Circles In Dante's Inferno

In the novel The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Dante illustrates the different circles of Hell as well as how each sin within a circle is punished. Throughout Hell there are nine different levels and as you travel deeper into Hell each punishment gets more intense and harsh. As Dante travels through hell, the relationship between a sin and it’s punishment becomes clear through the allegorical lens. Circle one encompasses those who were born before Christ. This circle, which is also known as limbo, consists of many great heroes and thinkers.

“‘The soul that suffers most,’ explained my Guide, ‘is Judas Iscariot, he who kicks his legs on fiery chin and his head inside. Of the other two, who have their heads thrust forward, the one who dangles down from the black face is Brutus, there with the huge and sinewy arms, is the soul of Cassius. But the night is coming on and we must go, for we have seen the whole.’” (pg. 281)This imagery shows that these three sinners are the worse human kind, because Judas betrayed Christ and Brutus and Cassius betrayed Caesar.

In Dante’s Inferno, Dante thoroughly describes what he believes Hell to be. He lists many sins, along with their punishments and placements in Hell. Strangely enough, Dante does not have a specific circle for idolatry, the worship of idols, or something other than God. This is thought to be strange because idolatry is generally considered a grave sin. One possible explanation of this is that each sin in itself can be viewed as a form of idolatry.

Down to the penultimate Canto, Dante meets the second pair of sinners bound together: Ugolino and Ruggieri. Ugolino bites the skull of Ruggieri—the vengeance that he badly wanted on earth is given to him for eternity. This image of Ugolino and Ruggieri reminds us of the image of Paulo and Francesca as the only sinners in Hell that are bound together. The juxtaposition of Ugolino and Francesca ultimately demonstrates two facets of love: A fatherly love that was rejected because of pride and a passionate love that was pursued despite its unlawful nature. (Inf.

There are, according to Dante, nine levels to Hell and each has a different punishment for different sins. The first layer is Limbo, this is where all virtuous non- christian and all unbaptised

Hawthorne’s use of words such as “mournful,” “sinful,” “dreadful,” “horror,” “shadow,” and “red stigma” create a dark and deathly tone (Hawthorne 381). This tone associates directly with Chillingworth which adds to his nightmarish portrayal in the passage. Hawthorne also uses imagery to portray Chillingworth as a symbol of the devil in the quote “the devil knew it well and fitted it continually with the touch of his burning finger!” he literally calls Chillingworth the devil, and “now at the death-hour, he stands before you” is also used to portray him as the devil because the “death-hour” is foreshadowing the apocalypse and soon coming end to the novel (Hawthorne 381). Chillingworth’s portrayal as evil and the devil is used in the book to reveal that seeking revenge towards Hester caused hate to manifest inside him and transformed him into a much darker and more evil being than he once was in the beginning of the book.

Dante’s Inferno imposes an allegorical journey through Hell. Many symbols were used to create a sense of how the wrong-doing of oneself is the set up to one’s own personal hell. The first symbol introduced in the poem was The Dark Wood of Error. This represented worldliness and how the soul can become corrupt with envy, lust, and gluttony. All three of these sins are represented by a panther, lion, and she-wolf.

And [Filippo]: ‘I am one who weeps.’ And [Dante] then: || ‘May you weep and wail to all eternity, / for I know you, hell-dog, filthy as you are.” (Canto VIII, lines 34-38) Dante uses Filippo Argenti as a symbol of his anger towards the Black Guelphs. Dante, a member of the White Guelphs, believed in freedom for Rome, whereas the Black Guelphs were in favor of submitting to the powers of the Pope.

The ‘contrapasso’ in accordance with Dante’s Inferno is a process, “either resembling or contrasting with the sin itself” (Musa 37-38). The disenabling of the soul to enjoy the good that it had once rejected is evident as a result of the contrapasso for the soul has no room to grow therefore remains stagnant from the consequences of the choices made on earth (Sayers, Dante The Divine Comedy 1: Hell 120). This mere description of a damned soul’s fate already paints a distasteful picture of the nature of Hell

Throughout Paradise Lost, Satan is living his time of existence through sins and lies, leaving evil in every path he takes. Since this is Milton’s portrayal of the fall of man, once can assume assume that much is a fictional account; however, much of Milton’s poem comes from the book of Genesis. Scripture references the Book of Genesis, in which Eve is tempted by Satan; who appears so deceivingly in serpentine form. By eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, she indulges herself within the fallacious fate of the devils corruptive nature. Milton’s intrinsic writing style blatantly reveals irony within the first sentence.

The Underworld In the underworld, life is absolute misery. It is definitely not the ideal place to travel to after death. Luckily, the only people designated to go to the underworld are the ones who truly deserve it. For example, Jeffrey Dahmer and Al Capone would spend all of eternity there, but they would not be placed in the same section of the underworld.

The Seven Deadly Sins are always a theme in which many things can relate to: lust, greed, sloth, envy, pride, wrath, and gluttony. Some books are quite easy to relate, while others have a harder time finding connections. Four books can relate to four of the seven deadly sins very easily. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, can relate to lust, Julius Caesar, by Shakespeare, relates to envy, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, relates to pride, and finally Night, by Elie Wiesel, relates to wrath.     The Great Gatsby relates to the deadly sin of lust on more than one occasion.