Circle In Dante's Inferno

In the novel The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Dante illustrates the different circles of Hell as well as how each sin within a circle is punished. Throughout Hell there are nine different levels and as you travel deeper into Hell each punishment gets more intense and harsh. As Dante travels through hell, the relationship between a sin and it’s punishment becomes clear through the allegorical lens. Circle one encompasses those who were born before Christ. This circle, which is also known as limbo, consists of many great heroes and thinkers. Their punishment is being forever struck with grief and sadness from a lack of God’s presence. The fact that their punishment is just a feeling correlates to how they lived their lives, because they were

The first ring contains those who were violent against their neighbors. The punishment of those within the first ring is swimming in a boiling stream of blood. This boiling stream of blood symbolizes all the blood shed they caused during their lives. The second ring contains those violent against themselves, here their punishment is being encased in thorny trees and being eaten by harpies. Becoming a thorny tree represents how they were harmful to themselves and the harpies symbolize the violence they created towards themselves. The third ring includes those violent against God, nature, and art, here they lay on a plain of burning sand while it rains fire. The burning sand and “rain” symbolize nature, the rain coming from above symbolizes God, because it’s coming from a high place, and the whole atmosphere symbolizes art because God created nature which was an

The first bolgia contains the seducers and panderers, because they were so violent during their lifetime, they are violently whipped by demons. The second bolgia holds the flatterers, who are sunk in excrements, this punishment symbolizes how surrounded people with lies to get their way so now they are surrounded by feces. The third bolgia contains the simoniacs, who sold positions to people in the clergy, they’re punished by being hung by their feet, which are on fire, over a pit. During their lives simoniacs had a lot of power over certain people, and this punishment takes away their power to do anything. Fortune tellers and diviners are encompassed in the fourth bolgia, because they tried to look into the future their heads are on backwards while they walk backwards, so that they can never look into the future again. In bolgia five “lives” the grafters, who sold political favors for money, here they are hidden under a boiling, sticky substance that is guarded by demons. Being hidden under the substance symbolizes how they were sneaky and low key while selling political favors. Bolgia six is full of hypocrites, here they are weighted down by lead robes while they walk around a track for eternity, the track symbolizes how they never progressed and stayed on the same path, because they would shame one thing, and do that exact thing. The weighted