Dante Vs. Chaucer

The idea of Hell itself in most Judeo-Christian denominations begins with the simple premise of being a place for those who have either sinned or turned his or her back on God, damning them to an eternity of punishment and suffering. A major idea presented in Inferno is the idea of the contrapasso. Justin Steinburg in his essay “Dante’s Justice? A Reapprasial of the Contrapasso” summarizes the idea by explaining it as a balance of crime and punishment in Hell. In canto 28 in the Inferno, the Dante first poses the idea in text when Bertran de Born must carry his own head in his arms after separating father from son.

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.

Alighieri as a child excelled in his studies and offered much to the world of philosophy, yet preferred poetry to his studies. " Kind star or something better has given me that gift, I not abuse it. “ (Alighieri, Canto 26). Alighieri turned to poetry as his only emotional outlet, increasingly so after by the death of his lover, Beatrice Portinari. Alighieri had unforgiving tendencies regarding political stances, however, Dante was in most opposition against those in neutral parties.

The Aeneid, as well as The Inferno, depict hell as a place where there are multiple levels and where sins are punished differently depending on the degree of severity, the evilest of sins receiving the worst punishments. Virgil like Dante portrays an afterlife in which people are awarded for their deeds. This kind of belief would have been prominent in a character like Aeneas, he would have believed that his deeds would have been justly rewarded in the afterlife. While he most likely did not have the same set of values and virtues that St. Augustine later had after his conversion he did live by a code of honor or a set of values that pertained to his time and culture. The virtue he possessed that motivated him to establish a new home in modern day Rome was one of honor, which was very important to ancient civilizations, both greek and Trojans alike.

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

These condemned lustful souls suffer there judgment by spending eternity in a whirlwind (110-111). One of the souls catches Dante’s attention so he speaks with her, readers learn a few things about the nature of lust, sin, the need to repent, and eternal judgment. First, lust and deception are close companions, when Francesca explains her story she refuses to take responsibility for her actions, “ One day we read…of Lancelot, of how he fell in love…”(113). Secondly, Francesca’s spiritual blindness prevents her from repenting, therefore, she must spend eternity in hell for her sins forever attached to her lover as a constant reminder of the moment they were exposed and killed for their lustful passion(119). After hearing her story and seeing her torment, Dante becomes overwhelmed to the point of fainting.

Despite the fact that Screwtape argues that Hell is the only real place, Lewis has a counterargument in his The Great Divorce, in which Heaven is described as the realest place of all (Lewis 504). Screwtape only sees the negative side of realism, which is why Lewis does not agree with his arguments of war and death as the only component of

This sonnet recounts a man 's travel through the three domains of the dead. Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. It starts with Dante feeling lost and not able to locate the straight way. Virgil, a poet who has gone on, safeguards him and they start their adventure through the Inferno. Dante gets the chance to meet souls as they experience the distinctive circles of Hell.

To find out the meaning of evil according to Paradise Lost, the rhetorical structure of Paradise Lost must be established first and as such the dialectical reversal that Satan uses throughout the whole epic poem must be examined. In reading and understanding the words of Satan in Paradise Lost, it is crucial to examine how Paradise Lost contorts the, then conventional, ideas of the epic poem

Pfeiffer and Julie presented in their article various views about the hero of Paradise Lost , some of these agree that Satan is the hero like when they said "The most famous such response is, of course, that of the Romantic poets who suggested that Satan is, in fact, the hero of the epic" additionally " Whereas Shelley and many of his contemporaries may have found in Satan the true hero of Paradise Lost ..." Likewise, kaiter and sandiuc said "Satan deserves the tragic hero status. He has not only the statue of a tragic hero, but also his attributes

In this bolgia there are falsifiers. Since the falsifiers lied to people’s senses they get their senses

Edgar first started writing when he was younger. He mainly wrote short stories, none like those in his adult life. Writing was always something Edgar loved. He did stop writing for a while while in the military, but after leaving military school he got back into writing, mostly as a harsh critic in newspapers and magazines. His critiques in the papers and magazines were so harsh and rude that people started calling him the Tomahawk man , but sadly writing in magazines and newspapers barely earned Edgar enough money to live on.

Geoffrey Chaucer, considered one of the greatest English poets in the Middle Ages, composed The Canterbury Tales in the late fourteenth century. In the novel twenty-nine men and women representing all aspects of Medieval society embark on a religious pilgrimage to the cathedral at Canterbury in southeast England. On their journey their host engages them in a storytelling contest with a free meal as the prize upon their return. Chaucer wrote the tales in Middle English, the vernacular of the Medieval period, making his work accessible to all classes of people.

The title of this book is Dante’s Inferno and is written by Dante Alighieri. Dante’s Inferno was first published in 1317 and fits into the genre of an epic poem. The setting of this story is mostly hell in the year 1300. The author of this poem has a very moral tone. The two most prominent characters in this poem are Dante and Virgil.

Fear of the Lord is a gift of the Holy Spirit and fear of doing God’s will reveals an error in one’s conscience. When one is afraid he is lacking in faith because he is placing his trust in something other than God. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines fear: “Fear is an unsettlement of soul consequent upon the apprehension of some present or future danger.” Dante exhibits fear in the Inferno and Purgatorio because of this misplacement of trust due to an error in his conscience. In the Inferno, Dante is afraid to enter the gates of hell.