Examples Of Human Suffering In Dante's Inferno

Improved Essays
DANTE
Human suffering is always a hard subject to describe or experience in life or death. While reading Dante Alighieri poem called “Inferno” it describes the cycles of life and death. The fascinating part of the story is the detail description of hell, and the suffering the souls experience for eternity (Davis, Harrison, Johnson, Smith and Crawford, 2004). The question to answer is “Comment on the view of human suffering. How is it different from the Greek?” Although, Greek stories describe the suffering of humans as great, but the suffering is due to the god’s being displeased with humans, causing punishments to be handed down (Davis, Harrison, Johnson, Smith and Crawford, 2004).
While reading about the legendary god’s and their struggle

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    In life there is suffering. There has always been suffering and there will always be suffering; it is part of what makes us human. This is something that has been known for much longer than any of us have even been a part of the human experience. It is something that both Dante Alighieri and William Shakespeare took note of hundreds of years ago and something that both of them thought was a topic important enough to explore through their respective writings Dante’s Inferno and King Lear. With these works being written hundreds of years apart, there are of course some different approaches to the idea.…

    • 1305 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An example of an epic would be the story of Beowulf, It is a story of bravery, and proving that he still has what is takes to be a hero in his kingdom. Beowulf would be the epic hero in the story. Inferno, by Dante would be another example of an epic. Although it is not all fighting and bloodshed like Beowulf, it is more about learning from one's mistakes and taking something from the experience. Although, Dante may not be the poster boy for epic heroes, he still possesses many attributes of it.…

    • 216 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Hell In Dante's Inferno

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Inferno, written by Dante Alighieri, explains the layout of Hell according to Dante himself. There are many circles and rings that house sinners based on the type and severity of their sins. Achilles, Brutus, and Attila the Hun are a few of the well-known figures mentioned during Dante's journey through Hell. The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a compiled collection of the tales of 29 people embarking on a pilgrimage. One of the people, the Wife of Bath, is purposely made to stand out during the General Prologue.…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Classical Hell Analysis

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages

    An Analysis of the Importance of the Moral and Metaphorical Punishment of Classical hell in Contrast to the Annihilationist Hell in Biblical Studies This biblical study will analyze the importance of the moral and metaphorical punishment of classical hell in contrast to the Annihilationist Hell in the Christian tradition. The Classical version of Hell is defined in the unending punishment and torment of individual that suffer for an eternity for their sins. In contrast to this view, the Annihilationist Hell is a temporal place in which sinners are destroyed. The permanence of Annihilationist views tends to veer to a place of unforgiving destruction for the individual, which defers the eternal nature of the soul in the Bible.…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout many artistic works we see the good suffer, and in the Iliad by Homer and The Book of Job in the Bible, the suffering of the good is a prominent theme. These literary works are similar in the way they present the suffering of the good, but they are also very different in how the good cope with their troubles. The Iliad uses divine intervention and fate to exemplify how the good suffer, whereas The Book of Job uses divine influence and God’s will to illustrate suffering. Similarly, the Greek gods (the Iliad) and God (The Book of Job) have different conducts in helping the good cope with their distress. Although both the Iliad and The Book of Job explore the same idea of the suffering of the good, those who suffer in these stories…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In this paper, I will look at the themes in The Odyssey and Inferno. The theme I will look at first is journeys. In the Odyssey, Odysseus struggles to return to his home and family. His journey takes ten years to complete. Unlike Odysseus whose journey is physical in the Inferno, Dante’s journey encompasses the struggle between good and evil within himself. Dante see’s the afterlife as consisting of three level heaven, purgatory and hell.…

    • 1188 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction John Hick, the British Philosopher was born in 1922 in the United Kingdom. Hick is credited as a profound religious epistemologist, philosophical theologian, and religious pluralist (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2015). Hick contributed largely to the world of theology, writing one of his more famous works, Evil and the God of Love, where the chapter Soul-Making Theodicy is included (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2015). The attempt to explain the presence of evil, pain, and suffering has been asked and investigated throughout the centuries by philosophers, theologian, and layman alike.…

    • 1508 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Inferno by Dante Alighieri Dante travels through hell, guided by Virgil. Hell is divided by sin, with specific punishments for the different sins committed. Throughout the Inferno Dante the writer makes it clear that the punishments are designed to suit the sins committed. These punishments are cruel and violent punishments that are often times gruesome. Dante the writer wants the reader to feel nothing for these sinners suffering, since they are getting what they deserve.…

    • 1462 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dante Alighieri who was a prominent Italian author of the 14th century wrote Inferno to give insight on the society of Florence as the 14th century was notorious for its corrupt governments and rivals among groups of people. As being called the The Cautionary Tale, Inferno can be relevant today as it serves as a message of people committing sin will be punished depending on the severity of their wrongdoings. Even though the poem exaggerates the punishments, it serves as a message that people will be punished in their crimes depending on how severe the crime is today. The Inferno is divided into Nine Circles of Hell.…

    • 1531 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The first two books of The Divine Comedy, Inferno and Purgatory, by Dante follow Dante as he journeys from hell to purgatory. In Inferno, Dante meets the poet Virgil who guides him through the rings of hell. Once the two reach the bottom of hell, Virgil continues to guide Dante through the next realm in Purgatory. Throughout this epic adventure, Dante not only provides an entertaining story, but also presents numerous ideas concerning the afterlife. These ideas range from simple descriptions of the two realms to more remarkable ideas of who exactly goes where after death and why.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since the existence of human beings on the earth, it is not clear that there is a distinction between physical body and soul of an individual, but many people across many cultures believe that there is a distinction between them. In a poem Inferno written by Dante Alighieri, the author creates a hierarchy between sins and punishment. The author explained the relationship between the sins of soul and the punishment it will receive in the hereafter. The dominant theme presented is the perfection of God and his decisions in justice. According to the author hell exists and it was created by God with the purpose of punishing sins.…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    It is evident that Augustine and Dante are much like many authors as they too explore spirituality in their writings. Augustine’s book Confessions and Dante’s Purgatorio both see humans as pilgrims on a journey that either brings them to God or away from God. These books have challenged readers, like myself, as they draw insight from them to apply to their own spiritual journey. In these books there are many themes that apply to Augustine and Dante’s spiritual journey.…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Human beings too often avert their eyes from suffering. We choose to avoid our afflictions in an attempt to deny the necessary evils within humanity. By not confronting the truths surrounding the worst in us, however, we become ignorant of a vital and possibly beneficial aspect of human nature. Both Dante’s Inferno and Shakespeare’s King Lear seek to bring attention to human suffering, illustrating our griefs and sorrows as consequences of our own agency. This pain that we cause ourselves can be handled in different ways that further define human suffering; each narrative profoundly explores both approaches, as Dante and Shakespeare portray suffering not only as a method of further inflicting pain on ourselves, but also as an opportunity…

    • 1472 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Was Dante Trying to Scare the Hell Out of Us? (A discussion of how Dante’s The Inferno, is used as a moral propaedeutic) “Heaven would be wonderful, but it looks even more wonderful when there is also a threat of Hell. People probably believe in Heaven more when they have just been threatened with Hell.”…

    • 2199 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Human beings suffer, and when they do so, they suffer as a whole being; the cognitive, emotional, physical and spiritual combine to induce an entire-bodied aching experience. One suffering cannot be entirely disconnected from another, and it is from this reality we infer human suffering. Euripides’ ancient (431 BCE) tragedy Medea presents the human experience in an original light, wherein three prominent figures are imbued with a sense of insanity, or mental suffering, as a result of, or in correlation with, their emotional and physical suffering; combining conventions of tragedy (assumptions that the universe is cruel and malevolent, stripping romance from the myth) to achieve this pinnacle of ancient tragic literature. This notion of human…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays