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Dante's Inferno Essay

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Book Report: Dante’s Inferno

Written in the 1300’s Dante’s work “The Divine Comedy” is still a renowned masterpiece. A classic trilogy, this tale tells of Dante’s journey through his portrayal of hell, purgatory and heaven. A topic that hadn’t been much explored or defined by any political, historic or religious individual previous to Dante. Each book has different critiques and ideas regarding religion. In this analysis I will talk about the most universal and redundant critiques and ideas found in Dante’s work “The Inferno” and give a general inquiry of the journey.
Dante’s writings are often viewed as more of a religious breakthrough than a literary one. Disclaimer, I don’t believe this was his original intention. Dante writes his works …show more content…

Some of his allegory might be in a mocking nature towards doctrine. One thing is to be sure, Dante is in firm opposition to the coalition of church and state. The simplest way to understand his opinion on the matter is to look deep into the lowest part of hell. Satan, with three heads, chews on three individuals, Judas, Brutus and Cassius. All of which committed crimes of treachery against benefactors. Judas’ crime against his benefactor, Christ. Brutus and Cassius crime against their benefactor, Caesar. They all are being eaten alive by the frozen three headed Satan with only the slight variant that Judas is faced head down into Satan’s mouth whereas the other two are being eaten beginning with the legs. This shows Dante’s belief that church and state play equally important roles, each within its own sphere and each with different consequences to action.
Another obvious critique of the church is Dante’s disapproval of Simony. He condemned Pope Nicholas III into the 8th circle of hell because of his practices of buying and selling ecclesiastical privileges, pardons or benefices. But these practices were dogmatically believed by the church of Dante’s

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