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Contrapasso In Dante's Inferno Analysis

1490 Words6 Pages

Puja Sapkota
Eng122H_02
Ms. Rebecca Hite
15th Feb, 2018 Contrapasso in Dante’s Inferno

Dante Alighieri 's The Divine Comedy is considered an important piece of literature. The first part of this epic poem-the Inferno reveals us the most disturbing and wide description of hell. This poem is narrated by two same yet different persons; Dante the poet and Dante the Pilgrim. Dante has mixed immense effort to enhance the horror of hell and to illustrate the imaginative journey of Dante the Pilgrim as guided by his master, Virgil. Throughout his journey, Dante gives reader a glimpse into his perception of what constitutes sin. In the Inferno, Dante imaginatively pulls all kinds of men …show more content…

The river houses those sinners who committed treachery. The souls have committed treachery by murdering kin, turning against their country, killing their guest and turning against their lord. All of these damned souls are subjected to different level of agony. The souls are thrown randomly at lake Cocytus where they are necessarily frozen in lake up to one’s neck or even being entombed below the surface. They cannot even cry a tear as their tears get frozen. At the center of treachery, is the giant three faced Lucifer. His first glimpse creates a sense of faintness within the pilgrim. Lucifer has three hideous faces which represents hatred, impotence and ignorance and a pair of bat like wings fixed under his chin. Each of his three faces chews the three worst sinners of all times: Judas, Brutus and Cassius. Lucifer was God’s most powerful servant. He was the most beautiful creatures among everyone in the paradise. His glory and his power fostered arrogance and he refused to bow in front of God’s another creation human. Blinded by his own pride Lucifer began assuming that he was the only right ruler and God was incompetent. Lucifer gathered an army to storm heaven but was later defeated by Michael. Lucifer had deceived god by turning against him and thus he is placed in the lowermost circle of hell where he has to endure his unpleasant

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