The Traitors In Dante's Inferno
When Dantes gains vengeance for Caderousse’s selfish actions, he is justified because Caderousse is the source of his own downfall. When Dantes returns to Marseilles, he is appalled to learn that his father was forced to pay “a hundred and forty francs” to Caderousse and that he “lived for three months on [only] sixty francs” (8). Dantes begins to grow displeased with Caderousse because he did not display mercy for a Dantes’s poor, old father who needed the money he owed to survive. During the scene when Dantes’s alias, Abbe Busoni, gives Caderousse a diamond, he is ecstatic and shows Abbe Busoni “effusive declarations of gratitude” (110). He does this because, like before, he is only thinking of himself and the earnings he will obtain from
The historical fiction play The Crucible written in 1953 by Arthur Miller takes place in the puritan town of Salem during the time 1692 which shows many examples of the theme of betrayal. In reading this play you view how everybody during the witch trials turned on each other and wanted to keep themselves safe. Nobody stayed as a community or a whole. Everybody was betraying one another. Betraying somebody will help yourself and hurt the person you are betraying, but you will never know when somebody is going to betray you.
Arthur miller shows that betrayal destroys relationships and communities in most occasions in his play The Crucible. It seems that most people in this small town of Salem committed to betraying others. Others may say that the play was not based on or even about betrayal because there was a lot about faith and other topics. Whether they knew it or not, they all betrayed someone. Mary betrayed John when she called him the devils man.
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.
In 1692, a group of girls in Salem, Massachusetts fell ill and caused a growing crisis for the townspeople. Because of all the crisis in the town, there was betrayal, fear, and reputations was ruined. Accusations got out of hand and soon enough people could not control the lies and all the power of the devil. All the lies piled up; the lies that were started brought many people of Salem to their deaths. Nineteen people die during the trials for supposedly committing witchcraft.
The more profound that the sin that they committed was, the deeper they are frozen in the ice. All of the souls had a betrayal of trust, one being Cain who killed his brother Abel. While being in circle nine and traveling through the different pouches of circle nine, Dante and Virgil made it to Caina, named after Cain for killing his brother and losing the trust that they had as he went against his kin. After moving through the different levels of the ice, Dante and Virgil see several people that they recognize, and then Dante begins to say, “I saw a thousand faces after that, / All purple as a dog’s lips from the frost: / I still shiver, and always will, at the sight / Of a frozen pond” (XXXII.
Malacoda, meaning "evil tail," leads the devils in this bolgia and guides Dante and Virgil through it. He is a deceitful character who attempts to trick travelers into falling into boiling pitch. Nevertheless, Virgil's quick thinking and Dante's bravery ultimately thwart his attempts. The other devils in this bolgia are portrayed as both sly and vicious. The sinners are tormented using tactics like poking them with pitchforks and repeatedly pulling them out of the pitch only to drop them back in.
In Dante's inferno, Dante explains how each sin is punished in a certain way. There’s the seven deadly sins which includes: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth. There are also other sins such as thieves, liars, and hypocrites. Manipulative people are considered extremely worst of all. Therefore, I think that manipulative acts or crimes are the worst sins that can be committed.
In Dante Aligheri’s Purgatorio from his epic poem The Divine Comedy , sinners on the third terrace are purged for their wrath with thick and heavy smoke, which can be deemed as appropriate to the sin through its symbolic use of the sin’s impact on the sinner, not to mention how it allows them to confront and to truly free themselves from their resentment. Dante, who has been introduced to the terrace, claims that there is nothing “so harsh to the senses as that smoke which covered [them] there that did not let the eye stay open.” In this case, the smoke can be illustrated as an object that obscures the vision, leading to one having to use their senses in order to assist them. This can be compared to living a hateful life as this rage figuratively
Through the Salem witch trials, twenty-four innocent people lost their lives due to betrayal. They were hung because they were accused and found to be guilty of witchcraft. In reality, everyone that was accused and had died were innocent, but used as targets by others to save their own lives. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, out of fear, Abigail Williams, Mary Warren, Mercy Lewis, and Reverend Hale betrayed their morals to save themselves. As a result of betrayal, lives were taken, relationships were ruined, and trusts were broken.
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.
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.
In the Crucible by Aurther Miller there were many themes shown in the text. One of the most common themes presented in the book is Betrayal. Betrayal happens a lot through out life. Betrayal is when you go against someone who you were for at first. People often deal with Betrayal through out everyday life.
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.
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”.
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