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Dante's Inferno Research Paper

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Dante Alighieri's tragic comedy The Inferno is known as a poetic masterpiece simply because it takes you on an epic journey through Hell. He goes in depth while describing his interpretation of hell and his feelings while traveling through that evil place. The Inferno will capture your attention and keep you wanting to know what will happen next which explains why it is so popular. Dante takes a journey through hell and realizes many things. Dante learns about not only himself, but the world around him. He goes through times where he starts discovering and reflecting on himself. As humans, self-discovery is a familiar concept that everyone addresses multiple times throughout their lives. Similar to Dante, people journey through life finding out new things about who they are and who others around them are. He travelled through the nine circles of hell and saw many recognizable faces. For example, while he and Virgil were going across the Styx River, a man named Filippo Argenti was trying to get in the boat with them and Dante realized who he was. He wasn't fond of him and was pleased that another sinner was pulling him back into the muddy …show more content…

Hell is a place full of negativity and torture, it is designed for the worst people on Earth. Going to hell is not inevitable for everyone, but a path of life that you choose to go on. During this journey, Dante learns that the world he lives in is a very flawed place with quite a few not so perfect people. Despite this, he continues looking for God in a sinful world. In The Inferno, Dante was able to experience and see a countless number of sinners getting punished very harshly for the way they lived their life on earth. Most people at that point would reflect on their own life and see what they can do to better themselves. In this epic adventure, Dante becomes more observant of the outside world and the people in

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Common sense seems to dictate that if someone sins, so wickedly that they end in Hell, they must be a terrible person, capable of extremely heinous things. So, why does Dante when descending through the levels of Hell during Inferno give the sinners he meets his sympathy? I believe that Dante the Poet sees sympathy as a way to connect to his audience, while connecting with his audience, he entices the reader to view Dante the Pilgrim as a more decent human being, sympathy being a requirement. “Ah, the wounds I saw covering their [the sinners] limbs, […] Even now, when I think back to them, I grieve” (214). In making this comment, Dante shows his sympathy towards the sinners being punished within the third level of the Circle of Violence, one

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Written by Dante Alighieri, Dante’s Inferno is a comic novel that tells Dante’s journey as he travels through Hell along with the great Roman poet Virgil. During his journey, Virgil leads Dante through the nine levels of hell. Each level represents the increase of Satan’s bondage and control that he has on the souls. Each level contains the souls of sinners that are categorized on the sin that they have done within their lives. Based on their level the sinners are punished for eternity for the crimes that they have committed.

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In Dante’s descent into Hell he meets Aeneas and Paul. They were the only ones that went to afterlife and returned. In the Vestibule of Hell which is where the souls that did not do good or evil is Dante’s first stop in Hell. The vestibule is where he meets Charon who brings Dante and Virgil to the first circle. Charon was the ferryman of the dead.

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In The Inferno, Dante is wandering through a dark wilderness when he crosses paths with Virgil. Dante is relieved to see another man

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The one who journeys is Dante himself who hopes to gain immense knowledge from his experiences and then return back and share his knowledge with others. On his journey he encounters a lot of obstacles like he comes to face to face with three beasts, who also are symbolic of three main

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499 Words | 2 Pages

Dante has been through the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and most of Paradiso when he meets his great, great grandfather, Cacciaguida, and has a conversation about Dante’s future. In this discussion, Cacciaguida reveals to Dante that he will be exiled by his hometown Florence and sent to live on the streets, He will have nowhere to call home, he will have to “Taste the salt in others’ bread”, but worst of all he will have to deal with the “senseless company” of the streets. When Dante hears the full prophesy, he has to contemplate it and eventually comes up with an answer. He begins with thanking his father for letting him know ahead of time so that he can prepare and that he does not lose faith in poetry even if he loses his family and

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The Roman Catholic Church was extremely important at this time. Dante goes on his journey through hell leads to insight on his political views of religion at the time. This book is significant because Dante was going against what everyone believed and the King. His actions and beliefs we looked down upon. While wandering through hell Dante describes each level of and why the souls of these people were in this circle because of their similar sins they committed.

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In The Inferno, Dante is the hero of the story. Dante is the man exiled from his home as a result of his political struggles and beliefs with the choice between evil and good. Dante’s heroism is in the form of humanity as he faces the challenge which all human beings struggle with. Dante’s courage is tested as he journeys through the rings of hell. According to Dante, “therefore look carefully; you’ll see such things/as would deprive my speech of all belief” (Alighieri, Dante. 1854).

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Written by Dante Alighieri, a great poet of the 14th century banned from his home, Inferno describes the journey of Dante himself as a man who has lost his way in the woods, which represents losing his way from the righteous path. In order to find salvation, Dante must take a journey through Hell with the guidance of the poet Virgil, who represents human reason. The poem depicts many theological ideas that people of the time may have believed, but enhances their effectiveness through graphic punishments that await sinners in Hell. The ideology breaks down into two general ideas: God is just and impartial to humans and punishments are based on the severity and consciousness involved in the sin, which can be observed in the punishments facing the great influences of Dante’s life, the lovers

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And we walked out once more beneath the Stars” (Ciardi XXXIV:140-143). The ending of the story shines light on Dante, the character’s, relief when he has finally passed into the good light from the endless land of torture. There is a metaphorical breath that the reader can sense where Dante has finally understood his faults and recognizes his own true path to perfection - through God. Thus, one can see that Dante’s use of light and dark as an element of desire is shown directly through his first experience with the darkness, as the light withdraws from him, and the last where he finally reaches that

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Dante believes that he is just like the Apostle Paul. He believes this because both him and Paul will have documented their journeys to heaven, and that his journey, just like Paul's, will help shape the Christian church and be significant to other christians. His view and perspective of his journey affected how Dante told his epic poem. Despite his perspective on how his journey will help other christians, he still expresses fear and doubt about going on his pilgrimage. Beatrice and Virgil both calm his nerves.

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Having to deal with such significant losses in his life and the turmoil between church and state in Italy at the time, it would be reasonable to not only question one’s existence and mortality, but to also seek answers. One of those questions had to be how could he forgive those who had sinned against him without sinning himself? He was depressed and at times lost, and for a deeply religious Christian at that time, those feelings were considered sinful. During difficult times, Dante did what many artists do, which is work through their troubles and pain through their vice of expression. In this case, it was expression through the written word.

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971 Words | 4 Pages

The story revolves around metaphors where everything has a double meaning behind what is said. Here what Dante is trying to tell us is that he wakes up in hell because he has strayed from the righteous path that the church and God has set for him. This medieval writing continues throughout the layers of hell sinners are damned to hell and live in a world devoid of any sanitation everything around them is full of suffering and death. Above the gate is a message that tells the beginning of the journey into hell and the suffering that will be caused, “I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY, I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL GRIEF… ABANDON EVERY HOPE, ALL YOU WHO ENTER” (399, 1). The church brings out these punishments seeing as the medieval era he lived in was during the time that the church dominated a person’s way of living.

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Inferno Inferno, by Dante Alighieri contains information regarding the author, provenance, genre, language, and intended audience. To begin, Dante was born in May in 1265 C.E. in Florence, Italy into a middle class family. He experienced a lot of turmoil and adversity throughout his life. He was an only child and around the age of five his mother died. His father soon remarried, had more kids, and died around the time Dante turned 12 years old leaving his uncles to be in charge of his schooling and welfare.

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Inferno explores the descent of mankind into sin. The work’s vast usage of imagery and symbols, a powerful allegory, and well known allusions highlight political issues whilst dealing with the nature of sin and the road to salvation. In Inferno, Dante is forced to take a journey through hell. With the help of Virgil, his personal tour guide, Dante sees the different kinds of sins, as well as their contrapasso, or

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