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Piero And Suicide In Dante's Inferno

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Dante 's depiction of suicides ' punishment, from a modern perspective, seems too harsh for the nature of the crime. The crime seems to neither deserve such a low place in hell nor warrant a harsh punishment. However, after closer examination of the text and context, Dante 's punishment for people who were violent against themselves is justifiable. The Christian ideology of the connection between body and soul, explains this contrapasso of the suicides. The souls inhabiting the suicide forest were sent there because they were violent against themselves. In Christian ideology, it is believed that the soul and the body were greatly connected and it 's the soul 's responsibility to care for the body that God gave it. Therefore, by killing the body, the soul was …show more content…

Piero states that his actions "made me unjust against my just self," (13. 70-71). This information demonstrates that the vice of the souls was the act of suicide. Piero, an innocent person, committed suicide, which made him unjust. He himself could be virtuous but his actions made him unvirtuous and thus cast into hell. However, he is not completely innocent as the vice, committing suicide, did manifest because he tried to outrun his problems on Earth. Therefore, in hell he cannot run away from his problems anymore. This vice proves that it is the unjust action that causes the punishment and that the manifestation of the vice also manifests in the punishment. Despite committing a sin, one can be sympathetic of Piero because he is portrayed as a good person who is aware that "it is not just" to take "from oneself" (13. 105). Dante himself feels for Piero and makes it seem like he doesn 't belong in hell. This sympathy works to make Piero seem likable to prove that even the best will land in hell if they defile the connection and betray

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(line87). After knowing about their punishment and a tree, Pier Delle Vigne's personal story, Dante couldn't speak and think anything because pity filled his heart. Especially, when he listened to Pier's suicide story which occurred between his lord Frederick, but Pier asked Dante to heal his reputation when Dante back on Earth, that

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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.”

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The God portrayed by Dante is guilty of many human flaws such as: egotism, injustice and hypocrisy. By arranging Hell to flatter himself, God commit’s the most common sin: egotism. This fault is illustrated in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell. For example, God sends those who never had the chance to worship him to hell. “…neither faithful nor unfaithful to their God,” (Norton 400).

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Dante sees a Florentine in the group of Sodomites, by the name of Ser Brunetto Latino. Latino was a mentor to Dante after the death of his father and had a significant influence on Dante. “Therefore, go on; I will walk at your hem, / and then rejoin my company, which goes / mourning eternal loss in eternal flame / I did not dare descend to his own level / but kept my head inclined, as one who walks / in reverence meditating good and evil” (Canto XV, lines 40-45) Dante uses Ser Brunetto Latino as a symbol of his influences he had in life, as well as, to help explain the beliefs of Dante. On some accounts, Dante put Latino in Hell, because of his homosexuality, which Dante disliked, due to the views of Church.

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In the classic epic poem Dante’s Inferno the residents of Hell receive eternal punishment. However, each sin has a different everlasting consequence. The method of justice used to decide the tortures is called contrapasso. Contrapasso is an Italian term meaning to suffer the opposite. Damned souls in Dante’s Inferno suffer retributions that are exactly opposite or closely related to their crimes against God and man.

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In the classical world of Greece and Rome, suicide was glorified as a noble death. As early as the second century, Christian teaching condemned suicide, stating it violates the commandment, “Thou shall not kill”, suicide cannot be repented of and lastly, it’s cowardly” (“Suicide.” Encyclopedia of Religion and the Law in America).

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Dante is introducing the concepts that the graver the sin, the more we are separated from God and the harsher our suffering is after our death. Dante also uses contrapasso to show that sin itself is its own punishment. The sinners in Hell are not just eternally suffering from the horrible physical pains inflicted on them but also feel the guilt and weight of their sins. An

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Dante’s Inferno depicts the writer himself traveling through the afterlife with his guide Virgil, and details all the aspects of hell as Dante descends towards the ninth circle. Throughout his journey, he witnesses souls in every circle of hell for the sins they committed in their lifetime, each suffering punishments different based on the specific circle they reside. Not only are the punishments different, but they tend to be perfectly suited to the sin that has been committed, a concept called “Contrapasso”. Contrapasso essentially translates to “the punishment fits the crime,” and this notion permeates throughout Dante’s poem as he describes to the reader how the numerous souls in hell are all uniquely experiencing retribution for their

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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.

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Within the first of three canticles, The Inferno, Dante creates a tool, named the contrapasso, in order to warn the readers of the gruesomeness and reality of a life engulfed with habitual sin. The contrapasso essentially conveys what sinners are condemned to do for all of eternity after bodily death. Sinners remain exactly who they were when they were living, except they are continually condemned to a punishment that is fitting for their sin. The damned are forced to be exactly who they were in life and act eternally surrounded by their sinful nature, caused by their faulty disposition of soul. These contrapassi represent a moral allegory for Dante, either complex in its interpretation or simple (complex as in that which needs a further level

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INTRODUCTION Man is a being faced with numerous difficulties, problems, foes and so on. Perhaps the worst and the most dreaded of these foes is death. It has been tagged an arch-enemy of man, the destroyer of man, non-respecter of person, and has a host of other negative connotative words and names. Around the world and in many religions and cultures, people have sought to explain and demystify death, but with minute success.

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In Canto IV, Dante addresses two theological issues of salvation. According to Christianity, all souls that lived sinless life but were not baptized, are denied salvation. Dante designates his first circle of hell, called Limbo, for those poor souls. In Limbo, they are not tortured, but the cannot have salvation. It was a very simple and brilliant solution.

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1040 Words | 5 Pages

The idea of Hell itself in most Judeo-Christian denominations begins with the simple premise of being a place for those who have either sinned or turned his or her back on God, damning them to an eternity of punishment and suffering. A major idea presented in Inferno is the idea of the contrapasso. Justin Steinburg in his essay “Dante’s Justice? A Reapprasial of the Contrapasso” summarizes the idea by explaining it as a balance of crime and punishment in Hell. In canto 28 in the Inferno, the Dante first poses the idea in text when Bertran de Born must carry his own head in his arms after separating father from son.

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982 Words | 4 Pages

In The Comedy, Dante the Pilgrim develops a relationship with his damned idol, Virgil, in order to journey through both Inferno and Purgatory. Even though Virgil was a good man while living, he lacked understanding of certain virtues, like pride, which prevented him from being able to reach higher levels in the afterlife. Dante the Poet’s choice to damn Virgil conveys that obeying a higher order is the way to one’s salvation. The developing relationship between Virgil and Dante the Pilgrim throughout the first two canticles brings light to the opposing separation between the two characters because of the devotion Dante has to Christian virtues in comparison to Virgil’s pagan misunderstanding of virtue. While Dante the Pilgrim experiences many

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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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