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The Use Of The Stars In Dante's Inferno

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The question is why Dante ends each divine comedy with stars. The reader can see that Dante loves astronomy, due to his organization of Paradiso! The way that Dante’s uses the stars as a symbol of the end finish the process of Dante’s journey through each comedy! There is no question that Dante uses astronomy and geographic to explain his illusion of Christ steps! In the Inferno, Dante ends by saying, “we walked out once more beneath the stars” (Inferno XXXIV 143). Here in this quote, Dante explains what he is seeing when coming out of the inferno. Then when he completes Purgatorio he ends by says, “ In sweetes freshness, he called off winter scars;/ perfect, pure, and ready for the stars” (Purgatorio XXXIII, 145-146). Here, the reader
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Dante took the idea of hell itself and determined the sins that would get you there such as adultery, and treachery. As a poet, Dante understood rhetoric devices that would enhance the structure of his work to the cusp of sophistication. He uses paronomasia, which is a wordplay and puns based on meanings and sounds, synesthesia, combined senses like sight, smell, touch and taste, and, antithesis, where poetry mingle with

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. “Suddenly it seemed to him that the sky, which was already dark, became still darker, and that a thick, heavy cloud was descending on him”(Dumas 81). In this quote, no one is speaking; it is the narrator describing Dantès’s experiences outside of prison. I found this quote to be interesting because the storm that consumes him could be compared to the “storm” of sadness and loneliness that was brought upon him by the death of Faria.

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The same way, disorder means damnation. In both of the masterpieces we find the same way in conceiving coordinates and juxtaposing politics and religion, empire and church. Analogous is the way to express certain forces of nature, intimate qualities of the spirit, sublimation or degeneration of senses through animals. Dante’s Comedy and the mosaic of Otranto teem with animals and monsters: dogs, wolves, dragons, lions, sphinxes, griffins, centaurs, etc. We find all of these representations in both of the works and with the same meaning, same analogies, and same functions.

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One of the major themes of Dante’s Inferno is “Separation from God”. Separation from God Leads to Sorrow. Dante himself said that the main points of his Divine Comedy as a whole was to liberate living human beings from unhappiness and to take them to the state of happiness (Cantos 1-5). The Inferno gives to that purpose in many ways, but possibly most importantly by the way it exemplifies the theme that separation from and denial of the divine "love that moves the sun and the other stars" leads certainly to unhappiness, and the more intentionally one selects to harm oneself in other words suicide, and also harm others in an attempt to get happiness by focusing on the ego instead of on divine love, the more one actually moves away from life

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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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Later, in the Ninth Circle of Hell, is a frozen lake where souls are encased in ice up to their heads. Walking on the frozen lake, Dante accidentally kicks one of the souls and when he leans down to apologize, he recognizes it to be Bocca degli Abati, an Italian traitor. Dante threatens Bocca for his traitor and proceeds to tears some of his hair out before leaving him in the ice. Virgil and Dante progress to the Second Ring, where Dante is shocked to see one sinner biting at another’s head from behind. He questions why the soul acts this way, and the sinner pauses from his chewing.

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‘To Make Still Finer Mirrors of My Eyes’: Transformative Light in Dante’s Paradiso In medieval thought every star in the cosmos took its light from the sun, the brightest light in the universe. In Paradiso Dante engages in this belief, allegorizing it to represent God as the sun and the rest of creation as the stars. By using overt theological metaphors for light, mirrors, and reflections, he constructed a hierarchy of light in which God, the Living Light and the source of all light in the universe, is the purest form of light and as such reflects divine light on to the rest of creation.

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If when talking about an earthly paradise, it would make complete sense that Dante -whom held the great reasoners in high regard as well- would use the works of these reasoners as a model for this paradise. In Plato’s Republic, one of the integral parts of a perfect city would be the four virtues: justice, fortitude/courage, prudence/wisdom, and temperance/moderation. Throughout the Divine Comedy, there are multiple instances where Dante points to the four virtues described by the great reasoners. Upon arriving at purgatory, Dante bears witness to “those four stars” (Dante 1-28) obviously representing the four virtues. Later in purgatory as well, Virgil himself witnesses “the four bright stars you saw… where those four were, these three now are” (Dante 8-91-93), but this time with the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.

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Fueled by the anger surrounding his banishment from Florence in 1302, Dante Alighieri spitefully wrote the epic poem, the Divine Comedy. The Inferno, the first part of the trilogy of the Divine Comedy, tells the story of Dante the pilgrim and Dante the poet. The two personas deliver Dante’s journey through hell, the Inferno, with added depth. Dante is also guided by Virgil, an ancient Roman poet from 50 B.C. The three personas share different perspectives on the grueling detail of their findings in hell.

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The Glutens bombarded with icy rain, the accused of lust are blown by wind with a never ending violence, and those of treachery are all residents of a frozen icy lake are just a few examples of the justice that has come from sin. Dante illuminates hell and all of its realities in order to establish the true meaning of justice itself and the perfection within justice. Where there is sin, there is justice by God. While these punishments may seem very harsh they are actually balanced because of the sin and it’s known nature on earth and in hell. The poem is organized in a way of the least severe sin starting at the first level as hell and then continuing the severity of punishment as the poem continues.

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English 102.02 26 February 2016 Canto 1 Dante, author and protagonist of the poem “The Inferno” had to make a difficult life choice which would lead him to gateway to heaven or hell. Dante needs to follow the True Way in order to get to the Divine Illumination; God’s light, also known as heaven. The Divine Illumination symbolizes heaven because this is the place everyone wants to go to find happiness. To get to the Divine Illumination, he must pass through The Dark Wood of Error, a mysterious forest for sinners that decide to get off the True Way; also filled with wickedness and evil.

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This is a clear attempt to frighten Dante in order to show him how awful hell is. While this worked to scare Dante, he still has remorse for the”victims” in hell which is why Virgil, on occasion decides to leave Dante in order to make him feel helpless. Although Dante is not left alone in hell for that long without his teacher, Virgil sends Dante through the final pocket of the seventh circle of Hell to talk with the souls without his guidance when he states “so that you may experience this ring in full, go now and see the state in which they are”(XVII 37-39). So it is clear Virgil wants Dante to learn without his help and protection. In this time Dante receives warning to leave, as he is told to be “afraid that any longer stay might anger him who warned (him) to brief, (he) made (his) way back from those exhausted souls.

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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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Dante’s conception of purgatory does not make sense when placed in line with Christianity. The Christian faith today is based on the life and teachings of Jesus from the study of the word of God, also known as the Bible. The Bible does not specifically state that purgatory exists. God’s word, through numerous scriptures, only states that Heaven and Hell are the two places that exist after death.

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"The Inferno" is the first book in the epic poem called the “Divine Comedy” by the Italian politician Dante Alighieri and it is followed by "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso”. The book "Inferno", which is the Italian translation for Hell, tells the journey of its author through what he believes is Hell, which consists of nine circles of pain and suffering. In his journey, he is guided through the nine circles by the Roman poet Virgil. Each circle in the book represents a different type of sin with a different type of punishment, varying according to the degree of the offense they committed in their life. By the end of his journey through all of the circles, Dante realizes and emphasizes the perfection of God's Justice and the significance of each offense towards God’s unconditional love.

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