...work as an idea base. This writer was Dante Alighieri, the man who wrote the famous epic Inferno. Dante began this story in the early 1300s when he was exiled from his own home town, Florence. With this problem he used it to make stories and symbols to help him better introduce this story. Dante uses a variety of different metaphors that have similar sayings apply to religion that make this epic a major head turner. There have been several views on this epic. It has been seen as a religious eye opener with every step taken throughout this extraordinary journey that Dante begins. The symbolism that Dante uses gives a very clear insight on how he felt...
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...An Analysis of the Setting in The Inferno Abstract Plutus and Pluto, and their placement in the fourth circle of Hell, were originally very confusing for me. After researching for the interactive oral, I had a much better understanding of him because, in Greek mythology, he is the God of wealth and, in Roman mythology, he is the God of the underworld. Pluto, the Roman God, is not only the God of the underworld, but also of the riches. He is placed in the fourth circle of Hell, that of greed and avarice, which makes sense because of the occupants’ sins, which have to do with riches and wealth. Also, the negative association of money and wealth to greed helped me tie in why a God was in Hell, other than the fact that Pluto/Plutus was Roman/Greek and not Christian. This development not only helped me understand why greed was around the middle of Hell, but also why Pluto/Plutus was there. It also connects to the prevalent idea of retribution, or an eye-for-an-eye, because the God of wealth, riches, and the underworld (money and evil) was around greed (evil due to money). My understanding of the retribution idea in The Inferno was also developed substantially through the interactive oral. Originally, it was easy for me to understand that the punishments were retributive; such as those who tried to look into the future will look backwards (to the past) for all eternity; gluttoners are rained upon by vomit (because they regurgitated what they ate), etc.; but what I did not understand...
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... incontinence, violence, fraud, and self-pity lives a colorless soul. This giant monster resides in the center of Hell where the beast is frozen mid-breast in ice. Throughout the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Inferno, Dante is obsessed with the number three. It’s prominent in many of the Cantos and particularly one of the most abrupt “three signs” in the book is Dis with its three heads and a sinner being gnawed on by each one. “Within each mouth - he used it like a grinder – with gnashing teeth he tore to bits a sinner, so that he brought much pain to three at once” (34. 55-57). Brutus, Judas and Cassius, these three men are considered to be the worst sinners of all according to Dante Alighieri. Brutus and Cassius were stuffed feet first in the mouth of the devil, or otherwise referred to as “Lucifer”. They were punished for their sins in the lowest region of the nine circles of Hell, for their assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.E. Brutus and Cassius worked against God and betrayed Caesar who was attempting to build the Roman Empire to be the Pathway to God that was chosen for Rome itself. Brutus and Cassius were on the losing side of a war against Caesar but rather than killing...
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...Hero's Journey: Dante's inferno In many stories that are told and taught, there is a protagonist that experiences the call to adventure. This character soon follows into the path of the Hero's Journey. There, they transform their beliefs and ideas. They go beyond their horizon and expand their knowledge. In Dante's Inferno, Dante Alighieri tells his voyage through Hell in a poem in order to display his journey to God in a time when he had lost his way. The Inferno, symbolizes Dante's recognition of sin and the need to deny the temptations of man in order to obtain paradise with God. The Hero's Journey is depicted throughout the poem. The Call: The Call is the beginning of the Hero's Journey. It is when the protagonist or hero of the book is brought out of their domain and into the unknown. They are called to pass the horizon and enter into a mystery that will lead them to their destiny. The poem of "Dante's Inferno" opens up with Dante being lost in his pathway to God. On the morning light of Good Friday he realizes the error of his ways and turns to go up the Mount of Joy in order to leave the Dark Wood of worldliness and enter into Paradise. After being denied entry into the pathway towards god by three beasts, Dante's...
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...because they shall see God”, otherwise the ones not pure in heart would be committing the sin of adultery. Dante Alighieri writes about the Lustful sinners, which means the ones that were sent to hell because they were not pure in heart, in canto V of Inferno. Dante’s journey thru hell shows the types of punishments that the sinners received according to their way to live on earth. As Dante is being lead by Virgil thru Inferno, Dante describes how is the second circle of hell, which contains the lustful sinners, the ones that went against God. Dante show the symbolism that reflects the sermon that Christ gave to the humans at the top of the mount when Christ said that “I tell you that any man who puts away his wife, except for the reason of harlotry, is making her the victim of adultery; and any man who marries a wife who has been divorced is committing adultery.” That goes to man and woman as well, as it can be seen, not only men are put in the Lustful sinners, women as well are send to there to pay for they sin. Dante explain the difference between lust as the sin, and love as being a sin when not pure, Lust being the attraction to the sensual part of the opposite person toward to a possessive desire of the body. The souls that are put in the 2nd circle of Hell are the Lustful ones, the ones that let themselves been taken by the heart and their love led them to death. As Dante describe “I learned that this place of punishment all those who sin in lust … as the wings of...
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...collection of stories titled The Canterbury Tales and Dante Alighieri’s three-part poem The Divine Comedy have certain similarities and some differences that often have a religious theme. One of the most obvious comparisons between the two is that both authors wrote about significant journeys. While Dante wrote about traveling through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, Chaucer wrote about a group of people occupying their time while they traveled. The two authors had contrasting writing styles when discussing those journeys; Chaucer’s was more light-hearted and sometimes even risqué, while Dante’s was more consistently solemn and meticulous. Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, and Dante, author of The Divine Comedy, had some...
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...For time in general things happen. They either happen for a significant reason or symbolic reason or they happen just all of a sudden. That is the problem with time it gets frustrating that way. The problem of time is crucial because significant things happen simultaneously in that period. For the two stories occur in a framework were things must happen at a significant time for things to work to the advantage of the characters. The stories that will be analyzed will be that of Dante’s inferno and that of Shakespeare’s the tempest. For time characters such as Virgil (Dante’s inferno) and Prospero (the tempest) don’t have enough of. The first person that would be analyzed would be Virgil and his connection with time. Virgil in the story of...
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...on this journey through the underworld. His relationship with the character of Dante in the poem is wide-ranging in importance and symbolism. He is a figure of authority, reason, and even a metaphorical father. Having traversed the territory before, Virgil serves as a figure of knowledge and safety to Dante, who is at times uncertain and timid about traversing such a treacherous terrain. In Canto II, Dante hesitates at the Vestibule that marks the entrance to hell. It is only through the reassurance of Virgil’s words that he finds fortitude. Dante feels compassion for Virgil as his master and mentor and states, “Thy words have moved my heart to its first purpose. My guide! My Lord! My Master! Now lead on”. At numerous other points also, Virgil shows his authority by dealing with deterrences that occur during their journey as in Canto III, when the ferryman, Charon, refuses Dante passage since he is a living man. Virgil forces Charon to grant them passage: “Charon, bite back your spleen:/This has been willed where what is willed must be/and is not yours to ask what it may mean.” Virgil’s influence, however, is limited. His power is associated with the power of reason, and this power is limited in Dante’s hell. At the very beginning, Virgil warns Dante of this. He says that at the end of the journey through hell that a worthier spirit shall be sent to guide Dante. Virgil cannot accompany Dante on into heaven because his virtues included only reason and not faith. Even at...
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...in the lines 82-84 with, “down there I saw a terrible a terrible confusion of serpents, all of such a monstrous kind the thought of them still makes my blood run cold” (24.82-84). These serpents attacked all sinners viciously while they were in attempt to flee the wrath bestowed upon them scurrying around the pit nude. Tied around the sinner's limbs, the serpents restricted all movement of their arms. The two traveling men witnessed a serpent jolting at a sinner and gouging down on the vulnerable neck with its needle-like fangs. The impaled sinner eventually had burst into a pile of ashes post catching fire. After the tied up sinner had vanished to ashes, the sinner would rise from its remains and repeat the never ending tournament throughout...
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...In Dante’s Inferno, the author chooses certain punishments for each sin in the 9 Circles of Hell. A few of these circles include Gluttony, Greed, and Heresy. In the story, at the gates of hell, it is said God created hell to achieve justice, and so each punishment is based off the desire for moral righteousness. The crimes committed in the real world coincide with the punishments for each sin in hell. As Dante and Virgil progress deeper into hell, the sins (received at the time) become more immoral and the penalties become even more severe. Gluttony is the third Circle of Hell. Souls of gluttons are observed by the monster Cereberus, a worm-like monster with three heads, and are punished by laying in filthy slush, while icy rain falls upon them. Elements of the punishment symbolize traits of gluttony. The slush represents the indignity when one indulges in excess of food, while selfishness is punished by having to lie where you can see no one else. Dante and Virgil speak to Ciacco, who tells of the symbolic purpose of Cereberus: “The ravenous hellhound is a torturer of gluttons. He feasts on our souls and disgorges them, so that he may always eat with insatiable hunger.” This creature may be meant to mock the gluttons as well, representing what God wants them to be seen as....
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...The Divine Comedy represents the mature Dante’s solution to the poet’s task annunciated in The New Life. Its three canticles (the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso) display a nearly limitless wealth of references to historical particulars of the late Middle Ages and to Dante’s life. Even so, its allegorical form allows these to function as symbols. The Pilgrim’s journey through Hell to Heaven thus becomes an emblem of all human experience and a recognition of life’s circularity. The “Comedy” of its title is, therefore, the situation of life and the accumulation of experience that attends it. Correspondingly, however, chronological placement of the narrative from Good Friday through Easter Sunday, 1300, particularizes the experience even as it implies the death and rebirth that attends a critical stage of any person’s life. The poet tells his readers in the first line of the Inferno that he is midway through life, and indeed Dante would have been thirty-five years of age in 1300. Though he maintains present tense throughout the poem, he is, however, actually writing in the years that follow the events that he describes. This extraordinary method allows the Poet to place what amounts to prophetic utterance in the mouth of the Pilgrim. Dante thus maintains and further develops the thesis of The New Life, that the progress of the Pilgrim corresponds directly to the progress of the Poet. The literal journey that the Pilgrim undertakes toward the Beatific Vision succeeds only...
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...Dante enters the third circle of hell and is immediately surrounded by all the sinners that call this level their home. The inhabitants of the third circle are gluttons, sinners who have fallen for one of the seven deadly sins that has to do with excessive eating. Gluttony comes from the Latin word gluttire, which means “to gulp down or swallow” from which many get the definition that it means to overindulge in food and drinks (F., Lewis). However, Dante makes the sin, gluttony, and more complex by not only defining it as excessive eating but it also having to do with selfish acts and greed (Dante’s Inferno). The gluttons are sentenced to live a life in misery as they are being pelted by the rain, snow, and wind. As the canto goes on Dante...
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...The Pit and The Pendulum is arguably one of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest works. The Pit and The Pendulum spins a web of insanity over the main character during the Spanish Inquisition. The setting of the story helps shroud it in the theme of fear, torture, and madness. The pit, i believe symbolizes humanity's fear of the unknown, it can also represent the gate to hell, seeing how this story is set during the Spanish Inquisition this theory is highly plausible. Also the psych of Poe himself can be used as an example of an effective horror tone and atmosphere. But this story isnt just horror is it? No this goes much deeper than that by addressing the malleability of the human mind. In the text it states that the narrator witnesses a trio of white candles turn into angels and then shift to his tormentors. What sets this story apart is that it instills a feeling of terror into the reader with its heavy emphasis on the senses of the narrator, unlike poes other works such as the Tell-Tale Heart and The Raven which rely on the supernatural element typical of horror stories. The pendulum which filleted anyone unlucky enough to be caught in it’s wake, symbolizes the fallibility of humans as a whole and the march of time till death. As the narrator describes it as swinging by every one second. This helps create an extremely tense atmosphere during the scene in which the narrator is tied down with the pendulum swinging by every one second, Poe masterfully executed this in a way that you...
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...In the texts The Divine Comedy, On Law Morality and Politics, and Revelations of Divine Love, there is a central theme of divine justice. In Dante’s Inferno, divine justice is God’s will for mankind and the order of the universe. In Saint Thomas Aquinas’ text, divine justice is the consequence of straying away from divine law. Finally, in Julian of Norwich’s work, the purpose of divine justice is to earn God’s mercy and eventually reside in his presence. Using different understandings of divine law and justice, each author is uniquely able to convey a similar message – mankind’s purpose is to achieve salvation and be in God’s grace. In Dante’s The Divine Comedy, the nature of justice seems to be impartial and unexempt from anyone. Specifically,...
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...ARISTOTLE TRANSFIGURED Dante and the Structure of the Inferno and the Purgatorio by Donald J. Hambrick Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Phüosophy Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia August, 1997 Q copyright by Donald J. Harnbrick, 1997 N l*lofational Library Canada Bibliothèque.nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Bibliogaphic Services Acquisitions et seMces bibliographiques 395 Wdingtoci Street OttawaON K 1 A W 395, rua Wellington Ottawa ON K I A O N 4 canada Canada The author has granted a nonexclusive licence allowing the National Library of Canada to reproduce, loan, distribute or sell copies of this thesis in microfonn, paper or electronic formats. L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive permettant à la Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduire, prêter' distribuer ou vendre des copies de cette thèse sous la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la proprieté du droit d'auteur q ui protège cette thèse. Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement reproduits sans son autorisation. copyright i this thesis. Neither the n thesis nor substantid extracts fkom it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. To Those Who Teach. .. TABLE OF CONTEWS INTRODUCTION...
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