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Allegory In The Inferno

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According to the Dictionary, an allegory is “the use of symbols in a story, picture, to convey a hidden or ulterior meaning, typically a moral or political one” Within the Inferno each Canto is functioning as an allegory by reflecting an aspect from Alighieri’s life through the sins and sinners in each Canto. Alighieri’s banishment was his journey through hell, this is reflected throughout The Inferno. Allegory is one of the most present literary devices found within The Inferno, The author, or Alighieri, use Allegory to explain not only his own political beliefs, ideologies, but also his past experiences that led to his exile and redemption in the eyes of God. If the reader explores even deeper into the text they can see that Alighieri is …show more content…

Within canto one Dante the pilgrim wakes up lost before he even meets virgil or has any clue as to his future travels, all he knows is that he is lost and afraid. Dante the pilgrim states, “Woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.” (Alighieri 28) The dark wood in which Dante wakes up in, is an allegory for how far both Dante and Alighieri have strayed from the light, and how they must both now travel through darkness to find redemption. While Dante must suffer through Hell, Purgatory, and Eventually paradise to reach the light, which is allegorically representing God and his wisdom. For Alighieri however he must travel through banishment from his home and suffer through the destruction of his name and legacy until he is to find the light, which is once again allegorically representing God. Alighieri uses allegory this early in the book to explain to the reader that his life is a living hell, but he must travel through this darkness to reach the light as all good people must. Throughout the rest of The Inferno he continues to use allegory to describe hell and people of special interest to

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The passage opens up with a sentence in latin  “Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni” to put in evidence  that Dante is near to meet the prince of demons, Satan.   In the beginning,as the first verse discloses, Dante saw nothing in the darkness, except for the silhouette of what he thinks is a huge windmill from which a cold air blows. The wind produced by Lucifer is a parody of the breath of the Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the Father and the Son, who is ardent of charity while this air freezes the lake in which the lost souls are trapped. The vision of the monster is prepared with a wise expectation, coming only after Dante described the traitors immersed in the Cocito area, the Giudecca.

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1247 Words | 5 Pages

Dante’s Inferno is an epic poem by Durante “Dante” degli Alighieri, written in the 1300s. He wrote a trilogy, known as the Divine Comedy, consisting of Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. Dante was inspired by many events and issues happening at that time, such as the war between Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Battle of Montaperti, and Christian religious beliefs. In this paper, I will explore the first book, Inferno, on the topic of Hell and how the sinners had a significant impact on Dante’s journey through Hell. In Circle 5: Styx, Canto VIII, Filippo Argenti, a sinner of Wrathful, helped Dante to symbolize to readers his anger towards Black Guelphs, political enemies of the White Guelphs.

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A: I found Canto XXXIII of Dante’s Inferno to be an extremely intriguing canto as it highlighted many key themes portrayed throughout all of Inferno such as betrayal, cruelness and death. This can be illustrated from Count Ugolino’s story on his cruel death in the hands of the Archbishop Ruggieri and what led to his journey to Hell. Ugolino begins by calling the archbishop a traitor for imprisoning him and his children, claiming “How [Ugolino] was seized, and executed then, having trusted [Ruggieri] while he betrayed and lied” (Canto XXXIII, p. 1).

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663 Words | 3 Pages

With an allusion to Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, it provides more context to the story and

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In Dante’s Inferno, Dante Alighieri's depiction of Satan at the bottom of hell reveals the theme that in Hell the punishment is always befitting of the due to the fact that the lower you go, the farther that person is from god. The picture of Satan satisfies the reader because he shows that he is the opposite of god and that he is full of evil. Lucifer is the demon in the circles of hell which he has three faces, and bat like wings in which he creates the cold wind where the sinners suffer. “The face in the middle was red, the color of anger. The face on the right was white blended with yellow, the color of impotence.

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989 Words | 4 Pages

In Inferno, Dante is the main character who is fighting between good and evil, which translates to be the theme of the story. Dante explores deeply the Christian hell and heaven, which includes the immediate Purgatory. This experience makes him cast his allegiance to good and God. The differences between these two stories are depicted when comparing the epic conventions, epic characteristics, and when comparing the various religious backgrounds of the times in which these two stories were written.

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1345 Words | 6 Pages

The prisoners receive a thematically equivalent punishment to their actions in their previous lives. As the deeper circles of hell are populated by the worst inmates, the concept of contrapasso elicits exceedingly jarring punishments the further Dante travels. The nine total circles of hell are large enough to populate a lifetime 's worth of the world’s sins. When Dante is introduced to the first circle of hell, reserved for pagans, it is clear that the inmates are bound eternally to live in the Inferno, for even those who did not conciously commit sin, are forced to stay in this realm. In his real life, Alighieri was highly vocal about political stances.

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Argument of Dante’s Inferno Throughout the story of Dante’s Inferno his travels through Hell to search for God was interrupted by the spirits and the nine levels of Hell. In the book Dante’s Inferno, Dante goes on a journey through the levels of Hell. In the book as Dante travels through the levels of Hell and his anger increases as the journey goes on.

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In The Comedy, Dante the Pilgrim develops a relationship with his damned idol, Virgil, in order to journey through both Inferno and Purgatory. Even though Virgil was a good man while living, he lacked understanding of certain virtues, like pride, which prevented him from being able to reach higher levels in the afterlife. Dante the Poet’s choice to damn Virgil conveys that obeying a higher order is the way to one’s salvation. The developing relationship between Virgil and Dante the Pilgrim throughout the first two canticles brings light to the opposing separation between the two characters because of the devotion Dante has to Christian virtues in comparison to Virgil’s pagan misunderstanding of virtue. While Dante the Pilgrim experiences many

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365 Words | 2 Pages

One of the most often literary device that Alighieri uses is symbolism. He uses it constantly throughout the book which makes it easy to miss. In canto III the reader meets the outcasts and the opportunists, they are the one’s who did not choose good nor evil. These souls are outside the gates of hell and will forever be unclassified. They are closest to heaven geographically,

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667 Words | 3 Pages

In Dante’s Inferno, he writes about his journey through hell for the purpose of recognizing his sins. He goes through this journey with Virgil, a voice of reason for Dante. Dante meets people through his journey of the many circles in the Inferno that lead him down into the center of hell, where Satan is. Satan is seen as being monster-like with three heads, representing a mocking of the Trinity and blowing his wings around the cocytus river. The final thing seen here is the fact that Dante’s description of Satan is a bit disappointing compared to the other descriptions he has written about the inferno.

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1207 Words | 5 Pages

"The Inferno" is the first book in the epic poem called the “Divine Comedy” by the Italian politician Dante Alighieri and it is followed by "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso”. The book "Inferno", which is the Italian translation for Hell, tells the journey of its author through what he believes is Hell, which consists of nine circles of pain and suffering. In his journey, he is guided through the nine circles by the Roman poet Virgil. Each circle in the book represents a different type of sin with a different type of punishment, varying according to the degree of the offense they committed in their life. By the end of his journey through all of the circles, Dante realizes and emphasizes the perfection of God's Justice and the significance of each offense towards God’s unconditional love.

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992 Words | 4 Pages

Cannibalism. Hatred. Sorrow. These three words describe Count Ugolino’s dark tale. The Inferno, written by Dante Alighieri, is about a journey through hell that the main character Dante must go through due to being exiled.

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484 Words | 2 Pages

Dante and Virgil escape hell and realize the importance of their journey is being free from negativity through enlightenment. Alighieri describes enlightenment when he says, “Where we came forth, and once more saw the stars” (Alighieri 34.140). Alighieri is exiting hell and entering purgatory which guides him towards salvation. This resembles Alighieri’s enlightenment of being released from a self-built prison. The journey to enlightenment is rigorous, but the reward is always worth the effort.

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741 Words | 3 Pages

Inferno explores the descent of mankind into sin. The work’s vast usage of imagery and symbols, a powerful allegory, and well known allusions highlight political issues whilst dealing with the nature of sin and the road to salvation. In Inferno, Dante is forced to take a journey through hell. With the help of Virgil, his personal tour guide, Dante sees the different kinds of sins, as well as their contrapasso, or

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