In A Paradise Built in Hell, Rebecca Solnit focuses on the occurrences of the aftermaths of five major North American disasters and how strong bonds within communities form because of those disasters. Each case study provides a concrete description of what surviving residents themselves understand to be an unusual sociological change arising in the midst of casualties, disorientation, homelessness, and significant loss of all kinds. Reflecting on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; the enormous 1917 explosion in Halifax, Nova Scotia; the devastating 1985 Mexico City quake; Lower Manhattan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks; and Hurricane Katrina’s 2005 deluge of New Orleans, Solnit brings a new perspective to these heart-wrenching tragedies. Solnit tells many enlightening stories of altruism and courageous social action. Moreover, although providing insight on these tragedies, Solnit presents her case with a redundant political bias and can seem to show problems that were not there.
In this circle, the punishment is not as harsh as the other circles because the people who are in this circle are not bad people, they just were not able to receive salvation. The second circle is home to the lustful. The lustful are blown around by strong winds which represent the restless nature for their desires. The third circle of Hell is where the gluttons reside. The punishment for the gluttonous people is that they are forced to lay in and eat nasty, slimy mud and slush
In Dante’s Inferno each sin gets its own individual type of punishment. The sins and the punishments get worse deeper into Hell. Contrary to this, it is made apparent in the Bible that God does not view one sin as worse than the other. The New Testament says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (New International Version, James. 2.10). A verse like this shows even one sin is enough to separate us from God, making any man made hierarchy between sins unnecessary.
With Dante’s journey through hell he examines the sins of others, these supposed wrongdoings, such as murder are overall worse for the population, causing, over time, a
Him being betrayed makes it the biggest punishment as where it fits contrapasso. These insights of the bottom of hell support the theme that contrapasso is always just. The worse the sin is, the greater the punishment is. In Dante’s Inferno the worst sin was Betrayal in which the worst punishment was given. The bottom was where hell was depicted but it wasn’t full of fire as many people think.
In the Inferno, Dante describes the different levels of hell and the punishment which corresponds to the sin. Dante categorize hell into three major sins consisting of incontinence, violence, and fraudulent. Fraudulent is portrayed as the worse sin in the Inferno while incontinence is seen as a less serious sin. Each category has sinners which have all been punished for their wrong doings in life. The three major sins consist of circles where Dante separates the different sinners.
The critical analysis article by critic Susan E. Blow discusses the meaning of sin to man compared to Dante’s Inferno. Blow states that in today’s society, man is “rapidly losing the consciousness of sin” (Blow) and is blending the lines of right and wrong. Throughout Divina Commedia, the idea of being “one with God” is tossed around and is discussed through “corruption of the will, the purification of the will, and the perfection of the will” (Blow). In man’s eyes, sin is seen as something they will get punished for in the after life, but they don’t realize the varying degrees of sins and their punishments. In Dante’s Inferno, the level of hell that one is placed in depends on the severity of the sin committed while living.
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.
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.
Being dedicated to both of these quintessential parts of his life, corruption intertwined between the both is an apawling sin according to him. This is exemplified through his allusions of Pope Boniface VIII, who is known for thinking himself superior to the emperor and a rumor of essentially making Pope Celestine V abdicate in order to take his place. When Dante and Virgil approach Pope Nicholas III, who’s only visible features are his feet, as his head is buried in sand, he calls out, “dost thou stand there already, Boniface?” foretelling that Pope Boniface VIII will meet others punished for simony in Hell when he states “art thou so early satiate with that wealth" (Dante 19.53.55).
Dante’s Inferno details the long journey of Dante and Virgil, throughout the bowels of Hell, or the Inferno. Dante’s Inferno is organized into nine different levels, each distributing a different and awful punishment to every different sin. The main sins include the seven deadly sins, “Wrath, Sloth, Lust, Greed, Pride, Gluttony, Envy”, he also included “Treachery” and “Violence”. The three sins that I believe fit their sins would be “Wrath/Sulleness”, “Greed” and “Gluttony”.
As the make there way down from Hell, they see many faces of mythology, and history who all symbolize sins committed. The punishments are decided by these people's actions in which include their destiny. Dante sees a variety of different types of sins: incontinence (no control) violence and fraudulence.
From the smallest sin to the biggest sin, no sin went without being punished by “a punishment fitting of the crime.” As Virgil and Dante travel throughout the nine circles of Hell, they were shown that Hell does not correct the sins but it orders them significantly. While traveling deeper into the circles of Hell, Dante is shown things like Lust, Anger, Violence, and Fraud, and he sees signs that the sins are getting worse the deeper they go. Dante’s travels shows a metaphor “descend so you may ascend” and this is designed to communicate the message of
I thoroughly believe that in a culture so reliant on religion, sin and sinners are represented reasonably well due to the detailed accounts of various sinners in Hell. In my opinion however in modern times, this is not a brilliant representation of sin as Dante allows his feelings about personal experiences to cloud the judgement of fictional characters in the poem. Before going into more specific details of Dante and his thoughts about sinners, it is important to note the overall handling of the sins and how they are fully represented. Sin is described as a corruption from one’s self and their true desires, however Tonia Triggiano writes it best when she states that the poem “describes sin as a distortion of one’s will; man’s nature wrenched itself from the nature it shared with God” .
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.
