...Descent Into Hell Who or what is Lilith and what is her role in the book? According to Charles Williams, Lilith is the apparition of all that one desires; she promises to give health, money, life, and even love but gives only false hope. She is the seductress, disguised as an old lady, who guards the grand gate of Gomorrah (Descent Into Hell 204). Williams describes Lilith as such, “Their enchantress sat there, the last illusion still with her, the illusion of love itself; she could not believe her breasts were dry. She desired infinitely to seem give suck; she would be kind and good, she who did not depend, on whom others had depended…” (207). She is not real love, but merely the chimera of love, and does not give true life. Williams further describes her, “She would not see and she would not go to the door because of that unacknowledged crowd, but she sat there, cut off from earth she had in her genius so long universally inhabited, gazing, waiting, longing for some of the living to enter, to ask her for oblivion and the shapes with which she enchanted oblivion” (207). She deceives people and gives them want they think they most desire; she traps people with their fantasies and then pulls them down into Hell (208). Lilith is portrayed as a weak, depressed old woman who guards the gate to Hades and who promises to care, nurture one’s soul, and to give what one desires. However, what she promises is actually void and empty; she really intends to starve and deprive people...
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...of Romance, Frye devotes a chapter to deal with a crucial convention in romance that is the journey to the underworld. Frye explains that in the literary imagination there are four levels of the universe, the lowest is “the demonic world of hell, in Christianity not part of the order of nature but an autonomous growth, usually placed below ground. (98)” The underworld as its name implies is believed to be situated in a lower place than the ordinary world. Conrad’s Malay and African works are read by many critics as dramatizations of the theme of descent....
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...over the Holy Roman Emperor. This held influence in the Divine Comedy. In trying to get these ideas out the people Dante wrote the epic poem in the vernacular of the Italian people. The Divine Comedy is centered on Dante and his two guides. The poem takes the reader on a journey with Dante and his guides through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. This is accomplished through the poem being broken up into three main canticles. Each one of these canticles contains thirty-three cantos. The number three is an important Christian symbol as it symbolizes the Trinity. This is important to Dante in his poem due to his religious beliefs. As the reader gets a literal description on Dante’s travels, the reader symbolically gains insight on how people viewed the progression of a person’s soul toward God. The first canticle is about Dante’s and his guide, Virgil’s, descent through the ten circles of Hell. As they descend through Hell the reader learns about the 10 circles. The deeper in Hell the worse your sin is considered. The sins that represented the circles included lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy and more. The reader also learns that the punishment a soul in Hell receives is tailored to the sin they committed. For example fortune tellers have their heads placed on backwards so they cannot see what lay ahead. Heretics are buried in tombs that burn forever. Lastly Dante...
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...The book "Inferno", portrays the journey of its creator through what he says is Hell, consisting of nine circles which people who committed sin suffer in. In his adventure Dante is guided through the nine circles by the artist Virgil, who speaks to Human Reason. Every circle in the book speaks to an alternate kind of wrongdoing with an alternate sort of discipline, fluctuating according to the level of offense they conferred in life. In his outing through each one of these circles, Dante acknowledges and underlines the perfection of God's Justice and the seriousness of every offense towards the maker of all life. Dante as a Christian understands the perfection of God's justice. He can make an association between a spirit's wrongdoing on Earth and the discipline he or she gets in Hell. In Inferno, Dante clarifies that God made Hell by justice, a particular case of this, may be the point at which he was entering the Gates of Hell, he read on the passageway of the entryway the sign that said, "Sacred Justice moved my Architect I was raised here by the Divine Omnipotence..." (Alighieri Canto III) without a doubt, ascribing the making of Hell to God and his heavenly justice. God's perfect justice is precisely what shapes...
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...Underworld, Hell, Hades ECT (A comparison of the underworld from The Odyssey and The Aneid.) Where one goes after death is a mystery. No scientist has proof, no Christian has proof, no ONE has any proof. All this world has is guesses, and what we are told through religious texts; and from there is where people draw their own personal opinion. “I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.” (Einstein) However in ancient Greece and Rome the afterlife did not have the illusive idea of a heaven and hell, they simply had an underworld ruled by the brother of the great god Zeus; Hades, or in Latin Pluto. However the underworld was described differently and similarly in several different cases, in several different takes of the stories. For example, Edith Hamilton in part IV of her book Greek Mythology, describes the visits of Odysseus and Aeneas to the underworld. Although they do relate in some ways, in others they are completely different. The decent into the underworld...
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...Although Bless Me Ultima is widely celebrated for its authentic description of Latino culture and folklore, it is also a fine example of bildungsroman, or a coming of age story. The main character, Antonio, experiences trials, descents into darkness, heroic feats, and achievement of knew knowledge. By the end of the story he has begun to encounter the real world and grow in maturity which will one day help him grow into a man. He has also learned that not everything has to be as it was in the past and that things can be changed. The first stage of Antonio's coming of age are the trials he undergoes. These trials expose him to some form of evil, all of which teach him something about life. Most of the trials he encounters are through Tenorio,...
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...201 Character Analysis: Lucifer in Dante's Inferno Dante's Inferno in the Divine Comedy portrays Dante accompanied by Virgil, famous author to the Aeneid, journeying through the nine circles of Hell, encountering all sorts of demons, monsters, and the damned. Throughout this journey it is inevitable that Dante and Virgil will confront the greatest of the fallen, the lord Diabolus, Lucifer himself. Satan was once the greatest of God's angels, his beauty and magnificence was only matched by his arrogance and ambition for God's throne. Proving to be no match against his omnipotence and eternal power of the Lord, Satan was banished from Heaven for his treachery. His crashing descent into Earth left the deep pit that is Hell and the Mountain of Purgatory was raised on the opposite side. The popular conception of Dante's era depicted Satan as the ultimate master over the dominion of Hell and who always attempted to dissuade humanity from God's eternal light and join Lucifer in his damnation. Dante presents an almost polar opposite of the devil as just another powerless victim in Hell's tortures, based on his appearance, actions, and the ungodly center of hell in which the Devil resides. Dante's Satan is a truly horrific and yet almost pitiful being that resides n the lowest portion of Hell, the ninth circle that held the betrayers. Dante's apprehension to enter the ninth circle was well deserved, as it was truly a horrid place for the punished partly for its simplicity. "I heard this...
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...musician as God (Kerouac 119 & 229). However, these moments are fleeting and soon “God [is] gone” (Kerouac 119), and the connection to Paradise was lost. The only other time in which Sal and Dean feel a proximity to the object of their quest is when they journey down to Mexico. This is the “magic land at the end of the road” (Kerouac 264), the enchantment beyond what either of the could have ever dreamed. At first glance, this trip seems an unlikely place to find Paradise. Their time spent in Mexico is filled with drugs, alcohol, and prostitutes-an adventure more suited for sin than redemption (Kerouac 269-277). Similarly, a migration south in literature is traditionally symbolic of the descent into Hell which is the opposite of the characters’ intended destination. However, the closeness to God in descent is plausible when seen in the context of felix culpa or “the fortunate fall”. This is the idea that it was necessary for man to fall from grace so that he could be brought up to an even higher place. Milton also mentions the idea in Paradise Lost when Adam begins to see his exile as a positive thing for humanity since “evil turn to good [is] more wonderful than that which by creation first brought forth light out of darkness” (Milton 12.471-473). Thus, it is necessary for Sal and Dean to first journey south and into sin so that their subsequent rise is more significant. This is why they are able to find Paradise and God in a Mexican brothel. ...
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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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...How Much Do Lady Macbeth and Ophelia Have in Common? Although obvious polar opposites, Lady Macbeth and Ophelia are connected, their descent into insanity and eventual demise are their one liking variable. Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famously frightening and powerful female characters. At the start of the play, she is a loving wife to her husband but at the same time very ambitious, as shown by her immediate determination for Macbeth to be king. This outcome will benefit her and her husband equally. She immediately concludes that "the fastest way" for Macbeth to become king is by murdering King Duncan. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth knows her husband well. She thinks he may be too kind in order to murder King Duncan. At first Macbeth agrees but later wavers in his decision, but Lady Macbeth assures him that being king is what he really wants and that this is the best for both of them. So, in response to Macbeth's uncertainty, Lady Macbeth manipulates him by questioning his manhood and his love for her. She is successful because regardless of his own conscience, Macbeth carries out their plan of murder, by himself. The almost superhuman strength Lady Macbeth gains for the occasion and her cunning ability are shown through her meticulous attention to detail regarding the murder. However, though Lady Macbeth seems strong in her initial pursuits, she proves her weakness when she is unable to commit the act herself or deal with the consequences of her actions. Lady Macbeth's...
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...Chris Ofili (British, born October 10, 1968), Turner Prize-winning painter and member of the Young British Artists, is best known for his inventive, vibrant works examining contemporary black experience, which draw upon a wide array of historical and cultural sources. Born in Manchester, Ofili studied in London at the Chelsea School of Art from 1988 through 1991, and received a master’s degree from the Royal College of Art in 1993. While he was a student he traveled to Zimbabwe for six weeks, an experience that significantly impacted his artistic production. One of the few YBAs of African descent, Ofili’s work was exhibited regularly by Charles Saatchi at his North London gallery. In brightly colored, technically complex works, Ofili incorporates...
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...RELIGON AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY The religious beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses are in many ways similar to those of mainstream Christians. For instance, Witnesses rely on the authority of the Bible, worship only one God, and trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection for salvation. Some other beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses differ from mainstream Christianity, most notably their rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity and the existence of Hell. Witnesses also have a stronger apocalyptic expectation than most Christians-since the founding of the group, Witnesses have been expecting the imminent arrival of Armageddon and the end times. Jehovah’s Witnesses disagree with the mainstream Christian belief that Jesus was “fully God, fully Man.” In accordance with their rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity, Witnesses disagree with mainstream Christianity that the Holy Spirit to be “God’s active force.” Like most Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses trace humanity’s current situation to the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden. Jehovah’s Witnesses consider themselves true Christians, but most mainstream Christians do not agree that they are. The feeling is mutual, however, Jehovah’s Witnesses deny that other Christian groups are true Christians. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are native to the United States with roots dating back to the teachings of Charles Taze Russell, a minister in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the 1870s. The organization does not advertise in the media and strives to remain separate...
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...Punishment in Dante’s Inferno In Dante’s Inferno, Dante narrates his descent and observation of hell through its various circles. One part of this depiction is his descriptions of the various punishments that each of the different sinners has received. The various punishments that Dante imagines the sinners receiving are broken down into two types. The first type he borrows from various gruesome and cruel forms of torture and the second type is Dante’s creative mind thinking of less physically agonizing types of torture, usually psychological torture. The torturous forms of punishments are either physical pain or mental and psychological suffering. Several punishments that Dante envisions for the various sinners are forms of torture. The first physical punishment from that is his punishment for the heretics. The penalty in the medieval era for heresy was public humiliation or worse, being burned to death for having different beliefs. In Dante’s opinion, to be a heretic was to follow one’s own opinion and not the beliefs of the Christian Church. Dante’s punishment for heretics and those who followed them was that they be sepulchered and to have some tombs “heated more, some less” as in to still have them suffer while buried. Since the archheretics believed that everything died with the body and that there was no soul, Dante not only punishes them with the hot and crowded tombs, but he punishes them with their beliefs and lets them feel what it is like to...
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...the holocaust overall progressed. Originally before i was given the lecture and became witness to the seminar, i had thought that the Holocaust was just a systematic event that only had three steps: Find the Jew, transport him, and kill him. I realize now that that was not the whole of it. The Germans did many other things besides take out the Jews in large numbers. They passed many laws to turn their life into a hell before they were even in the concentration camps. I realize now that the Holocaust wasn’t just the period of time where the Jews were killed only in concentration camps but also there was much background history before that had even occurred. Originally they were all living much more comfortably in the Ghettos, relative to the conditions in the concentration camps. However, their treatment was extremely cruel relative to my ordinary life right now. The Jews living in Germany or protectorates of Germany were demoralized when their jobs and business were taken away as well as their family or people they loved who weren’t of Jewish descent or German descent, vice versa. Not to mention some of the other religions of faith such as Christianity were unsympathetic to suffering of the jews. Hitler was passionate about purifying the Aryan race and he was also passionate in achieving a mass genocide of the jews. The government all in all was so anti-semitism, that they passed 400 laws in over ten years just to get the clearance for the Jews extermination. However, I never...
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...LITR211 16 February 2014 Heart of Darkness Criticism Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a novella that despite its short length constructs a tale that is as dense and complex as the undergrowth of the jungle through which the main character travels. The tale, which begins as a frame narrative on the Thames in London, chronicles Charlie Marlow’s descent from Belgium into the heart of Africa in search of Kurtz, the infamous chief of the inner station. As Marlow travels through Africa, we are treated to a wildly different view of Africa then we typically see in popular culture, with the book portraying the harsh realities of Colonialism while also creating an atmosphere of dread and horror. This atmosphere is incredibly critical to the way in which we view the story, which has been criticized both as a racist text and as the first truly critical account of Imperialism. The journey culminates at the inner station where Marlow meets the legendary Kurtz, a character so complex that critics are still analyzing his purpose in the story. Heart of Darkness, is certainly one of the most polarizing novels of the last few centuries, with critical essays singing its praises and damning its aesthetics being almost equal in sheer volume. The watershed of criticisms towards Conrad’s visionary novella burst with Chinua Achebe’s scathing write up of the story, with its famous defaming of Conrad as a “bloody racist” (Achebe 343), that ends with the suggestion that it be banned from student...
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