Death And Afterlife In Dante's Inferno

In Dante’s The Inferno, each part of his journey through Hell is broken up into different cantos, often according to which circle or sin he is choosing to focus on. The Dante that is being written about needs Virgil, Dante’s beloved hero of a poet stuck in Limbo, to guide him. Ultimately, Virgil also guides us by teaching a lesson both Dante and the reader in every canto. One of Virgil’s biggest explanations to Dante takes place in Canto II when he tells Dante why he’s so special to be able to journey through Hell alive. What makes Canto II so intriguing is not only the abundance of backstory and context given for the purpose of Dante going through Hell, but the eloquent and poetic language used to tell the story and give us our first impression of Dante’s old love, Beatrice.

“The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality” (Dante’s Inferno). Dante Alighieri was an Italian writer born in Florence. He made a huge impact between the late 1200’s and early 1300’s in Florence by his political views, ideology and writing style. In 1301 he was exiled out of Florence and from this he created his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy which houses Dante’s Inferno. Upon reading selections of Dante's Inferno (Cantos: one, three, five, and thirty-four) one cannot help but see that vast amount of allusion made by this world renown author.

Finally, this essay will investigate how Dantes connection to Florentine art influenced the poems content. This essay aims to investigate the relevance of Italian 13,14 and 15th century religion, politics and art throughout Dantes inferno. Being the most important part of daily medieval life, Religion is prone to be one of the most influential topics in Dantes Divine comedy. Catholicism ruled as the dominant religion in medieval Florence from “the late 13th to the early 14th century” (Trotter). Dantes entire depiction of hell is based on Religion, Dantes spheres of hell all reflect a certain type of sin found in the bible (Trotter).

Many of us sometimes lie awake thinking of life, death, and what happens after. Nobody knows for certain what happens once the soul leaves the body, we don’t know if there will be life after death, we don’t know if we will be punished for all that we’ve done wrong, and for that reason many of us fear death and try to stay on the straight, morally right path in order to avoid Hell. In the epic poem, The Inferno, written by Dante Alighieri, we get a sense of what Hell is like, or at least Alighieri’s rendition of Hell. After venturing from the straight path, Alighieri’s self-based character, Dante, finds himself on the verge of entering Hell. Dante’s figure for human reason, Virgil, a Virtuous Pagan, leads Dante through the nine circles of Hell

To the Puritans, they believed in collective guilt and that one should repent for their sinful actions till their death; they viewed sin as a socially unacceptable crime. Hawthorne himself agrees with the idea of ‘doctrine of original sin,’, however, he opposes to the Puritanical traditional thinking and suggests how sin is an educative effect that alters one into an incomparable wise figure before the ‘sinful’ act (Mills 97).“‘Among all its bad influences, the black veil had the one desirable effect of making its wearer a very efficient clergyman. By the aid of his mysterious emblem---for there was no other apparent cause---he became a man of awful power over souls that were in agony for sin”’ (Hawthorne 262). Through the use an awe tone, Hawthorne illustrates how the effect of the veil has transformed Minister Hooper into a more effective minister than before. From the words that provide the perception of awe, ‘efficient,’ ‘mysterious,’and ‘awful,’ it depicts a sense of reverential respect yet incorporated fear within it.

After speaking with Elizabeth, John decides that he wants to live and signs a confession. However, his immense pride wants him to save his name. Proctor decides to tell the truth that he is not a witch and rips up the written confession. He preserves his pride and dignity and declares the truth at the same time, dying as a man with flaws yet a good man, allowing the readers the ability to categorize him as a tragic hero. Proctor 's downfall in the play is caused by human error, which qualifies him to be the tragic hero.

"This is the case that everyone one of you is out of Christ..." It is true, as according to the Puritan faith, that unconverted people will go to Hell." To further convince potential Puritans, he uses another logical appeal. Edwards points out something observable, that would seemingly contradict his assertion, and debunks it. “You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of Hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more..." This works as a counter-argument for the fact that the audience isn't currently feeling the effects of their sins and asserts that they are going to feel them eventually.

The construction of Frost’s poem closely resembles the poetic structure of Dante’s Inferno, as well as incorporates physical representations of its content. When writing La Divina Commedia in the 1300’s, Dante invented terza rima, an arrangement of rhyming triplets in iambs. It requires the last word of the second line in each tercet to provide the rhyme for the first and third lines in the next tercet (aba, bcb, cdc). It is likely that Dante’s choice of terza rima symbolizes the Holy Trinity, supporting the religious theme incorporated into the Inferno. Due to Inferno’s success, other poets attempted to employ terza rima in their poetry, such as the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who used it in “Complaints to his Lady” written in the 14th

The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, follows the pilgrim as he travers through the three spheres of eternity: Hell, Purgatory, Heaven. Hell is described as a pit of rings, each containing a unique sin which increases in severity as one travels downward. Throughout the Inferno, Dante takes great care to highlight sins especially heinous to his particular historical context of the Medieval Ages. Canto XIX of Inferno looks to the sin of Simony, a sin common among the popes in Dante’s day. Simony is the selling a Church positions or misuse of Church authoritative offices for earthly wealth and gain.

The three animals represent the three main types of sin in Dante’s Hell. As Dante was loosing all hope and “rushing down to that low place the spirit of Virgil appears to give him hope and guide him. In his state of madness after being exiled, the soul of Virgil becomes his guide. Dante gives us a biography of Virgil. He refers to Virgil as “fount from which pours forth so rich a stream of words” and a “famous sage” According to Oxford Dictionary Fount means a source of desirable quality and sage means a profoundly wise man.

5.4,8) God cares for those who are suffering, but only those who rely on Him will experience His joy in the midst of their sorrows. People who trust in God will be brought through their sorrows to a joyous result. On the other hand, people who trust in false gods react to sorrows in a rage that leads to destruction. As human mirrors, people such as Agamemnon, Achilles, and Job reflect their gods, and those who reflect false gods will fail just like the idols they

Character + Theme Dante’s change of mindset from inquisitive to analytical allows him to see the effects of his actions more greatly than before. Dante’s interest in watching two souls quarrel earns him a scolding from Virgil. He encourages Dante not to be amused or interested by sinners but rather look at them through God’s justice. Dante is immediately ashamed of his action that he feels,” wheeled about with such a starch of shame that (he) grow pale yet at the memory” (30.134-135) a response he would not have shown in the earlier Cantos. Dante begins to understand how his actions affect himself and the people around him, interest or compassion for the sinners does more bad than good for both of them.