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Christianity In Dante's Inferno Essay

780 Words4 Pages

Christianity and Culture in Dante’s Inferno Inferno is one of three parts of Dante’s epic poem, The Divine Comedy. Inferno is the Italian word for “Hell”. Dante Alighieri wrote Inferno picturing the Christian view of hell as a place where sinners go after death. The piece is very symbolic of the times in Europe. Inferno has multiple good representations of the religious Christian culture in medieval Europe. Inferno displays the connections of religion that exemplify the way European Christians viewed Heaven and Hell. The text is written in the 14th-Century. The Crusades,religious wars waged to overthrow Islam, had ended. The people had believed God had sent them to crusade. Medieval Europe had less trade and fewer cities. They were torn apart and corrupt with lust for money and …show more content…

Dante used many references to the Bible in his work. In the beginning of Inferno Dante stumbles upon a lion, leopard, and a she-wolf. “Many commentators have given the biblical references which lie behind their presentation” (Ralphs 1). An example of this would be in the book of Jeremiah. The prophet speaks of the animals watching for the sinners looking to punish those that do not live a life honoring God. This is the book that Dante draws his inspiration from for this major point of the story, The allusion is a key aspect in understanding the influence this piece would have had over Europe. Many Europeans did believe that there was a Heaven and Hell. Dante wrote to recognize and remind the generation what they were living for. “Here of course we are in the realm of myth.. Dante freely mingles Christian and classical myth” (Ralphs 1). He also used myth and historical figures that would intrigue the readers. An example of this would be when he wrote about people such as the Lord of Ravenna, Medusa, and Ulysses. These were all people that would be recognized by the European readers of the

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