ipl-logo

What Is Dante's Perception Of Hell In The Divine Comedy

590 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Dante's divine comedy

In Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, there are nine circles of Hell. Dante’s perception of Hell is chronologically irrational and portrays bias. To begin, Dante is biased when he places the lustful in circle two with a simple punishment. Next, Dante places victims of suicide in circle seven which is not chronologically logical. Finally, he places the murders in circle seven above the many sins throughout the bolgias which is also illogical. Dante demonstrates a biased perception of Hell that can be tweaked to show a sense of severity based on sin rather than opinion. First, Dante places the lustful in circle two which is high up for this sin. He also presents them with the punishment of being blown around in the wind. This portrays bias because lust is the sin that Dante has committed. Lust happens to be one of the capital sins of the bible. This means that the punishment should be severe. Although, Dante is easy on the lustful, because he empathizes with them. To make the circles logical, Dante should place the lustful in circle three with a punishment of being forced to kill their lover. …show more content…

He also gives them a punishment of being in tree form, being attacked by birds called Harpies, and having to painfully recreate. He places them here because they take away the life that God provides for them. Although this is true, Dante fails to realize the mental illnesses people struggle with. For example, sometimes these people have no control over their thoughts. To make this chronologically logical, Dante should place them in circle two. Along with protecting the suicides, Dante should move the sinners up to circle two. Their punishment would be gentle and

Show More
Related
272 Words | 2 Pages

Dante says that those trapped in the fourth circle of hell “Were clerics who have no lid of hair / Upon their heads, and popes and cardinals / In whom avarice achieves its

Read More
1247 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1111 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More
855 Words | 4 Pages

He starts to believe that these people do not deserve this, and he definitely does not want to end up in hell. Dante describes the terrible sights of the eighth circle of hell where people are overcome by the worst of all diseases, “Than those two spirits of the stinking ditch scrubbed at themselves with their own bloody claws to ease

Read More
618 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1345 Words | 6 Pages

I, 82-84). Dante uses powerful, graphic imagery to depict punishment and sin reveales behaviorally, the true nature of the sin of violence. The punishment is relentless, the reasonaing and moral rules are due to entity defined by human. In that Aligeri is responsible for not only punishment, but the qualities that deem them wrong. No punishment too specific, the tormented scrape and stab any prisoner they see.

Read More
461 Words | 2 Pages

In the Inferno every punishment manages to correspond with the crime that person committed in a symbolic way. Dante's "Inferno" is all about punishment. Whether the punishment seems just or not depends. In the book, Dante describes different ways sinners in Hell get punished, and he tries to match their punishments with the sins they committed. Understanding why Dante thought it was important to have fitting punishments that have a symbolic connection, gives us insight into his beliefs.

Read More
594 Words | 3 Pages

Those unlucky souls who were cast into the seventh circle of Hell were sentenced there because of the sin of violence. However, the sin was further broken down into three categories: those violent against others, themselves, or God. The violent against themselves were guilty of suicide, while those guilty of violence against others were condemned for sodomy or usury. The reason these seemingly unrelated sins were grouped together by Dante is that they were seen as going against what was natural. What is interesting to note upon reading Inferno is how the author used the sins of the damned to reflect in their punishment.

Read More
1311 Words | 6 Pages

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

Read More
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.

Read More
1087 Words | 5 Pages

The knight will be placed in Dante’s hell due to his actions with a young girl. He was lustful towards her taking advantage of a young girl. The knight did not love the young girl, but only wanted to be with her because of his sexual desires. Since the knight could not control his desires, he will reside in the second circle with sinners who were overcome by lust. Sinner’s in the second circle are punished by being violently attacked by warring winds.

Read More
1080 Words | 5 Pages

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” .

Read More
2078 Words | 9 Pages

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.

Read More
1207 Words | 5 Pages

Dante ensures this happens by using the concept of contrapasso, which describes the relationship between sin and the resulting justification in Hell. The literal definition of contrapasso is the 'counter-strike' or the 'counter-suffering which translates literally as "counter-penalty." And in Dante’s Hell, sinners are punished according to the nature of their sin, so that their punishment fits their crime. And as we see throughout the story, some sinners literally become the personification of their sins while others become victims in Hell of the crimes they committed while on

Read More
456 Words | 2 Pages

For Dante, the punishment was fitting for both sinners because the sullen spent their lives moping and pitying themselves, when they had a promising life while the wrathful were reenacting their rage that they expressed throughout their time. There is a balance between the sin committed in Earth and the punishment received in hell. At the beginning of the poem and through the circles, Dante was a little sympathetic but after traveling to the fifth circle and encountered Philippo Argenti his feelings change. Argenti a former member of the Black Guelf was rival of Dante who was a member of the White Guelfs. When Dante was force to exile Florence, Argenti’s brother took all his property.

Read More

More about What Is Dante's Perception Of Hell In The Divine Comedy

Related Topics

Open Document