Inferno

The function of a literary device is to provide a deeper analyzation of the structure of a novel or poem. In Dante’s The Inferno, literary devices provide the reader with a clear explanation of the journey through hell in order to better comprehend eternal punishment. TS Dante uses imagery in order to give the reader a pictorial aid of the actions within hell. Ex1 Sound imagery in Canto 3 displays the Opportunists torment, allowing the reader to explore the sounds within hell. Elab The first…

Literary Analysis: Dante’s Inferno The first Canto in Dante’s Inferno, sets the whole poem in motion, giving us an immediate look into the vivid descriptions of Hell through the eyes of Dante the pilgrim. Not only do we ‘see’ that which is happening through his journey, but we also begin to feel Dante’s emotions as well; his hope in seeing the sunlight over the mountaintop and then his fear of the unknown- the beasts who block his path to hope and salvation. At the beginning of this poem,…

Alighieri’s most famous literary work is likely his epic poem The Divine Comedy. This epic poem is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The most popular of these segments is Inferno, which has been translated numerous times in several different languages. Inferno is about the main character, named Dante, and his journey through the different circles of hell with his guide Virgil. Hell is divided into nine main circles, each one pertaining to a specific sin. With each sin,…

Nowadays, when people hear comedy they think about funny jokes and laughter. However, Dante Alighieri’s Inferno is no such thing. In fact, it is almost the exact opposite. Instead of jokes, there is death. Instead of laughter, there is torture. However, Inferno is part of the Divine Comedy, which ironically, is not comic at all. In the Inferno, the great poet, Virgil, guides Dante through the nine Circles of Hell. He chooses Virgil to guide him because he looks up to Virgil with great…

is attempting to portray to the audience. Charon, the navigator of the River Styx, is called back to do an encore of the job he had done for Inais and bring yet another living soul into the world of the dead, though in this case it is the hellish Inferno of Dante’s Christianity dominated creation and not the Underworld of Greek and Roman lore. Further, each circle of hell Dante describes…

Canto 18 Dante and Virgil are outside the eighth Circle of Hell, known as Malebolge. The circle has a wall along the outside, and has a circular pit in the center. The ridges create ten separate pits. This is where the people receive their punishment for fraud. This is where Virgil and Dante see souls from one side to another. The demons with great whips cause pain to the souls when they come to the demon’s reach, which then force the souls to the other ridge. There is an Italian that Dante…

Canto XXVI begins with Dante sarcastically praising his native city Florence for having so many of its citizens populating Hell: with so many thieves, Florence has earned such a widespread fame not only on Earth but also in Hell! The poet Virgil, Dante’s guide through Hell and Purgatory, now leads him along the ridges to the Eighth Pouch, where they see thousands of little flames flickering in a deep, dark valley, and reminding Dante of fireflies on a hillside. Virgil informs Dante that each…

In Dante’s Purgatorio we find that the terraces form opposites from the circles of hell in at least two ways. First, Dante and Virgil are now traveling upwards rather than downwards as they did in hell. Second, in hell the offenses range from least to worst whereas here, in purgatory, the first terrace contains those who have committed the worst of the forgivable sins, pride. It may seem strange that pride is the worst, but as C.S. Lewis stated in Mere Christianity “the essential vice, the…

Satan is an evil figure who appears in the Bible and many other stories, like Dante’s Inferno and Milton’s Paradise Lost. Satan brings evil, temptation, and leads humanity to not believe in God. Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost are two books which he described Satan and hell in there own fairly different and similar ways. Dante’s Inferno levels of hell is separated into nine levels which are spheres, and in each level is a different punishment which progress to get worse and worse…

Fig. 46. In the early Renaissance, Dante’s Inferno, became a powerful classic that dramatized Satan’s sphere of influence in hell; drawing by Giovanni Stradano, 1550. It occurred first as part of the epic, The Divine Comedy, and became known as a devilishly chilling account of Satan’s domain. A s mentioned in the last chapter, after the Emperor Constantine’s conversion into Christianity around A.D. 325, he ordered the closing of a significant amount of pagan cults and orgiastic temples…