Analysis Of Dante's Inferno

Critique of Dante’s Hell Why do people do the things they do? Is it because they simply love to do it? Is it to make money? Is it to make another person happy? Ultimately, people do things because they want to get something out of it, or benefit from in it some form or another. For example, a teenager probably doesn’t just feel a burning desire to wash the dishes for their mom because they love her and want to serve her in any way imaginable. They most likely want their parents to let them go out with their friends later that night, or saw a new pair of shoes they want their parents to buy for them. This teenager will undoubtedly want something in return for helping their parents with the dishes. Another monumental reason humans perform certain …show more content…
If they’ve done what they were suppose to in life, they will be blessed, but if they sin during life, and refuse to acknowledge and repent of their sins, then they will have a terrible a gruesome punishment waiting for them once they leave this earth. To serve as a moral propaedeutic, various forms of punishments are created and described vividly by Dante in on part of his Divine Comedy, The Inferno.
A very interesting punishment created by Dante in The Inferno is found in circle three of Hell, for the souls of the Gluttons. The Gluttons were very large, grotesque people who cared for nothing but themselves in life. “In life they made no higher use of the gifts of God than to wallow in food and drink, producers of nothing but garbage and offal” (Dante). As a result of their sins, and refusal to change their ways, these people are forced to be buried in filthy and stinking slush, while Cerberus, a three …show more content…
These people are classified as the Heretics. “Since they taught that the soul dies with the body, so their punishment is an eternal grave in the fiery morgue of God’s wrath” (Dante). This punishment struck me because it seemed so heartless. If people have the right of freedom to choose what they want to do in life, shouldn’t they be able to choose what types of principles and concepts they believe? Maybe a mortal soul is what these people grew up believing. Even if they did need to be punished for this, I believe that a fiery tomb is way too intense of a punishment. However, this is Dante’s work being put into progress. He is prodding people into righteousness by scaring them. He is forcing people into deciding whether they want to give up their freedom or be eternally damned in an ongoing circle of Hell. “Upon entering the sixth circle, the heretics are the first Dante sees, locked within fiery tombs holding those who were both convicted for their crimes in life as in death” (Winters). This punishment sounds horrendous and I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to be stuck in a fiery tomb