Themes And Symbolism In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy

Decent Essays
Jarel Sanders
Ms. Horn
Humanities 241
12/4/2016

Throughout the epic poem of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, the reader is constantly exposed to rich symbolism and recurring themes and issues of politics, religious views, human nature, and moral dilemmas of what truly constitutes right from wrong in the eyes of God. Each of these signify both personal references to Dante’s life and experiences and characterize the times, culture, and religious fears and ideals of 13th century Italy, a society and culture dominated by strong catholic beliefs. Dante 's portrayal of Hell in the Inferno is undisputed masterpiece of visual and allegorical imagery, enhanced not only through extensive use of figurative language, but through the means of gruesome
…show more content…
Dante was born in the year 1265 to the city of Florence in modern day Italy during the later dark ages of western Europe. Belonging to a prestigious family he believed to have descended from the ancient romans with an alliance and strong support in the papacy, Dante was trained in literary arts and surrounded by politics at an early age. Through his family’s political connections and status, by the age of 12 he was he was promised in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donati, the daughter of another powerful and influential family of Florence. But by this time Dante had already fallen in love with another, a young woman by the name of Beatrice Portinari, whom he met at the age of 9. Years after he wed Gemma he claimed to have had meetings with Beatrice, possibly indicating an affair. It is interesting to note that he wrote several sonnets to Beatrice but never once mentioned his wife Gemma in any of his poems. The death of Beatrice plays an important role as the driving initial motive and purpose of his character’s journey in the Divine Comedy, but could also be considered the spark that inspired this entire writing in the first place. After Beatrice 's death, Dante continued to hold a deep love and respect for her, he would withdraw into intense study and began composing poems dedicated to her memory. She was, without question, one of the driving factors behind his works. The society itself Dante was created in played a crucial role in his writings as well. This was a Catholic society in the dark ages, prior to the Renaissance, a time period during the Crusades in which Catholic Church and the Papacy ruled much of western European society, a belief system that laid out the very foundation and framework for this writing. Dante also had a strong political standing within his

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    His works and his legacy have continued to flourish even after his death on September 13th, 1321. Dante was born in Florence, Italy on May 21st, 1265. He was born into a family that was involved in the very complex Florentine government which later helped form the basis for The Divine Comedy. Sadly, Dante 's…

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 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’s Inferno is a classic example of an individual benefitting from the struggles of a community, evidenced by the warnings given him by the tortured souls he encounters. As the hero of an epic, Dante is markedly different than Gilgamesh or Aeneas. He makes no claim of divine parentage, though the implication that he is going to paradise does lend him some measure of invulnerability in his struggle. In keeping with the trend of further humanizing epic heroes, Dante is presented as the most lifelike hero to date. He struggles with the horrors he witnesses, and his empathy for the sinners causes him to faint on several occasions.…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dante creates a certain type of connection between a soul’s sin on Earth and, the punishment he or she shall receive in Hell. This idea provides many of Inferno’s moments of the imagery between good and evil, the symbolic power of each circle and what it represents, not only to Dante but the reader; as well as shedding a light on one of Dante’s major themes expressed throughout the book: the perfection of God’s justice. “The inscription over the gates of Hell in Canto III explicitly states that God was moved to create Hell by Justice (Canto III.7)”. Hell, therefore, only exists to punish sin, and to specify the punishments to testify the divine perfection that all sinners violate. “The Divine Comedy is structured around the seven deadly sins.…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout reading Dante’s Inferno written by Dante Alighieri, Dante wanders through Hell, escorted by the Roman poet Virgil. Together, the pair move on through the nine circles of Hell, witnessing the horrors inflicted on the souls of the damned. In this Divine Comedy, Dante molded the arrangement of hell and the circles justly based on events that occurred and experiences the poet witnessed in his life because Dante’s Inferno is a work of fiction. This is made clear through Dante’s expulsion from Florence as it takes a negative effect on him, this effect caused by treachery. His hunger for political power made Dante profoundly affected by Gluttony.…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    His pity and sorrow for the unfortunate souls that reside in hell, directly mirrors that of the authors. Since the author Dante created what he believed to be hell in the Inferno, we know that he feels that being unbaptized and lustful, is far less of a sin than those who are violent and fraudulent. The character Dante’s first occurrence with sorrow is in the second ring of hell, which is arguably the first true self causing sin, lust. His interaction with the damned soul was Francesca Da Rimini, whom emotionally compels Dante with her story of her affair, which lead to her death and ultimately her damnation. He speaks of her in gentle terms such as “those two swept together so lightly on the wind and still so sad.”…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are nine circles of hell in total, all in which Dante sees the lurid truth of the consequences of sins. The punishments for dishonesty, lust, greed, and heresy are harsh in high expense. Although corruption is intrinsic to the multitude, sinning shouldn’t be contemplated as a prescriptive normality; therefore, if humankind continues subsisting with this idea, afflicting each other will fruit another normality. The intensity of each circle holds a motive. The motive is for Dante to see with his own eyes that his soul can end up with the other hopeless victims.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While the parting of Virgil may seem to be careless and unappreciative on the part of Dante, this casual goodbye illuminates the greater message: that reason can only support a person so far, then faith takes over to fill up every crack and crevasse with divine love. This goodbye represents the fullness of spiritual growth attained by Dante that brings about his final journey into Heaven that Virgil will never know. The reason Dante can experience divine love is because, unlike Virgil, he allowed himself to be loved and he gave the required “yes” to God. Now totally infatuated with the women he loves, Dante experiences both justice and mercy existing together in Heaven. Dante states that justice and mercy are able to exist together in heaven through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection that is, “by grace alone, not that ‘twas merited”, not one account of anything else (Canto VII.41).…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The fourteenth canto in Dante’s Inferno, is a description of Dante the pilgrim and Virgil the guide, journeying into the third pouch of the seventh circle of Hell. The seventh circle is made up of sinners who are violent in various fashions. Depending on the pouch in which one is placed, the sinner is either convicted of violence towards oneself, other people and nature, or towards God. The third pouch, the primary focus of this canto, is for the punishment of those who possess a bellicose persona and overall deglorifying attitude towards the Lord. The punishment in this pouch is fire raining down for eternity.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The character of Dante from Inferno, written by Dante Alighieri, was an epic hero characterized by neither exceptional strength nor godlike powers. Dante was specially chosen by Beatrice to travel across Hell, a place that no one has crossed before, making his journey very significant and him superior to everyone else. He also possessed a flaw that ruined all epic heroes, hubris. Dante’s journey through the Inferno fits the frame of an Epic Hero Cycle perfectly. As he went through the circles of Hell, Dante overcame the hubris, gained his resurrection and restitution.…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Dante and Virgil encounter the trapped soul of Francesca da Rimini, a former Italian member of royalty who is forced into a loveless marriage for political reasons. She ends up falling in love with her husband’s younger brother, Paolo, and has an affair with him. When Francesca’s husband, Gianciotto Malatesta, finds out about it, he murders both her and Paolo. The lovers are sent to hell to eternally suffer with the rest of the lustful. In tears and moved by this outcome, Dante asks Francesca how she and Paolo fell in love. She responds by taking Dante through a…

    • 1618 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dantes Inferno

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, Dante travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Throughout this allegory, Dante changes during his journey from many experiences he experiences, including learning that the souls in Hell deserve their punishments, seeing the people inside of Purgatory being punished for their pride, and realizing that pride is his sin while he goes through the bottom section of Purgatory. In the second circle of Hell, Dante meets Paolo and Francesca, who says to Dante, “we are one in Hell, as we were above.”…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Dante Alighieri (Dante) was born in May 1265. His family had involvement in the Florentine politics. Due to his family’s political duties, Dante was able to meet and befriend many aristocrats such as Guido Cavalcanti, who is later found in Dante’s Inferno. Dante married into the Donati family, yet his true love was a woman named Bice, although he called her Beatrice. Bice, to most scholars, was the daughter of Folco Portinari, a wealthy banker at the time, and later the wife of another banker, Simone dei Bardi.…

    • 1651 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dante’s Inferno is one of the most well-known epics about Hell. His depictions severely detail his journey through the Inferno, most especially his encounter with Satan, “the emperor of the reign of misery.” This encounter holds in itself endless symbolism to be drawn out. Anthony Cassell, a medieval and Renaissance literature professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has spent many years in research on Dante’s masterpiece of Hell. Cassell published this analysis of the Inferno in 1984, titled Dante’s Fearful Art of Justice.…

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Divine Comedy is a three part series, written by Dante Alighieri, which describes the frustrations he felt, while in exile, pertaining to Florentine politics. The first part in the series, The Inferno, depicts Dante’s pilgrimage into the underworld of Hell. The epic describes Dante’s descent in an attempt to get back on a spiritual path. The Inferno was created with the purpose of telling the politics of Florence and combining ideas of Pagan and Greek religion (“Literary Background”). Dante’s work also portrays his hatred for the corrupt politicians of his era, as he sends them to Hell for the sins they have committed (“Historical Background”).…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays