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Allegory And Symbolism In Dante's Inferno

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Our choices are the building blocks of our existence, shaping who we are and what we become. But when the consequences of our decisions come crashing down upon us, we are forced to confront the reality of our choices and the paths we have chosen. In the allegory Dante’s Inferno, the author Virgil uses vivid imagery and a sequence of real life actions in our lives to point us down the inevitable dark road that inevitably will end in hell. In Dante’s Inferno, Virgil uses Dante as a symbol of the human soul, highlighting that if humans were to see what Dante saw in hell, we would think about our actions more and consider the consequences that they may have in our own lives. In the bible, Judas betrays Jesus by kissing him on the cheek and directly …show more content…

This is symbolic in the way that Dante felt pity on the people in hell who committed the same sins as him, because as humans we don't always see the direct consequences for our actions. As Virgil guides Dante through hell, they arrive at the ninth circle of hell, which houses the betrayers. When they arrived Dante was so scared that he hid behind Virgil. While they were in the worst level of hell they saw Dis who is the devil who also has three faces ”How great a marvel it was for me to see three faces on his head in front there was a red one; joined to this, each over the midpoint of a shoulder, he had two others- all three joining at the crown”(Virgil 34:40-45). It is worth noting this quote since it tells us about how evil and scary looking the devil is ,while giving us a taste of how Dante would have felt being there. While they were in the circle of the betrayers, Dante saw Judas, the man that betrayed God’s only son.
At the time they saw Judas there, they saw him getting his back ripped off the same way Jesus got his back whipped which was caused by Judas. Judas’s punishment for betraying Jesus is fitting because just as he stabbed Jesus in the back, he also has to suffer his back being destroyed “That soul,"

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