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Dante's View Of Hell

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The question of whether Dante's view of Hell in his epic poem "The Divine Comedy" is biblically accurate has been a question for ages. While Dante relies heavily on biblical sources for his depiction of Hell, his interpretation and imagination deviate significantly from the real biblical text. While Dante's view of Hell is influenced by biblical teachings, it is not a strict biblical portrayal, but rather a creation of his creative imagination, theological beliefs, and his culture. To understand Dante's view of Hell, it is important to examine his sources and his creative process. Dante's knowledge of the Bible was extensive, and he called upon many biblical passages in his depiction of it. However, he also incorporated elements from mythology, medieval theology, and his own experiences and beliefs. Dante's Hell is structured in a way that reflects his theological convictions, such as the concept of divine justice and the Catholic belief of purgatory. …show more content…

Dante's Hell is divided into nine floors, each with different punishments for different sins. This hierarchy is not found in the Bible, where Hell is described mostly like a place of eternal punishment and separation from God. Another difference is the mentioning of various mythological and historical figures as people in Dante's Hell, such as Aristotle and Julius Caesar. These characters are not actually mentioned in the Bible as being in Hell. Another different aspect in Dante's view of Hell that is different from the biblical account is his view of Satan. While the Bible displays Satan as a fallen angel, Dante depicts him as a grotesque, three-headed beast stuck in the middle of Hell's ninth and final circle. This imaginative addition to the biblical narrative reflects Dante's view of Satan as the true, full embodiment of evil and the cause of humanity's fall away from

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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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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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The prisoners receive a thematically equivalent punishment to their actions in their previous lives. As the deeper circles of hell are populated by the worst inmates, the concept of contrapasso elicits exceedingly jarring punishments the further Dante travels. The nine total circles of hell are large enough to populate a lifetime 's worth of the world’s sins. When Dante is introduced to the first circle of hell, reserved for pagans, it is clear that the inmates are bound eternally to live in the Inferno, for even those who did not conciously commit sin, are forced to stay in this realm. In his real life, Alighieri was highly vocal about political stances.

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Throughout Dante’s journey in hell and Purgatory, Dante was guided by Virgil. (The Divine Comedy 1: Hell, 1.102) This is an interesting aspect of the story because Virgil happened to be a Roman poet who, through his book The Aeneid, convinced many Romans to believe that Caesar was a god. By placing Virgil as his guide in these books, Dante seemed to lean toward the very non-Christian ideas of the Pagans. The last place that Dante’s writing is flawed is the many extra details he attempts to place into his writing as biblical. For example, Dante gave an in-depth description of hell, stating that it was split into many levels with punishments fit for different types of sins.

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Dante focused a lot on Hell throughout his writing. Dante's Inferno describes his journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In Dante’s work, he presents a very conceptualized view of hell that is rooted in Christianity. According to Dante, Hell is a place of punishment, terror and despair, where souls are subjected to eternal punishment for their sins. Dante is horrified by the sights he witnesses in Hell, he describes Hell as a dark and gloomy place, with eternal fire and rivers of boiling blood.

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narrow path. He himself finds himself on the road to purgatory to atone for his mortal sins. According to Dante a blessed life awaits anyone who wants it. We can look at the allegorical tales of some of the greatest literature of the ancient world to see how sin has defined humanity and civilization as a whole. Dante was aware of how the sins of man should be broken down and the sinners shall receive their punishment in hopes of making it out of the circle of hell they are in.

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In Dante’s Inferno, written by Dante (1265 – 1321) himself, the audience is given an intricate and well thought out view of the underworld. Without this book, many of us would not have the ideas and images of Hell that we hold today. Surprisingly enough, the Bible does not given any sort of adjectives or insight into the physical appearance of Hell or of who resides there beside Satan and his demons. Hell is described as a place that contains nine circles (The Nine Circles of Hell).

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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 Dante’s Inferno, he writes about his journey through hell for the purpose of recognizing his sins. He goes through this journey with Virgil, a voice of reason for Dante. Dante meets people through his journey of the many circles in the Inferno that lead him down into the center of hell, where Satan is. Satan is seen as being monster-like with three heads, representing a mocking of the Trinity and blowing his wings around the cocytus river. The final thing seen here is the fact that Dante’s description of Satan is a bit disappointing compared to the other descriptions he has written about the inferno.

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In his travels, Dante is lead by the symbol of human reason, Virgil, who takes Dante to talk to sinners of each circle in Alighieri’s depiction of Hell. His bias is extremely evident towards three specific sinners in Hell.

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Dante’s Inferno represents a microcosm of society; meaning, laymen, church, politicians, and scholars are all compiled into one place and punished for their sins. Hell, despite being depicted as brutal, ugly, and chaotic, is made realistic because the inhabitants come from every country and every walk of life. While Dante Alighieri did not invent the idea of Hell itself, he did create an important and in depth concept that still receives attention in biblical, classical, and medieval works. The Divine Comedy itself was written sometime between the years 1308 and 1321 and scholars still consider it the “supreme work of Italian literature.” The work itself is an epic poem divided into three separate sections: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso; respectively Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

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