Contrapasso In Dantes Inferno

“Hell is a...foulsmelling prison,” James Joyce asserts in his essay Hell, “an abode of demons and lost souls, filled with fire and smoke” (295). In addition to both supporting these claims and constructing an engaging narrative, Joyce places himself in the piece as the narrator, guiding the audience through this hellscape. However, Joyce’s authoritative position alone cannot effectively illustrate the scene. As a result, Joyce relies on literary tools to elicit the intended impression of hell, immersing the reader in this environment. By employing an organized structure and a combination of different modes of description, diction and syntax, Joyce cultivates a compelling portrayal of hell that in return, evokes a visceral reaction from the reader.

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.

Alexander the Great of Macedon (356-323 BC) is one of the many historical figures placed in hell, in Dante’s inferno. Alexander the great is located in the first ring of the seventh circle in hell. His crimes to be placed here was going to war, and conquering, those around him. The punishment in the first ring of the seventh circle is to be boiled in a river of blood. The symbolism of this punishment is that river of blood represents all the blood they have spilt.

Elie Wiesel’s true story Night, is an intriguing story about the Holocaust. The guards and even veteran prisoners are cruel to others. The punishments, even for tiny faults, are unthinkably horrid. Man does not care how old or weak someone is; this makes the children and teens change and act inhumane towards other prisoners, even towards their own family. It clearly, and painfully, explains man’s inhumanity to man.

In Dante Alighieri’s famous The Inferno, the author Dante makes himself the main character as he has the special opportunity to enter into Hell with Virgil as his guide and travel deep into the horrifying Nine Circles of Hell. As he travels further into Hell, Alighieri uses different literary methods to emphasize the importance of numerous events and people inhabiting the circles of Hell. While Dante continues his trek in Hell, Alighieri utilizes the use of Hell’s circles, the importance of human emotion, and the significant use of numbers as three different ways to represent the symbolic journey through Hell and to Heaven. The Inferno, a metaphorical poem on Dante’s voyage through Hell, uses many distinct ways to showcase how symbolic and fulfilling the expedition is through the utilization of Dante’s changing reactions towards the people in Hell, the deepening circles of Hell, and the

“Those angels burden and unbalance us. Those fucking angels ride us piggyback” (985) written by Sherman perfectly describe the emotions he may have internally felt while writing this poem. “Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World” written by Sherman Alexie is the poem I chose to present for my poem presentation assignment due the mixed dark humor and emotions it conveys to the audience which I believe are grief, anger and a bit of dark humor. All in which are emotions I believe for most, if not emotions we can easily relate with someway or somehow. In this case however we will learn and discover what tragic event may have triggered Alexie to write such heavy hearted poem with really heavy hearted emotions that I believe should not be felt

Dante chose these three sinners to demonstrate contrapasso . Moreover , Circle 9 is the greatest level of hell and betrayal is by far the worst sin anyone could commit. These sinners are being chewed on by Satan himself for eternity. The way the sinners are being is brutal and circle 9 is a dreadful place to be. This place is the furthest removed from any source of all light.

Dante Alighieri wrote Dante’s inferno in which he talks about how people end up in different levels of Hell based on their sins. Then based off those sins they receive a punishment that meets it because of the sin they committed, so they are getting what they did to others, but 1000 times worse. My own version of Dante’s levels would have only three levels. First level for those who talk behind people’s back, next level for people who are two faced, and the final level for the worst people of all, people who judo chop chromebooks. The first level of Hell is for those who talk behind people’s back.

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.

For example, in The Inferno, Dante's entire story centered on an allegorical journey, made by a fictional version of himself, into the depths of hell. In turn, that journey detailed the various punishments ascribed by God for all sorts of sins and sinful acts and utilized references to numerous historical figures to embellish his storyline. One example of a historical figure’s presence was readily evident in The Inferno, in that the travel companion of the fictional Dante was Virgil. In many ways, the author Virgil was also a literal guide for the poet Dante because he revered the work of Virgil. In many ways, Dante sought to place himself on the same level as or above Virgil.

Inmates were broken after this relentless torture; we wonder why there wasn’t a mass revolt within the camps, and this is probably why, they had no will to resist oppression anymore. The sickest part of this all is that of the mass dehumanization played surprisingly by the entire people of Deutschland, now not all people played these sick game; most of the aggression was enforced by the German army. Moishe the Beadle was one of the first to experience this cruelty, “The Jews were ordered to get off... They were forced to dig huge trenches. ...

Without any proof, a person can be punished for a crime for being accused of it. No excuses were tolerated for receiving a punishment. If a person begged for mercy or forgiveness, the torture methods had the potential of being much worse (Lestikow). Common torture methods were beating, burning, drowning, poisoning, and stretching a criminal 's body. Cutting off limbs, such as fingers, toes, and ears were also a typical form of torture.

46-49). Dante the author once again uses imagery reminds us of the terror of hell as Dante the character enters a new bolgia. He uses the Christian values to to judge people for what they did against God’s will as it says in the values. He emphasises the punishments such as this one to create this atmosphere. Dante often punishes the sinners according to what they did.