To justify his feelings, Dante would seek out if the sinners have any qualms and if they are truly sorry for being abusive, or if they are just sorry because they are being punished. Based on Dante’s previous comments, this category fits in perfectly because Dante goes throughout a change in this book, at first, Dante would faint over punishments, but later on, Dante believes that some of the punishments are just. In Canto XVIII, Dante does not even grimace about punishments that sinners undergo over just “ordinary” fraud, and in Canto XV Dante says, “This is marvelous!” (24), when seeing someone familiar in Hell. In an earlier Canto XIII, Dante feels compassion when saying, “...so much pity takes my heart.”
Down to the penultimate Canto, Dante meets the second pair of sinners bound together: Ugolino and Ruggieri. Ugolino bites the skull of Ruggieri—the vengeance that he badly wanted on earth is given to him for eternity. This image of Ugolino and Ruggieri reminds us of the image of Paulo and Francesca as the only sinners in Hell that are bound together. The juxtaposition of Ugolino and Francesca ultimately demonstrates two facets of love: A fatherly love that was rejected because of pride and a passionate love that was pursued despite its unlawful nature. (Inf.
The knight will be placed in Dante’s hell due to his actions with a young girl. He was lustful towards her taking advantage of a young girl. The knight did not love the young girl, but only wanted to be with her because of his sexual desires. Since the knight could not control his desires, he will reside in the second circle with sinners who were overcome by lust. Sinner’s in the second circle are punished by being violently attacked by warring winds.
The beginning Cantos seemed to focus on God’s will and the ordering of the world, plus how humans need God’s grace and salvation to become perfect. One of the first mentions of this comes from Canto 1: “Much is permitted there that is not permitted to our faculties here, thanks to the place, created to be the home of the human race” (p. 25, lines 55-57). Dante is now able to stare directly at the sun, which if this would have occurred elsewhere, he would not have been able to. All of his senses were increased, which is shown on p. 27, when he is discussing how he had never felt a light or sound so sharp.
Thus, Francesca and Paolo committed the sin of adultery. Yet, Dante wants to draw attention to something; the word “adultery” never appears through the 147 lines of Inferno 5. This is quite interesting. Dante makes the reader to realize the fact that it is not the adultery causing the fate of these lovers, yet something else causes it. Francesca was helpless in the face of love, yet her passivity against love does not negate any guilt.
Dante emphasizes the differing roles of these women by three mediators. First, he gives Francesca the freedom to defend herself, letting her to have a partial guidance/autonomy; in contrast, Dante delivers his own freedom in the hands of Beatrice, allowing her to have a complete guidance/complete control over the poem. Second, Dante focuses on the physical aspects of love when talking about Francesca’s love story, while he talks about a selfless, spiritual love when referring to his and Beatrice’s love story. Third, Francesca does not take the responsibility of her actions, has a lack of remorse and blames the power of love for her fate, while Dante and Beatrice respect the rules and morals, by only coming together in the afterlife. In other words, they have opposite interpretations of
5.141). This reaction seems misplaced since Dante is talking to two people who committed a deadly sin; however, this reaction conveys that Dante believes that love itself is a valuable virtue, but the reader must be aware that adulterous love is not virtuous. The position that Dante the Poet establishes is that the souls in Hell are there not only because they committed sins, but because they corrupted pure virtues to work in their favor. In Purgatory, Dante encounters lust and love again, but the souls have a love for God in addition to the perverted love they had in their life. Virgil presents to Dante that there is a love that is naturally within everyone and that the “natural is always without error /
This pope is not physically in Dante’s Hell, because he was not yet dead at the time he was writing the poem. However, to Dante, Pope Boniface VIII was one of the most corrupt and fraudulent because he led a false perception of wanting to make peace. This false perception undermines the church and all of its followers, causing him to eventually join Pope Nicholas III in his misery, following the theme of how the abuse of power, particularly in the church and politics, is despicable towards
For Dante, the punishment was fitting for both sinners because the sullen spent their lives moping and pitying themselves, when they had a promising life while the wrathful were reenacting their rage that they expressed throughout their time. There is a balance between the sin committed in Earth and the punishment received in hell. At the beginning of the poem and through the circles, Dante was a little sympathetic but after traveling to the fifth circle and encountered Philippo Argenti his feelings change. Argenti a former member of the Black Guelf was rival of Dante who was a member of the White Guelfs. When Dante was force to exile Florence, Argenti’s brother took all his property.
Once again, this leads to the belief that she did not deserve to be placed in Hell. Now, this is not to say she is blameless of any or all sin, but her sins did not warrant her punishment. The contrapasso bestowed on her is invalid. Forced to into the furthest depths of Hell and encrusted in human excrement seems like a vicious punishment for someone who allegedly did nothing more than Dante did himself.
Started from Purgatory canto XXX, Virgil, the sweet father has left Dante in purgatory. Then a lady came to Dante, crowded with olive-leaves, over a white veil, dressed in colours of living flame. And Dante found out who she is right away, through her hidden charm, felt the power from former love. The lady is Beatrice, she appears as one of his guides in Purgatory and Paradise.
Both Francesca and Ugolino’s judgements resulted from deliberation and thought, and both of their thoughts were greatly influenced by their oppressed state and some biological factors. They were diverted away from the First good, which made them turn toward the apparent goods. The use of free will in the Inferno served as a path to sin for both Francesca and Ugolino. Dante recognizes that Francesca had very weak control over her judgements, and that love overpowered her, but he also made it clear that she deserves to be in hell. As for Ugolino, he also used his free will to resist loving his sons.
The way that I read this is, Dante's journey through hell is a battle between the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant and and the philosophical ideas of Moral Subjectivism. The German Philosopher Immanuel Kant would argue that no matter the situation an immoral act is always immoral; lust would fall under this category. According to Kant’s philosophy, because lust is wrong sometimes it is wrong all the time. Following that philosophy, Kant would argue that they did wrong, no question about it (whether that wrong equals Hell is another topic). However, on the other hand, a moral subjectivist would argue that every situation is different.
These condemned lustful souls suffer there judgment by spending eternity in a whirlwind (110-111). One of the souls catches Dante’s attention so he speaks with her, readers learn a few things about the nature of lust, sin, the need to repent, and eternal judgment. First, lust and deception are close companions, when Francesca explains her story she refuses to take responsibility for her actions, “ One day we read…of Lancelot, of how he fell in love…”(113). Secondly, Francesca’s spiritual blindness prevents her from repenting, therefore, she must spend eternity in hell for her sins forever attached to her lover as a constant reminder of the moment they were exposed and killed for their lustful passion(119). After hearing her story and seeing her torment, Dante becomes overwhelmed to the point of fainting.
Jesus has descended into Hell and granted salvation to the souls in Limbo with hope. With the absence of these saved souls, every soul left in Hell has no hope of salvation. The sigh that states “Abandon all hope ye who enter here” acts as a warning for only the souls damned to stay in Hell for all of eternity (I, III, 31). No matter what ring of Hell a soul is punished within, the loss of hope is part of their punishment. Dante is one of the few that enter Hell that retains hope.
