When thinking of life choices would one see themselves being punished for their decisions or does one assume the afterlife will be forgiving? The Divine Comedy: Inferno, written by Dante Alighieri, depicts the flaws of politics and the Holy Roman Catholic Church. The papal authorities are corrupt and the church is not following its own rules. Dante, the protagonist, goes on a journey through the nine levels of hell. He starts out feeling pity for the souls, and as he makes his journey down into the levels of hell, he starts to realize that the acts the people committed are sinful and they deserve the punishments they receive. On his journey, he meets people and listens to their stories and how they received their punishments. Dante shows the punishment of the sinners by use of analogy and antithesis. This is shown in canto five through lush between a couple, in canto thirteen through violence against oneself, and in canto twenty- three through fraudulence between hypocrites. Dante shows the punishment of the sinners by use of antithesis in canto five through lust between a couple. First, Dante meets the lustful. As Dante and Virgil walk they …show more content…
As Dante ventures though the pathless wood, he encounters souls trapped in the trees. This shows the level of violence against oneself. The sinners took their own lives to end their pain from the living world. Here the souls are tortured by harpies, a mythological creature composed of half human and half bird. The harpies feed off of the trees, which in turn causes the souls pain. Dante breaks a stick off one of the trees and hears screaming. Dante writes: “The Harpies, feeding on the foliage, create Pain, and an outlet for pain as well. We too shall come like the rest, each one to get His cast-off-body—but not for us to dwell Within again, for justice must forbid Having what one has robbed oneself of.”