Inferno

The Bhagavad-Gita and The Divine Comedy Volume 1: Inferno provide a broad perspective of human nature as a whole due to the origins of these works being from Eastern and Western civilizations which together encapsulates the ideals of the greater part of the human race. While they have some differing morals and beliefs of the spiritual world, both writings’ conception of suffering seems to have a similar ideological base. The texts understand suffering as a cyclical, repetitive and sometimes…

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri is a 14th century novel composed of different ideas of justice for crimes. The story takes place in hell which is a funnel-shaped and composed of nine unique circles (49). Each circle is created for punishment for a particular sin, and as an individual goes higher, the punishment becomes worse (49). After reading the story, readers realize that there is a tremendous difference in justice for crimes during the 14th century and justice for crimes today in the 20th…

Alighieri’s “Inferno”, I had to look past the obvious themes such as justice, evil, man’s place in the natural world and religious beliefs. Instead I wanted to focus on a theme that occurs in almost every story known to man. The theme I chose is the “journey”, or the concept of importance within a journey. A theme that I feel is mostly overlooked because the audience and character(s) are too focused on the destination in order to appreciate this theme as it’s happening. Dante’s “Inferno”…

Virgil summons the beast Geryon from the profundities with a string wrapped around his waist, who symbolized deception he conveyed Dante and Virgil down to the eighth circle on an unnerving ride. Finally, Dante and Virgil set themselves up to cross to the eighth circle of Hellfire (Malebogle), was formed of ten particular walled in territories in which different sorts of fraud were punished. In the first pocket, Dante saw stripped scoundrels being whipped by demons these were panders and…

The epic progresses as Dante continues to weep and feel pity for the souls in the 4th circle admonished for their greed. Dante, upon witnessing the torture of these souls feels physical pain out of empathy, "And I, who felt my heart almost pierced through…" Dante even deigns to make a moral judgement about the tortures of hell and God's ability to serve justice, "Justice of God! Who has amassed as many strange tortures as I have seen?" This questioning of God's will and judgement shows more…

Canto 1- Virgil-Personification- Virgil is the guide for Dante as he travels through Inferno. Virgil represents those that guide us in this life. People that guide us and help us along our way such as parents, teachers, or religious leaders. Most of the time when we need a guide we usually have a guide who is experienced or has been there before. Virgil is a very wise poet and is experienced. Virgil is there to protect Dante as he goes through the depths of Hell. It can symbolize just how a…

of depression to a state of joy. It is about mankind, who by exercising free-will bring punishing or rewarding justice to themselves (Dante). “The Divine Comedy: Inferno” is full of allegories. Three of them are the leopard of malice and fraud, the lion of violence and ambition, and the she-wolf of incontinence. “The Divine Comedy: Inferno” is about Dante’s journey through Hell which was written while he was in exile. He starts off in what is known as “the darkwood”, which represents the…

Traditionally, Hell in a secular conversation of the modern world comes across as jokingly or one of the largest insults to be made, and in the religious world comes across as one of the scariest and touchiest subjects. Even after centuries since the authorship of The Divine Comedy the feeling that the name of Hell brings remains the same, uncomfort and largely, fear. The Catholic Catechism and belief discusses how God created Hell for the fallen angels as a gift for what they intended,…

in Inferno, Canto XIII. Pier delle Vigna was in the public eye, in a position of power, and this was his tragic flaw. Because of this fact, he was targeted and he fell horrendously down into the second round of the seventh circle of Hell, the Wood of the Suicides, his soul tethered to the life of a gnarled tree. It is only proper to explain the life of Pier delle Vigna, before his untimely ending and “life” in death. He started out from somewhat humble beginnings. In the footnotes of Inferno,…

In Dante’s Inferno, Dante Alighieri writes himself as a traveler who is traversing through the realm of the underworld with the Roman poet Vergil as his guide. In documenting his journey, Dante continually references and encounters both fictional characters and historic figures from the Greek, Roman and Catholic canon. In doing so, he brings the characters and figures back to life, allowing him to rewrite them in his own context and perspective. By reviving these characters and melding the…