Dantes Inferno

During the semester, the one work that we looked at that really stood out to me was Dante 's inferno. Something about one of the only real documented perceptions of hell really intrigued me when reading. Although the novel is most likely fictional, its still really interesting to me to hear the authors interpretation of hell was, and it really made me think if he knew something that no one else did. Dante 's Inferno, which is sometimes referred to as simply inferno, was written in the 14th century and is one of the most well known works from that time. Most of the reason why the novel gained its critical acclaim is because during the 14th century, there was a big focus on god and religion and where you may go after you die. Basically the

As I said in my introduction, I feel like this novel fits the 14th century time period well for a variety of reasons. During this time, religion was really big among people who believed in it, which was a vast majority. Because of this, the afterlife was something that was looked at as more valuable the ones life on earth. The church would unfortunately take advantage of there followers by offering simple pieces of papers that they claimed would guarantee they would go to heaven when in reality they where just collecting money from innocent people. This is how scared people where to go to hell and I think the writing of this novel just added fuel to the fire. Even today, it holds as one the only works the depicts hell in such detail, and some people still follow it today, so I can just imagine how people reacted to it in the 14th

The 14th century is a really interesting part of history from events like the black death all the way to the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The black death is a very well known epidemic that claimed 75-200 million people around Europe. This at the time was a extreme event that wiped out about 3% of the worlds population over a very short amount of time. Although this gives the 14th century a dark start, there was a lot of important inventions, artists, and literally works that came from it. Famous artists include Giotto di Bondone, who a very famous Italian painter most notable for his works Kiss of Judas, and The Mourning of Christ, which I will include at the bottom of the essay. Famous writers include Dante Alighieri himself who is the author of Dante’s Inferno. Giovanni Boccaccio was also a very notable name, most famous for his work Amorosa Visione, which is a love poem about a dream the author had. Technological advances include the technique of knitting, the first pound lock, and the Music of the Ars nov. Without even knowing what time period Dante’s Inferno was written in, I would say that anyone that has just a little knowledge of the time period could make a safe assumption that it was writing in the 14th century. The emphases on religion throughout the novel really ties with the religion crisis going on at the time. In conclusion, Dante’s Inferno is one of the most intriguing works of the 14th century. In my opinion, it was my favorite read of the semester. It