power too. The sin of simony is considered very dire in The Inferno. The souls of people like Pope Nicholas III and St. Peter are burning among the flames for deeds like spiritual prostitution, nepotism in church, etc. Dante speaks against the corrupted churchmen and calls them an affliction on the world: “And were it not that still forbids it me The reverence for the keys superlative Thou hadst in keeping in the gladsome life, I would make use of words more grievous still; Because your avarice afflicts the world, Trampling the good and lifting the depraved. The Evangelist you Pastors had in mind, When she who sitteth upon many waters To fornicate with kings by him was seen;”(Inf.XIX, 100-108)

Hypocrisy is a sin that is placed above the sin of simony in The Inferno. Just like abuse of power, hypocrisy isn’t new to us either. In fact, we often see hypocrisy more than we see the abuse of power. There are so many people around us who hide their own true self and contrive their fake image just to look good in front of others. The biggest example of hypocrites are celebrities. They are always running behind achieving popularity and stardom. In this pursuit, they often show their fake side in order to get liked and followed by people. They fool people about what they do, what they like, their political views, their standpoints on social issues, etc. There are many celebrities in today’s society who really show their concern about the degrading climatic conditions in the world. They express their viewpoints, criticize people, and persuade people to stop doing some things but when it comes to them and their private lives, they don’t really care about the environment. They are one thing on the screen and something else off the screen. Apart from celebrities, political leaders are big hypocrites too. We have all come across some people in our lives who are hypocrites. There are so many aspects to being a hypocrite. For example, saying gossiping is bad and then repeating it to a friend, telling someone to stop being lazy as you sit comfy on the couch, etc. Knowingly or unknowingly, we are often hypocritical at times. It’s not a good thing but there’s no solution for that. It’s human nature and that’s how human beings work. Hypocrisy can range from something really small as telling someone to get off their phone while being on one to something very big that can lead to a disaster. In The Inferno, people with the sin of hypocrisy are punished severely. They are dressed in lead-lined garments which render them heavy and make it difficult for them to walk. Some people like Caiphus are crucified on the ground and all other sinners trample over him as they walk. Dante believes that there are very few sins that are equal to the purposeful cloaking of one’s true character in a false aspect of tolerance.

Summing up everything, The Inferno which was created 700 years ago is still significant. Almost all the sins described in the poem can be seen in today’s world. The only difference is the way in which the sinners were seen back then and are seen now. There are no severe punishments in the modern society. The sins of abuse of power and hypocrisy are bad because they affect a lot of people apart from the one doing it. Misusing power doesn’t keep any competition fair. Hypocrites are everywhere and it’s very important to recognize such people. But after all, we also learn one thing which is, all these sins are unavoidable because they’re a part of human tendency. They can be minimized to a great extent, but getting completely rid of them is almost impossible.

The use of symbolic retribution, a punishment that is symbolized by the crime that was committed, is found throughout Dante’s Inferno. In Inferno, by Dante Alighieri, Dante is first found in a dark forest where he encounters three different animals. After avoiding the different animals he is led through the nine layers of hell by Virgil, a Roman poet. Each circle of hell represents a different group of sinners. Circle one is the Limbo layer, where people are punished for not knowing Jesus Christ. Layers two through six are known as the incontinence circles; here, people are punished if they have committed irrational sins against God. In circle seven, people are punished for being violent; in layers eight through nine sinners are punished for fraud and malice. As Virgil and Dante venture further into the layers of hell, they see the crimes committed and the punishments getting more severe. Readers of Inferno are given the chance to better understand Dante’s religious and moral beliefs based on the punishments he believes best fit the crime. In Inferno, Dante uses symbolic retribution to allow readers a glance into his religious beliefs by punishing gluttons in circle three, wrathful people in circle five, and treacherous people in circle nine.

In the third layer of hell, people who give into their physical desires to eat and drink no matter the outcome are found. As Dante is traveling through the third layer of hell with Virgil he describes the people he observes: “Red eyes he has, and unctuous beard and black, / And belly large, and armed with claws his hands” (Alighieri). This group of sinners, who were gluttons before death, are punished by becoming bloated and being immersed in filth while it rains down from the sky. Gluttons worship food and drinks because of their uncontrollable appetite. According to The Divine Comedy: The Inferno: Notes by Luisa Zamboni Vergani the gluttons “punishment is a reversal, and instead of eating the fine delicate foods and wines of the world, he is forced to eat filth and mud. Instead of sitting in his comfortable house relishing all of the sensual aspects of good food and good wine and good surroundings, he lies in the foul rain” (Zamboni 31). This certain sin causes a person to turn food into a god, so now instead of eating the fancy foods of the world and living a luxurious life, they are punished by being made to eat and live in mud. The guardian of the gluttons constant hunger “is a fitting guardian for the circle of gluttons, who transformed their lives into a continual feast and did nothing but eat and drink and now lie like pigs in the mire” (Zamboni 31). The hungry and bloated sinners in this layer of hell resemble pigs living in filth, similar to their guardian. Gluttony is considered to be one of the less vicious crimes of incontinence found in the nine circles of hell.

Another sin of incontinence that Dante encounters as he journeys through hell is anger, which he finds in the fifth circle. In this layer of hell, two different groups of people are punished. The sinners found in the fifth circle of hell are all confined to the Styx, a muddy swamp. The ones above the water are “the souls of those whom anger overcame” (Alighieri); while the ones beneath the water saying “‘We sullen were / In the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened, / Bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek” (Alighieri). The two different groups in this layer of hell are those that were overcome with extreme anger and those that were sullen and did not believe in God. While the wrathful souls were being punished above the water, the gloomy souls were being punished under the water. The sinners punished to live above the water show “open and violent hatred, and the punishment is that they strike out at each other in almost any fashion” (Zamboni 33); however, the ones below the water display “slow, sullen hatred. The punishment for this type is that they are choking on their own rage, gurgling in the filth of Styx, unable to express themselves as they become choked on their own malevolent hatred” (Zamboni 33). The wrathful people manifested such great anger, that it could have led to violence; so, their punishment was to be covered in grime and constantly fighting with one another. The sullen sinners were punished by being exiled to underneath the Styx where they would be smothered by their own rage and emotions. The Styx, the river these sinners occupy, is considered to “[serve] a double purpose. It separates the upper Hell from the nether Hell, and it also functions as the circle for the wrathful. As the wrathful people were hateful during their lifetime, they are now in a river of hate” (Zamboni 33). Similar to the separation of the wrathful and sullen, the Styx is split into two different sections. The sin of wrathfulness is considered to be one of the worst sins of incontinence.

The last sin mentioned in Dante’s Inferno is treachery and can be found in circle nine. The punishment in this layer of hell is the worst by far, as well as the crimes that were committed that put these sinners here. In the final circle of hell Dante observes “a thousand faces, made / Purple with cold; whence o’er me comes a shudder, / And evermore will come, at frozen ponds” (Alighieri). The sinners found in this layer of hell are all punished by living in a frozen lake, and as they travel closer to the center the sins committed get worse. The occupants of this circle of hell are miserable and regret the sins they committed while living on Earth. These people long “to be forgotten on earth because of their vicious crimes, unlike those in the upper circle, who ask to be remembered” (Zamboni 72). The sinners in the upper layers of hell do not feel that the crimes they committed were bad enough to be forgotten. However, the treacherous sinners living in the ninth layer have realized how awful the crimes they performed actually were. This layer of hell is split into four different sections, called rounds: round one treachery towards kin, the second round is treachery towards country, the third round is treachery towards guests and hosts and the fourth round is treachery towards their masters. Satan resides in the center of the four rounds of treachery. Each round is named after a person who embodies these sins. In Critical Insights: The Inferno by Patrick Hunt the names of each round is explained: the first round is “named Caina (for Cain)” (Hunt 11), the second round is named “Antenora (for the Trojan Anteno)” (Hunt 11), the third is “Ptolemea (for Ptolemaeus)” (Hunt 11) and the fourth circle is named “Judecca (for Judas Iscariot). In Judecca are the most heinous human traitors” (Hunt 11). The individuals each round is named after becomes worse the closer towards the center, like the sins committed get worse as Dante and Virgil travel near the middle of the lake. The wrongdoers found in this layer of hell are considered to be the worst of the worst.

Throughout the entirety of Dante’s Inferno, Dante Alighieri uses symbolic retribution to express his religious beliefs. From his experiences exploring the nine layers of hell, readers are able to understand what Dante assumes will occur after death. In the third circle of hell, the gluttons lie in mud and resemble pigs. People who were overcome with extreme anger in life are found in the fifth layer of hell. Here, those who were wrathful were left above the Styx where they constantly tore at one another, and those who were sullen were enclosed beneath the river and left without being able to express their emotions. The evil-doers found in the final circle of hell were believed to have performed the most terrible crimes known to mankind. They live in an icy lake, and as Dante and Virgil venture towards the center the wrongdoings become worse. from Dante’s writings. From Dante’s Inferno, readers are able to better understand his religious and moral beliefs; for example, Dante believes there is a life after death and that the consequences of sin is punishment in the afterlife with varying degrees of punishment based on the sin committed.

Works Cited

1. Alighieri, Dante. Divine Comedy, Longfellow’s Translation, Hell. Pub One Info.
2. Hunt, Patrick. “On the Inferno.” Critical Insights: The Inferno, Sept. 2011, pp. 3–19. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=69855576&site=ehost-live.
3. Zamboni Vergani, Luisa, and Inc Cliffs Notes. The Divine Comedy: The Inferno : Notes . Vol. New ed, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [US], 1969. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=10564&site=ehost-live.

A place where sinners, who voluntarily chose their sin and fail to repent who fail to repent, linger it what is know to be Hell. In The Inferno of Dante, the speaker Dante, unless otherwise stated, finds himself in the midst of the underworld, despite being alive. Dante knows this journey through hell is one that he must complete in order to better himself. Dante and his guide, Virgil, walk amongst the souls who embody the evils of the world. Dante often feels pity for the men and women he meets on his voyage. His physical journey through Hell is seen as a spiritual one as he faces learning not to pity those who have sinned. Despite the painful sights of the underworld, the portion of the journey that proves most troublesome for Dante is attempting to increase his religious devotion by limiting his pity.

There are times within Dante’s journey where he expresses a deep hatred towards the sinners; however, Dante’s reason for his actions is not due to religious correctness. When Dante meets Filippo Argenti in the Fifth Circle of Hell, the circle of the wrathful, this is obvious. When Filippo begins to challenge Dante, Dante responds violently, telling the shade that he wishes for Filippo to weep and have his “sorrow remain,”(VIII, 36). This exhibits the religiously correct response to a sinner: being angry and shaming the souls; however, Dante reveals that he recognizes Filippo from life. Virgil “embraced [Dante’s] neck and kissed [Dante’s] face,” (VIII, 41) prasing Dante for his lack of compassion. Dante’s insensitivity was not meager; he went as far as to express that he wants to see that Filippo be “pickled in this swill,” (VIII, 51), and Dante thanked God for letting him see Filippo “mangl[ed] by the people of the mud” (VIII, 56). Dante appears to have done everything right in this situation, he acted in a way of disapproval and disgust, however the motives behind his actions are not what they should be. Virgil glorifies Dante’s actions because Filippo was an egotistic, wrathful sinner in his life, therefore, he shall be condemned; however, the actions of Dante stem from the fact that Dante knew and disliked Filippo prior to Filippo’s placement in hell, making his harsh behavior personal rather than religious. Even though there are times in which Dante abandons pity entirely and acts cruelly towards the sinners, it is unmistakable that Dante has not learned that it is wrong in faith to pity sinners, but instead, he is acting upon preexisting grudges.

Dante the Poet presents sinners and punishments to the reader. Many sinners Dante crosses, similar to their punishments, are unfathomable and are deserving of the torture they receive. However, many are people who faced unfortunate situations in life, and it causes Dante to feel a sense of pity for the sinners. No matter how dramatic and emotional the sinners’ stories are, Virgil opposes Dante feeling pity, advising him to stop, but Dante struggles greatly with this on several occasions. In the Second Circle of Hell, where the lustful are placed, Dante meets the lovers Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta. He learns their story of how they slipped into love while reading about Lancelot and Guinevere. Dante tells Francesca that the suffering she experiences with Paolo “makes [him] weep/ For sorrow and pity” (V, 13-14), signifying that Dante thinks it is a shame that lovers should be punished for loving more than one should. Love is ordinarily seen as a positive thing; it brings people satisfaction and is a generalized goal in life. However, since these people, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, fell in love at the wrong time with the wrong person they get punished for this act. The lovers are punished by the presence of the wind storm, this punishment suggests that Dante views the lover’s sin as innocent in nature, uncontrollable to man. Taking his compassion to a further extreme, at the conclusion of the Canto, Dante is greatly “overwhelmed” (V, 126) and felt himself go “slack:/ Swooning as in death, [Dante] felt like a dying body” (V, 126-127). Dante is incapable to control his emotions enough to even stay conscious, emphasizing how deeply he feels for these sinners, even though it is not right for him to do so. Dante’s acknowledgment of this proves how genuine his pity is for others, it too illustrates a contrast between the normal societal view of the lustful and Dante’s view of these souls.

Dante’s tendency to pity the sinners he encounters continues as he continues further into Hell. In the Seventh Circle, where those who act violently toward themselves remain, Dante encounters Pier Delle Vigne in the Wood of the Suicides. In this scene, Virgil instructs Dante to break a branch off of a tree, and the trunk begins bleeding and crying in anguish; this tree state is Pier Delle Vigne’s new from. The scene immediately turns somber as Dante realizes that Pier is not only in excruciating pain, but he has also lost his identity. This is the first time in Hell where the sinners lose their complete physical identities. Though it is morally appropriate that those who had no desire for their bodies during life do not get them after death, the situation still places pity in both the reader and in Dante. Directly after ripping the branch, Pier, irritable in pain, asks Dante, “Why have you torn me? Have you no pity” (XIII, 34). This question seems absurd to a reader who has been following Dante’s expression of pity, but Dante answers it as he speaks to Virgil; Dante requests that Virgil ask the questions for him, because Dante feels incapable of speaking due to the “pity/ That fills [his] heart”(XIII, 78-79). The exchange implies that Dante, despite knowing that both violence and suicide are sins, wishes that some sinners could be exempted from punishment due to their tragic circumstances. Justifying sinners is not a religious thing to do, but Dante does it frequently, displeasing his spiritual journey.

Dante journeys through Hell with his guide Virgil, and he sees the fate of sinners who have been punished within the different levels of hell. Each punishment being a direct parallel to what the sinner has done wrong in life, however, in many cases Dante chooses to pity the sinner. Virgil advises that Dante does not hold any pity for the sinners as not doing so would be religiously correct. Pity is only allowed in Limbo. Therefore the expression of pity is not to be expressed in other levels of Hell. However, Dante struggles during this journey. Though he attempts to better himself spiritually, he fails, going back to human instinct rather than exclusively expressing religious strength.

After a perilous journey through a savage forest, Dante reaches the foot of a hill and desperately desires to climb it: ‘After I had a little rested my weary body, I took my way along that deserted slope, so that my halted foot was always the lower’ (28-30). In the act of walking, Dante describes his left foot as dragging behind his right foot to reveal the relationship between the two components of the human soul: the intellect and the will. The intellect is represented as the right foot, and the will is represented by the left foot. While the intellect sees the objective clearly, the will is distracted by light and momentary troubles. In his Divine Comedy, Dante explores how man’s fall impacted the human condition by recognizing the constant inner struggle between the desires of the intellect and the will. Through his portrayal of an intrinsically evil and dark forest in Cantos I and XIII, Dante reveals how sin deters people from a relationship with God.

Dante’s symbolic rendering of the dark wood emphasizes how sin separates people from God. In Canto I, Dante conveys his anguish as he attempts to recall the forest at the beginning of his journey: ‘Ah, how hard a thing it is to say what that wood was, so savage and harsh and strong that the thought of it renews my fear!’ (4-7). The Italian word for forest is selva, and the Italian word for savage is selvaggia. The seemingly similar structure of these two words in Italian reveals that the forest in Canto I is an intrinsically evil and dangerous place. By waking up in a dark and savage forest, Dante emphasizes that sin has pervaded his life and has become an obstacle in his relationship with God. In addition, Dante uses imagery to portray a forest abounding in darkness, which conveys his corrupt moral state at the beginning of his journey. Dante emphasizes this idea by creating a similar setting in Canto XIII: ‘Not green leaves, but dark in color, not smooth branches, but knotted and twisted, no fruit was there, but thorns with poison’ (4-6). Dante describes the dark forest in abounding detail in this canto compared to Canto 1. Dante’s negative diction in his illustration of the dark wood in Canto XIII conveys more fear, terror, and darkness, which reveals how the sinners are significantly more separated from God. By describing an evil and dark forest in Cantos I and XIII, Dante reveals that sin becomes an obstacle to God’s friendship.

Furthermore, the unmarked and twisted paths through the dark forest represent sin’s destructive ability to lead people away from salvation. Dante begins his poem by stating, ‘In the middle of the journey of our life…the straight way was lost’ (1-3). Dante reveals a common morality and humanity with all souls on earth from the first line of his Divine Comedy by using the pronoun ‘our’ instead of ‘my’. By becoming a sort of Everyman, Dante suggests that he will embark on this journey for all human beings in order to develop a deeper understanding of how human action tends to an obstruction of the soul. Dante uses the path as a symbol for the spiritual journey that Dante is embarking on for all human beings. By describing the path as wicked and distorted, Dante reveals that his voyage through life has become unclear as a result of sin’s influence on his life. Remarkably, Dante describes a similar situation in Canto XIII in which he ‘entered a wood that no path marked’ (1-3). The evident parallels between the two distinct paths highlight how sin blinds people; it prevents individuals from clearly seeing where to turn to on their journey through life. In a world filled with light, sin leads people to walk around as if they were blindfolded, aimlessly searching for purpose. By illustrating the unmarked path through an evil forest in Cantos I and XIII, Dante reveals that without God, people’s lives become meaningless and disoriented.

In addition to the symbolic depiction of a lost path through the forest, Dante’s personification of the hill in Canto 1 further emphasizes sin’s destructive nature. As Dante continued forward on his journey through the savage forest in Canto 1, he ‘reached the foot of a hill’ and ‘looked on high and saw its shoulders clothed already with the rays of the planet that leads us straight on every path’ (13-18). The hill is personified as having shoulders, which represents human beings between the depths and the heights. The pilgrim desires to move towards the sun, which is the source of wisdom, knowledge, and goodness. However, he finds himself unable to do so because his path is blocked by three creatures: a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. Each of these three creatures represents a sin that prevents Dante, along with the rest of humanity, from reaching the light where God’s presence abounds. Dante’s description of the hill and the light contrasts the wood of error and sin where darkness pervades, emphasizing that darkness is a symbol for the moral oblivion and disregard for virtue. Furthermore, the deficiency of light in Dante’s illustration of the poisoned wood in Canto XIII demonstrates the absence of God in the sinners who have committed wrongs against themselves. Dante’s description of the hill demonstrates how sin prevents people from obtaining redemption.

Moreover, the mythological metamorphosis of the souls who have been violent against themselves reveals sin’s ability to corrupt the union of the body and soul. The structured and repetitive syntax at the beginning of Canto XIII emphasizes how the souls have been converted into something other than what they were from the moment they arrived in hell. On earth, all humans are endowed by their creator with a body and a soul. However, sin’s influence leads individuals to obstruct that perfect union and destroy their bodies. God’s perfect punishment for these sinners is to continue their existence in the underworld without a body; because these sinners discarded their bodies willingly, they are now unable to retrieve them. The repeated negation in each of the first three tercets demonstrates how these sinners no longer have God’s presence in their lives. Dante uses the transubstantiation of these sinners to show that humans must exist as embodied beings, and how attempting to separate the unity of the body and soul is sinful. Dante emphasizes the importance of preserving the body by magically transforming the sinners in Canto XIII from animals to vegetation.

Dante professes a deeper understanding of human nature through his portrayal of an intrinsically evil and dangerous forest in Cantos I and XIII. Dante’s journey through hell begins by an unmarked path in both cantos, which leads him towards a savage forest. The strikingly similar settings convey the soul’s concupiscence, which directs people towards a moral oblivion. By contrasting the ubiquitous darkness with the light at the top of a hill, Dante demonstrates how people should always strive towards enlightenment and goodness. Furthermore, the negative metamorphosis evident in Canto XIII emphasizes sin’s attempts to destroy the perfect union between the body and soul. In short, Dante’s travels through the underworld provide insight into sin’s ability to destroy and distort the human condition.

Dante built his version of hell utilizing equal measures of Roman Catholic doctrine and his own personal perspective regarding his guilt or sins of the people he positions there. Dante had been involved in a political battle in Florence and in losing it, he had been banished from the city. Aristotle is one character who seemed to be in hell for reasons the Catholic church of that time would approve. One character who seemed to be in hell simply because Dante was getting even was Filippo Argenti.

Despite the fact that Dante includes certain people he adores and respects in his hell, the real agony is saved for those people of Dante’s time who wronged him, thus including corrupt leaders of the church and citizens of Florence.To begin with, Dante’s hell had an interesting aspect because he did not have a grudge against everyone; some were absolutely respectable and commendable figures, whose only slip up in Dante’s mind is that they did not live their life according to his faith. Most of these people found themselves in the first level of hell called Limbo, Limbo has green fields and a castle with seven walls surrounded by a small stream representing the seven virtues (restraint, prudence, courage, justice, hope, faith, and love) and the people living there can never go to heaven.

These souls, “whose merit lights their way even in hell,“ include the five great poets and philosophers such as Aristotle and Socrates (IV, 74-75). The spiritual beings live without torment while the atmosphere is calm, yet sad, the hell that they live in lets them reside in human astuteness, but without the luminescence of God. One character who seemed to be in hell for reasons the Catholic church of that time would approve is Aristotle. Aristotle is one of the greatest philosophers known to man who resided in Limbo among other famous authors, philosophers, non-Christians, unbaptized pagans, and others unqualified to set foot in the kingdom of heaven. The phrase “the master of those who know” was enough to pinpoint Aristotle as the one that other well-known famous people in Limbo including Homer, Caesar, and Socrates look with honor. Henceforth, Dante broadens his voicing of criticism to the residents of Florence who he felt mistreated him or the White Party.

One who seemed to be in hell simply because Dante was getting even was Filippo Argenteni; the harsh treatment of Filippo was payback for earlier offenses when Filippo slapped Dante in the face, and for Filippo’s brother taking possession of Dante’s confiscated property after the poet had been banished from Florence. Filippo Argenti was a Black Guelph and cruel rival to Dante whose family members were political opponents, they also opposed Dante’s return to Florence. Filippo resided in the fifth circle of hell, where the River Styx runs through and in it are troubled the wrathful and the gloomy. The wrathful are people who live their life feeling belligerence and aggressiveness whilst being confined and asphyxiated in the marshes and dark swamps of the River Styx. They are forever fighting each other out of anger in the swamp, pushing one another down into the filth gasping for air because they lived a vindictive and fateful life they must meet their fate in the Styx remaining helplessly raging for eternity.

Dante recognizes Filippo when he reaches the fifth level of hell and berates him and wishes him even more torment, this clearly showed Dante’s feelings towards Filippo the only person in hell without strong ties to the church that Dante despises so much. It pleases Dante when he sees Filippo “mangled by a swarm of muddy wraiths’ (VIII, 56). In essence, without a doubt, Dante was infuriated by his banishment from Florence and I understand why that angered him. Dante was a very loyal member of the White Party which tried to take stand against the corrupt papacy, so I can see where all the fuel came from to make Dante lash out the way he did. He used a religious forum to make strong political statements, revealing the dishonest and immoral of those who hurt him, the Guelph family, the state of Florence, and the White Party.

Dante’s hell was structured selfishly, those who tormented his country and political party was deeply hated by him and thus translates to great torment in hell. To enumerate reputability to his work he puts dreadful historical figures such as Aristotle in a free of torment gentle round of hell while men who were corrupt within the church or in regard to Florence like Filippo Argenti do not escape brutal sanction.

Religion is and has always been a prominent portion of individuals lives. The bible and other religious text guide follower’s on how to avoid the suffering of Hell. In The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, produces a physical interpretation of Hell and the result of each sinner would receive because of their sins. Dante the main character endures the horrid, twisted, and grotesque, depths of Hell. Unlike any other allegory of Hell, Dante’s Inferno portrays a vivid view to the reader of an in depth journey into hell itself; Along with this insightful literary work, brings historical context where Alighieri brings an introspective outlook to personal life, thoughts and opinions, and people, from Alighieri’s life into this poem. Alighieri’s common themes that occur throughout the story is that the punishment fits the crime. Virgil shows Dante through their journey, unveils the consequences for each of the sinners that are in Hell. Dante learns the value of personal development, to continuously learn from past mistakes in order to correct his current life to enhance his future.

Through the entire comedy Dante shows signs a personal growth and development conquering fears that he would not have been able to face before. Dante found himself alone in the woods and he became scared for his life “I had become so sleepy at the moment when I first strayed, leaving the path of truth; but when I found myself at the foot of a hill, at the edge of the wood’s beginning, down in the valley, where I first felt my heart plunged deep in fear”. Dante through the Comedy faints often because of his fear’s which is his weakness. Some of Dante’s character traits change as his mind matures, he recognizes the justice carried out by God, from the beginning until the end Canto, but his fear does not subside. “One ought to be afraid of nothing other than things possessed of power to do us harm, but things innocuous need not be feared”. Dante brings to life pain and suffering in Hell, “pains are physical; suffering is emotional”. Alcorn explains that in The Divine Comedy the pain and suffering that the damned souls experience are both physical and emotional. “In Hell Every pain is less than maximal because the damned souls lack their worldly bodies (vehicles for physical pain) and take the aerial for of virtual bodies. An implication is that pain in Hell is less saturated than is suffering. However, this state is temporary; in the fullness of time, at the Last Judgment, souls will regain their real bodies and thereby perfect their pain”. Alcorn also shows that the virtual bodies feel less physical pain then alive human bodies. “Emotional suffering is partly about pain; for example, sinners dread the Last Judgment and the maximal pain that they will then forever experience as re-embodied souls”. The constant dread is the physiological torment used on the damned souls that even though it’s bad now and they will never rise up and be accepted by God; already at a lowest low, that it can become even worse than where they are now.

In Hell, some of the most serious crimes are those of betrayal. “In the levels they have already passed through, the sins or crimes are mostly those of passion or weakness; in the second circle, for example, they encountered the adulterers Paolo and Francesca, who had been overcome by passion”(Paul). Paul explains that some crimes have different weight in terms of where the sinner ends up in Hell. Weakness plays a part in this whole story where Dante finds himself weakened by seeing some of these punishments and faints quite often. It is odd to think that crimes of violence are not as far down as other crimes like betrayal. Paul explains, “Crimes of betrayal were the most serious not only because they required the most deliberate exercise of free will, but also because they did the most damage to the ethical net of obligations in society; conversely, violence seemed neither much out of the ordinary nor extraordinarily to be condemned”(Paul).

Through the story, Dante writes about Hell he produces prolific detail of punishments of the sinners, and vividly describes events to portray the true consequences of the convicted. “Before me nothing but eternal things were made, and I shall last eternally. Abandon every hope, all you who enter”. The first thing that Dante reads before he enters Hell, showing that true first step and how serious this is becoming. According to Dante, there are a various levels in hell The first level in Hell is called Limbo. All of the people who die before being baptized those who do not accept any form of Christianity into their life, are condemned for the rest of eternity in limbo. This levels purpose are for the philosophers who do not associate themselves with any religion are going to this limbo for eternity.

Dante’s ‘Inferno’ is an undeniably Christian text, as it catalogs various types of earthly sinners and describes the torments they experience in Hell. The poem is the first part of Dante’s three-part religious project, ‘The Divine Comedy’, which goes on to illustrate Christian Purgatory and Heaven. ‘Inferno’, however, is much more than a mere dramatization of the Christian afterlife. In fact, while Dante exalts Christianity, he uses ‘Inferno’ to criticize the Church and its leaders, drawing a clear distinction between the faith and the institution—the former being holy and inviolate, the latter being fallible and corruptible.

Throughout ‘Inferno’, Dante expresses his strict belief that Christianity is the one true religion. Admission to Heaven, Purgatory, and usually even Hell is predicated on one’s belief in Jesus’ divinity. Ignorance of Jesus’ existence, Dante asserts, is no excuse for non-belief. Good people born before the coming of Christ, such as Aristotle, Plato, and even Virgil himself, are condemned to an eternal state of limbo in the First Circle of Hell. Not even Moses or Noah, faithful men of the Old Testament, could leave limbo for Heaven until Jesus had given them permission to do so. Dante’s belief that nonbelievers exist in a transient state of incompletion in the afterlife suggests that he believes their lives were also deficient in the mortal world; otherwise, they would have ascended to Heaven or even Purgatory after death. To Dante, Christianity is therefore not only the key to salvation but also integral to his understanding of what it means to be a good, whole person.

Despite his commitment to Christianity as the only true faith, however, Dante consigns a high number of church officials to Hell. With few exceptions, every sinner Dante meets after leaving limbo had believed in Christ while alive, or at least been baptized. And yet, as Dante stresses throughout ‘Inferno’, not even extreme faith or a clergy position can protect a true sinner from damnation. As Dante descends deeper into Hell, Virgil repeatedly points out high-ranking church officials, including the traitorous Pope Anastasius in the seventh circle and Archbishop Ruggieri in the second ring of the ninth circle. In the fourth circle, where the prodigal and avaricious must spend eternity pulling stone weights, Virgil and Dante encounter a throng of corrupt priests, cardinals, and popes too numerous to count or even recognize. By placing church officials in Hell, Dante draws a distinction between the Christian faith and the institution of the Christian Church, asserting that participation in the latter does not necessarily imply possession of the former.

Dante’s simultaneous commitment to a strict Christianity and his condemnation of clergymen reflects his deeply held concerns about the institution of the Church. Dante’s greatest ire is reserved for church leaders who drift from their ecclesiastical responsibilities—providing spiritual guidance to the people—in favor of chasing money and power. In the third pouch of the Eighth Circle of Hell, for example, Dante encounters the Simoniacs, church leaders who have sold ecclesiastical offices for money and personal gain. In Canto XIX, he meets Pope Nicholas III, who must spend the rest of eternity upside down, his head in a rock and his feet (which have been set aflame) in the air, for having abused his spiritual authority to increase the political power of the Church. The sight provokes Dante to launch an invective against papal abuses of power, crying out against the “miserable lot” of clergymen who “take the things of God that ought to be/ Wedded to goodness and in your greediness/ Adulterate them into gold and silver!”. As he progresses through ‘Inferno’, it becomes clear that, in Dante’s eyes, the Church has become so corrupt that it has lost its spiritual authority, severing the link between the faith and the institution.

Though ‘Inferno’ purports to treat eternal truths about sin and punishment, its depiction of Hell is rooted in the political realities of Dante’s particular time and place. As a member of a Florentine political party known as the White Guelphs, Dante advocated the separation of the Church and state, which eventually led to his banishment from Florence in 1302. In Canto XIX, he decries the fusion of politics and spirituality, blaming the Roman emperor Constantine for the “foul harm [he] fostered” when he converted to Christianity and gave control of Rome to “the first wealthy father”, the Pope. Dante believed that giving the Church political power distracted the clergy from their spiritual duties, corrupting them in the process. He agitated for change in real life, and with ‘Inferno’, he subtly suggests that the Church should abandon its quest for secular power in order to reclaim its spiritual authority over the Christian faith and its itinerants.

Latin texts have always touched on the topic of “afterlife” due to the close knitted relationship with God and Christian belief. The Underworld, Heaven and Hell have always been interpreted in different ways, each influenced by contextual ideologies or religious factors within those preceding times. One can determine the Divine Comedy’s significant societal expectations through close comparison between Virgil’s The Aeneid. The contrasting time difference between these two sources portrays tremendous differences in society’s views about Christianity beliefs and afterlife. Virgil’s Aeneid was written during the Golden Age of the Roman Era, thus was heavily saturated with Catholic Viewed within pre Christian Society whereas the Divine Comedy was written during the late Middle Ages, which was considered “an intense struggle for religious authority and political power within the Church”. Virgil’s narration of Aeneas’s visit/journey to the Underworld written in his sixth volume of Aeneid is most significant in portraying enigmatic religious aspects. Through analyzing distinct similar and contrasting biblical representations and structural imagery within the two texts written almost 1400 years apart, one can pinpoint contextual change from Pre-Christian society to Late Middle Ages and their beliefs of the afterlife and Church.

Firstly, as mentioned above, the aspect of creating literature based around the topic of death and life after death is the first similarity between The Divine Comedy and Book IV of Aeneid. Both sources includes a “journey” that the individual follows in order to achieve enlightenment. Virgil describes the journey of Aeneas and his mission in creating a new city which leads him to finding the Underworld. (insert quote of him entering the afterlife). The Divine Comedy revolves around one’s journey through Hell and its different levels. Both of these texts since involving the motif of a journey is a Epic as it includes all the characteristics including a Hero, Superhuman Courage, vast setting and supernatural forces.

However both these texts although portraying a physical journey throughout Heaven and Hell metaphorically symbolizes one’s allegorical spiritual journey towards God and understanding the idea of “sin and punishment”. The similarity of both texts focusing on consequences within their lives even after death rather than believing that there is another world beyond death introduces the never changing strong belief on the idea of sin and punishment for every action for Christians. It highlights the didactic nature of these texts therefore proving the significance of Christian literature in educating and keeping order within religious society. Virgil’s story however is more informative and is not inclined towards Christian beliefs. He describes classical theories of afterlife. He reveals the practiced idea of fair judgement without self bias or mythical motifs. Dante’s Divine Comedy presses normality of his descriptions of harsh punishments through self revelation and internal journey thus revealing the harsh within Christianity during the Middle ages.

‘The Divine Comedy’ written by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri was published in 1320 a year before his death. The long narrative is written in the format of a poem, which is divided into three parts and explores the journey of Dante’s alter ego and his fictional self which exists within the poem is in search of the true way to live life in accordance to the Christian teaching and morals of life. Dante the pilgrim explores the different realms when he makes his journey to the underworld, to purgatory and paradise.

The difference between Dante the poet and Dante the pilgrim which embarks on this spiritual journey is the reasoning. For Dante the poet, the journey is explored because of his christian quest to seek and follow God’s path and to abstain from wrongdoings. Due to his political interests it led to his exile, he felt he needed guidance because he had lost his way. However, it can be also be argued that the poetry explores Dante the poet’s love interest, Beatrice Portinari who was influential on Dante’s work and chooses to embark on his spiritual journey in search for Beatrice. The Divine Comedy explore the themes of spiritual love that Dante carries for Beatrice. This can be evident within Dante’s poetry when he transforms himself into the fictional character of Dante the pilgrim, who speaks to King Minos and looks for her. ‘One who loves Beatrice! Tell me where to find her!’. Portinari heavily influenced Dante’s journey as she poses as his mediator within the first part of Dante’s Inferno, she can be seen as the reason Dante the pilgrim, travels through Purgatorio and Beatrice is his guide within Paradiso. However, in reality her brief encounters with Dante are built on little or no true knowledge of Beatrice Portinari’s personality for him to write her into his work to such an extent. Beatrice acknowledges’ Dante’s presence within the poem however,it is difficult to differentiate who she is addressing, Dante the poet or Dante the pilgrim being the fictional character existing within the poem of Inferno within Canto 2, she prays for Virgil to guide Dante and direct him towards the right path. “A friend, not of my fortune but myself,…has met Hindrance so great, that he through fear has turn’d.Now much I dread lest he past help have stray’d, And I be ris’n too late for his relief,From what in heaven of him I heard.” She believes that she is too late to save Dante and suggests for the poet of Virgil to take over and assist him.

Another difference between Dante the poet and the fictional character of Dante the pilgrim is the positioning of the narrative and role the two play even within their own society both fictional and reality. Despite the narrative being focused on Dante, it reflects a widespread Christian quest which Dante the poet consciously makes a decision to have Dante the pilgrim be a representation of mankind. This must be due the influence of Allegorical plays within the medieval time period which affected Dante the poet’s narration of the poem. The morality play ‘Everyman’ can be influential as it looks at an individual’s life, from birth to death and teaches Christians, principles and moral values on the way they should live. Dante the poet could have used this to influence his own work as he looks at the journey after death into the underworld exceeding to paradise, following in a similar allegorical manner in teaching morals and the effects of sin on individuals.

However, the voice of Dante the pilgrim appears weaker and undetermined through his journey, as we are aware he has committed a sin but it is not specified and that he engages in political matters, we do not resonate with him as a whole due to the lack of information about his life. As he doesn’t stand out and does not demonstrate many unique characteristics which are prominent which compared to the voice of Dante the poet impacts the undertone of the poem. Dante the poet’s background and the effect of being exiled in 1302 can be linked to influencing his work, Dante the pilgrim’s journey to hell and witnesses sinners suffering punishment because of treason and are liable for betraying others within ‘The Inferno’. It can be argued that to some degree, Dante the poet’s life experiences are reflected into the allegorical journey Dante the pilgrim experiences and used as a method to address Dante the poet’s own sins and he uses this metaphorical journey to intervene in his own life.