Suicide In Dante's Inferno

I found Canto XXXIII of Dante’s Inferno to be an extremely intriguing canto as it highlighted many key themes portrayed throughout all of Inferno such as betrayal, cruelness and death. This can be illustrated from Count Ugolino’s story on his cruel death in the hands of the Archbishop Ruggieri and what led to his journey to Hell. Ugolino begins by calling the archbishop a traitor for imprisoning him and his children, claiming “How [Ugolino] was seized, and executed then, having trusted [Ruggieri] while he betrayed and lied” (Canto XXXIII, p. 1). Then, Ugolino recalled how Ruggieri viciously starved them to the point where, upon witnessing their father’s grief and sorrow, Ugolino’s children began urging their father to eat them in order to relieve their father of his great hunger and ensure his survival. In the following few days, all his sons died of hunger, extending Ugolino’s misery even further. Ugolino ends his story with a rather disturbing line, “Then fasting did what misery had not done,” perhaps hinting at the possibility that he ate his dead sons, which could ultimately explain why Ugolino was in hell (p.2).

In C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, Lewis is arguing that Hell is not necessarily a place where wicked people who detest God end up; Hell is a place that offers people exactly what they want. The Great Divorce presents “the reason for Hell,” which is people choosing their own wishes over God (Gibson 110). This novel reveals that the self-imprisonment of one’s greatest dreams can lead to infernal results (Gibson 113). In The Great Divorce, Lewis uses Dantean structure, the nature of Grey Town, and the various Ghosts’ interviews to prove that to live in Hell is to receive and accept everything except God and his will.

Dante the Poet is the harsh and moralistic imposer of punishment in Inferno. The sinners Dante, as the author, condemns are his commentary on the immorality of the people and politics of Florence. He places the Italian Ciacco in the ring for gluttons, where he must revel in the eternal disgust of his sin. Ciacco means hog, so Dante could be commenting on the gluttony of all the people in Florence by placing him in the third ring of hell. Ciacco also provides the prophecy of Florence’s political collapse. This is how Dante criticizes the Florentine government: by having a shade reveals its tragic downfall. He also includes many Greek monsters (like Cerberus, Plutus, and the River Styx). Here, Dante the Poet denounces paganism and establishes Christianity as the definitive faith. However, he still includes censure of the Church. Members of the fifth circle, for the Avarice and Prodigal, include shades that Dante the Pilgrim recognizes as clergymen. In other words, Dante the Poet rebukes the Church’s greedy and reckless behavior by placing its members in hell.

“The pit is prepared, the fire is made ready.” The pit is referring to hell. Hell is hot and

Four hundred thousand deaths, six hundred thousand attempts, and two hundred thousand considerations in a single year. The seeming epidemic that is teen suicide plagues the minds of teachers, students, friends, neighbors, and parents. Despite this wide range of victims, teenage suicide most directly affects the parents of these children, who commonly feel an overwhelming sense of guilt due to their inability to help their children. However, to many it appears obvious that there are not many things parents can do to prevent suicide, for many reasons. Furthermore, William Shakespeare proves this with his tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” in which two teenagers take their lives. In other words, Shakespeare expertly portrays two young people battling

Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy begins with Dante’s journey into Hell. Dante has strayed from the true path and must therefore take this journey into the supernatural realms in order to correct himself. In the Inferno, Dante dramatically changes his perception of sin from a response of empathy to a response of disgust and hatred. The turning point of his perception is when he encounters the sinner Filippo Argenti in the Fifth Circle of Hell. It is this point of the journey when Dante truly begins to adjust his response to sin, illustrating an inward change in Dante’s own soul.

One of the most significant themes, if not the most significant theme within Dante’s Inferno is the perfection of God’s divine justice. Dante expressees divine justice within Inferno in a multitude of ways, with one of the the most prominent examples being the overall structure of Hell and how the punishment for the sinners (perfectly) reflects upon the sin. To the modern reader, Hell likely seems more like an act of cruelty than divine justice, much less a product of God’s love. At first,the torments that the sinners are subjected to seems extreme and grotesque. But, as the poem continues to progress, it becomes quite clear the there is a perfect balance within God’s justice as the degree of each sinner’s punishment perfectly reflects upon the gravity of the sin. Furthermore, the inscription on the gates of Hell explicitly states that Hell exists as a result of divine justice; “ll. “Justice moved my great maker; God eternal / Wrought me: the power and the unsearchably / High wisdom, and the primal love supernal (III.4-6).”

"The Inferno" is the first book in the epic poem called the “Divine Comedy” by the Italian politician Dante Alighieri and it is followed by "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso”. The book "Inferno", which is the Italian translation for Hell, tells the journey of its author through what he believes is Hell, which consists of nine circles of pain and suffering. In his journey, he is guided through the nine circles by the Roman poet Virgil. Each circle in the book represents a different type of sin with a different type of punishment, varying according to the degree of the offense they committed in their life. By the end of his journey through all of the circles, Dante realizes and emphasizes the perfection of God's Justice and the significance of each offense towards God’s unconditional love.

Dante’s Inferno is an epic poem by Durante “Dante” degli Alighieri, written in the 1300s. He wrote a trilogy, known as the Divine Comedy, consisting of Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. Dante was inspired by many events and issues happening at that time, such as the war between Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Battle of Montaperti, and Christian religious beliefs. In this paper, I will explore the first book, Inferno, on the topic of Hell and how the sinners had a significant impact on Dante’s journey through Hell. In Circle 5: Styx, Canto VIII, Filippo Argenti, a sinner of Wrathful, helped Dante to symbolize to readers his anger towards Black Guelphs, political enemies of the White Guelphs. In Circle 7: Round Three, Canto XV, Ser Brunetto Latino,

Themes are fundamental and universal ideas that are explored in literary works. The epics of The Inferno by Dante and The Odyssey by Homer are two different stories with themes that that have some similarities while others have distinction. In The Odyssey, the central point is Odysseus struggling to go back home. In Inferno, Dante is the main character who is fighting between good and evil, which translates to be the theme of the story. Dante explores deeply the Christian hell and heaven, which includes the immediate Purgatory. This experience makes him cast his allegiance to good and God. The differences between these two stories are depicted when comparing the epic conventions, epic characteristics, and when comparing the various religious backgrounds of the times in which these two stories were written.

Unfortunately, Dante’s journey transitions from the wood into the depths of Hell where he and readers discover the Christian view of sin, repentance, and the need for a savior. The author introduces his readers to Jesus Christ during Virgil and Dante’s conversation about the lost souls in Limbo. In the First Circle of Hell, known as Limbo, the lost souls that did not have an opportunity to meet Jesus Christ dwell in this place. Although they did not sin, they did not have a proper relationship with God through Jesus Christ. However, Virgil testifies about Jesus’ decision into Hell when he says, “ I saw a mighty lord descend to us…He took from us the shade of our first parent…and much more he chose for blessedness; before these souls were taken,

The year is 1302, Dante Alighieri is absent from his role as one of the six supreme magistrates. Prior to that he had an extremely successful political career who had no problem exerting his power. Dante considered himself “a moderate White, he found it necessary during the two-month term to join in banishing his brother-in-law, Corso Donati, and his "first friend," Guido Cavalcanti, as ringleaders respectively of the Blacks and Whites.” Blacks and Whites were faction groups who had ongoing fights in the streets of Florence. This is an extremely admirable trait of a great ruler and/or ruler, the ability to at any moment turn on friends or family in order to uphold the city or government. This is comparable to the pride Greeks had in their respective

For nearly 2000 years, various religions continue to perpetuate the idea of an underworld, or a place after death. For the Greeks, much of their mythology deals with Gods, Goddesses, and the afterlife. Catholics, however, base their idea of an afterlife with three levels: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, a place for people who must experience a purification of sorts. Numerous Greek writers wrote about the idea of their underworld, or Hades, one of the most famous being Homer, writer of The Odyssey. The Odyssey details the hero Odysseus’ journey back to his homeland of Ithaca. In book 11, Odysseus, for the first time in the poem, travels to the underworld on instructions from Circe.

Dante Alighieri, who was born in 1265 CE and later died in 1321 CE, was a famous poet in Florence, Italy, most commonly known for his book, Dante’s Inferno. Dante’s Inferno was a product of Dante’s time period because in Florence during this time period, the idea of death and afterlife was very prominent in religion, and Dante’s text, The Inferno, focuses on the idea that the sins committed during one’s life determines the fate of one’s after-life. Because the idea that one’s sins determined their fate and life after death was such a common element in literature and art in Florence during this time period, many other pieces of work emphasized the same ideals, specifically one work in particular, The Scrovegni Chapel.

In the “Divine Comedy” the writer, Dante Alighieri uses his own namesake to create a character, Dante, whose moralistic qualities change dramatically as he journeys through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. In the beginning, Dante finds himself lost on the path of sin and is sympathetic to others who have strayed as well. As he begins his journey, Dante shows concern and sympathy to the suffering sinners. It is only once Dante ventures deeper into the circles of Hell, when his demeanor changes and hatred begins to show. Dante, once weak and blindly empathetic to the sinners who turned their back to God’s love, becomes consciously aware of the importance of faith and justice.