Christian Religious Beliefs In Dante's Inferno

Hostility or Compassion? Dante Alighieri, was exiled from Florence, Italy, because of politics, after he was exiled he wrote an epic about his view of Hell. In the epic, The Inferno, Dante, the protagonist, strays from the right path, so Virgil, his guide takes him through Hell to show him that he needs to get back on the path of God. However during the epic, Alighieri shows compassion and hostility to certain sinners through his protagonists actions, diction and extra punishments. Such sinners he felt compassion or hostility to are Filippo Argenti, Ser Brunetto Latino, and Bocca Degli Abbati.

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.

Circle V: Wrath and Sullenness Dante’s journey through Inferno encountered sinners condemned to eternal punishment because of their actions when they were in earth. One of the sin is wrath or anger which is described as a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure or hostility and a response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. Anger could lead to other major sins like violence, revenge and unforgiving. Near the fifth circle of Hell, Phlegylas transports Dante and Virgil by ferry across the Styx. The Styx is the river that encompassed this entire level.

In Dante’s Inferno, there are several allusions referring to people who are famous for their lustful sins. The sinners in the Carnal are tossed and whirled by the winds. They are helpless in the tempests of passion. This canto also begins by descriptions of the circle and those who devoted to the sins of incontinence and lust: the sins of the appetite for skin, the sins of passion, and the sins of self-indulgence. People like Semiramis and Ninus are also known for their lustful sins.

In Poe 's story The Cask of Amontillado, the characters show the theme anger leads to bad decisions. The main characters Montresor and Fortunato show this theme.” The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but within I vowed revenge.” In this quote is shows that Fortunato hurt Montresor which made Montresor want revenge. Montresor has anger toward Fortunato and wants revenge which may lead Montresor to doing something that is bad. “ ‘Fortunato!’ no answer. I called it again- ‘Fortunato.’ “ (166) In this quote it indicates that Montresor killed Fortunato.

Antisthenes once said: “As iron is eaten away by rust, so the envious are consumed by their own passion.” This quote directly relates to how in the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, in which the main character, Gene, experiences jealousy and paranoia. These emotions cause him to create an enemy out of his friend, Finny. The effect of his emotions is that Finny is hurt and crippled for life. The jealousy consumes him just as rust consumes iron. Through the thoughts and actions that Gene chooses to show in his flashback, this paper will draw the conclusion that Gene’s war with Finny was made up in his head in order to give himself a solid enemy to defeat.

His book Divine Comedy was combination of both Christianity and Latin Greek history. He was not only just a medival man he was also the renaissance man, Dante’s has his much influence in th renaissance art and artist. Dante’s Divine Comedy describe his journey through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, and what he saw therein is a Christian epic about vice and virtue, rewards and punishments. In the commidian it has an enormous character all are Dante’s contemporise and some of the renown Greek figures and deities. Florence during that time was highly political and influence, Italy was divided into two political groups.

When someone commits several wrongdoings during their lives, it is very problematic to decide a specific punishment. In the novel The Inferno, Dante categorizes the sinner’s punishment by the severity of their crimes. As for Nero, the Roman Emperor, it is fairly evident that he would be placed in multiple circles of hell, due to the heinous crimes that he has committed while being in charge of Rome. Nero has been linked to several crimes including murders, homosexual acts, and even being directly linked as betraying Rome during the Great fire. Therefore, the Roman emperor is evidently placed in the seventh, eighth and ninth circles of hell, where he would ultimately subside into his rightful place in the inferno.

These outward acts of rage seem to be motivated by his anger towards Victor, for exiling and hating him. When he finally does confront Victor about this, he says “You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me?” (Shelley,

Edwards elaborates on his claim and states if God were to spare the audience now, they would “immediately sink and plunge into a bottomless gulf” of Hell. This dramatic imagery shows the Puritans that God will no longer come to their rescue because the Puritans have chosen to serve Satan. Edwards tries to reach his audience by saying Hell is a “great furnace of wrath” where sinners belong. This description of Hell shows Edwards belief that sinners will pay for not serving God by facing God’s wrath in Hell. Each claim made by Jonathan Edwards motivates the audience to stop serving Satan in order to escape the “very misery to all eternity” that is Hell.