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Dante's Inferno

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Starting in 1308, Dante Alighieri wrote a collection of canticles known as the Divine Comedy. Each canticle focus on one different aspect of the Christian views of afterlife. The Christian belief is that there are three different destinations, in which the soul could end up after passing from this time on earth. These destinations are known as Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, which explains Dante’s titles for his canticles; Inferno, Purgatorio and Paridiso. The souls who have committed mortal sins and have destroyed their relationship with God are put into Hell and those who have finished their penance or their souls are perfected are in Heaven or paradise. Purgatory is the place where Christians believe souls go in order to get “cleaned” or the …show more content…

103). It was previously mentioned that Hell and Purgatory are both ordered mostly by the capital vices. In Hell, the less serious, but still grave sinners are closer to the top and the very grave sinners are located closer to the bottom, towards the devil. It is important to look at the ordering of Hell and the punishments, in order to understand the penances in Purgatory. It was previously stated that those in Hell are receiving what they always desired through the form of punishment; for example, the lustful are now not burdened to control themselves anymore by allowing themselves to be whipped around and the prodigal throwing things away or the avaricious having all their belongings come back and hit them. Each punishment is specifically designed for the sin that was committed and is proportionate in terms of severity, according to Aquinas in Q. 87. Through the punishments in Hell, the souls are getting what they desired, whereas the souls in Purgatory are being made clean through the transformative power penance has. This idea of the punishments being designed to specifically fit each sin in Hell, is even more important when it comes to Purgatory and that each sin has a specific penance to get rid of the bad habits. Before starting on into penance and Purgatory, it is beneficial to mention how habits are involved in this

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Recently in our history class we also talked about purgatory. On page 65 it states, “The failure to experience the unity of being everything was the Allmuseri vision of Hell. And that was where we lived: purgatory.” So in the book, the Allmuseri were being taken there, which drove them crazy. In class we talked about how people who committed sin went to purgatory to basically pay for their sins.

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The same way, disorder means damnation. In both of the masterpieces we find the same way in conceiving coordinates and juxtaposing politics and religion, empire and church. Analogous is the way to express certain forces of nature, intimate qualities of the spirit, sublimation or degeneration of senses through animals. Dante’s Comedy and the mosaic of Otranto teem with animals and monsters: dogs, wolves, dragons, lions, sphinxes, griffins, centaurs, etc. We find all of these representations in both of the works and with the same meaning, same analogies, and same functions.

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While both Augustine’s confessions and Dante’s Inferno are concerned with the individual's repentance and conversion of life, Confessions seems to be more personal and Inferno more encyclopedic. Augustine organizes his work to be about him finding who God is and his conflict for conversion. It is a biography to how Augustine found faith in Christianity and within God. Dante in the other hand, while being a character in his poem, struggles as well, looking to get to heaven but the journey he takes is an experience for the character and not the actual poet himself.

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In Baptism, one’s soul becomes clean and pure, which is what those in Purgatory are trying to do; they are bathing themselves to get rid of the dirt of sin through penance. Aquinas states in Q. 82 how one can consider Original Sin a habit, and he states that it is a disposition of a complex nature and can be seen as a second nature. The only way to get rid of it is through Baptism. One particular line that really stood out about Baptism was in Canto 4, page 67: “We sat down there, both turned to the East”. In the older centuries, during Baptism, one would turn to the west and denounce Satan and then turn to the east to accept God and His powers.

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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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It is believed that, every person suffers in purgatory at a place where he commits its sin (Nageleisen 1861,

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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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This is similar to Zachary Hayes’ idea of purgatory as a place where a soul is to be purified before going to heaven. Hayes’ main idea about eschatology incorporates anthropological hierarchy and hope which are represented in this film. For Karl Rahner’s viewpoint, Rahner stresses the need to look back to the past in order to make a choice for the future (244). This viewpoint is used in Brooks’ film as the basic storyline. Although Brooks’ vision may have flaws, it does help illustrate some ideas that Karl Rahner and Zachary Hayes agree with and encourage when thinking about

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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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The Greek’s Inferno: A Comparison of Greek and Catholic Underworlds For nearly 2000 years, various religions continue to perpetuate the idea of an underworld, or a place after death. For the Greeks, much of their mythology deals with Gods, Goddesses, and the afterlife. Catholics, however, base their idea of an afterlife with three levels: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, a place for people who must experience a purification of sorts. Numerous Greek writers wrote about the idea of their underworld, or Hades, one of the most famous being Homer, writer of The Odyssey. The Odyssey details the hero Odysseus’ journey back to his homeland of Ithaca.

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but mental love may choose an evil object / or err through too much or too little” (Pur. 17.94-96). Dante already presents a main difference between the two realms because in Inferno there was only a singular, misplaced love and now in Purgatory, there are two types of love, with one a faithful love. Even though the souls in Purgatory sinned, they still had a natural love for God that allowed them the

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1080 Words | 5 Pages

Once someone dies, Catholics believe that alongside being sent to Heaven, souls are sent to purgatory, a neutral place where those who have been unfaithful

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1874 Words | 8 Pages

But, as the poem continues to progress, it becomes quite clear the there is a perfect balance within God’s justice as the degree of each sinner’s punishment perfectly reflects upon the gravity of the sin. Furthermore, the inscription on the gates of Hell explicitly states that Hell exists as a result of divine justice; “ll. “ Justice moved my great maker; God eternal / Wrought me: the power and the unsearchably / High wisdom, and the primal love supernal (III.4-6).” Prior to delving into the structure of Hell and how it displays God’s divine justice, one must first familiarize themselves with both the historical context of Dante’s life, along with the beliefs of the medieval church.

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In the Inferno, Dante describes the different levels of hell and the punishment which corresponds to the sin. Dante categorize hell into three major sins consisting of incontinence, violence, and fraudulent. Fraudulent is portrayed as the worse sin in the Inferno while incontinence is seen as a less serious sin. Each category has sinners which have all been punished for their wrong doings in life. The three major sins consist of circles where Dante separates the different sinners.

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1294 Words | 6 Pages

Inferno and Purgatorio are two different places and environments, one is more optimistic (Purgatorio) and while the other is pessimistic (Inferno). While Inferno (Hell) represent the eternal damnation of the souls that exist there, they die without repenting and not accepting God, in which they don’t anticipate going anywhere else. In the Purgatorio, there seems to be some purification from the souls that are trying to enhance their purification to enter Paradiso so they could finally enter into heaven. The souls and people are more likely to make to its heaven in Purgatorio opposed to the souls in inferno. But the similarity is Inferno and Purgatory is a place where the souls are sent after death, the difference is where you go based on your sins committed while alive and their beliefs.

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