Comparing Dante's Inferno And Purgatorio

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is about the character Dante’s journey through the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, one that God has allowed him to take. In both the Inferno and Purgatorio there are souls who are being punished for their sins. In the second circle of the inferno and the seventh terrace of purgatorio the sin that most people are tempted by and is the least grave is lust. There are differences in the way Dante chooses to punish the lustful, in the Inferno and in Purgatorio. There is a similarity in the manner in which the lust the souls feel is portrayed.

The Inferno is where all sinners who have not acknowledged their wrong doings or repented go after death. It is where they receive eternal pain and suffering. Lust is

The storm is described as “the hellish hurricane, which never rests, drives on the spirits with its violence” (Alighieri, 78). This storm has an everlasting force consisting of a constant powerful wind, which is a representation of the uncontrolled emotions the lustful have for their forbidden partner. The lustful cry, wail, and lament, “for they have sinned within the flesh, subjecting reason to the rule of lust” (Alighieri, 78). The lustful are never going to be left in peace, especially due to the lives they have affected. These intense feelings that have condemned these characters to the Inferno were because these feelings were unnatural, for example, with Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta. Francesca fell in love with her husband's younger brother, Paolo, and through, “...reading led our eyes to meet, and made our faces pale, and yet one point alone, defeated us” (Alighieri, 80). There was an intense illicit feeling of love that Francesca and Paolo had, they are both sentenced to Inferno because her lover was

The mountain of Purgatorio consists of terraces, the closest to Paradiso is the seventh terrace, which consists of the lustful. They are at the top of the mountain, because their sin isn’t as grave as the others. The lustful will be able to reach Paradiso through their continuous repentance and prayer. In the seventh terrace the punishment the lustful are given are that, “they never left the boundaries of their burning” (Alighieri, 336). They are forever enclosed within an area that is made up of flames. The flames the are a representation of the fiery passion they have for their significant other. The enclosed space they are trapped within is how the fiery passion there is controlled in purgatorio, unlike in the Inferno which is presented through the wind storm, due to the boundaries they are not allowed to overstep. The souls within these flames are those who have committed unnatural acts of love. “That the bull may hurry towards her lust, Pasiphae hides in the cow” (Alighieri, 337), yet Pasiphae still made it one step closer to reaching Paradiso. These characters are present because they have acknowledged their sins, as well as have repented for their wrong doings despite, “...seeing, their desire once again...” (Alighieri, 337). When Dante speaks with Guido Guinizzelli, Guido tells him to pray for him because they have lost all their power to sin. By