The Towering Inferno

to Pope Nicholas III in the Eighth Circle of Hell, Dante becomes frustrated with the simony of the popes and exclaims, “You, shepherds, the Evangelist had noticed when he saw her who sits upon the waters, and realized she fornicates with kings” (Inferno, 19.106-112). Dante compares the Simonist popes to the so-called “Whore of Babylon” from Revelation. The Church is the prostitute that has “fornicated” itself with political leaders and has involved itself with politics. The popes have focused…

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,…

Inferno by Dan Brown was published on May 14, 2013. Inferno is a literary thriller. The basic plot of the novel revolves around Zobrist, an evil genius, and his horrifying plot to drastically reduce the world’s population in order to balance the environment and centers around one of world’s most mysterious literary masterpieces, Dante’s Inferno. The story starts in Florence where a hospitalized Harvard professor Robert Langdon is awoken with a head wound that leaves him unable to recall how or…

In the poem The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Canto XIII (13) is very important to the storyline, because without it, there would not be any detail about those who hurt themselves and how they affected others in Hell and on Earth. Dante uses symbolism to describe almost everything in this canto and it is key to understanding exactly what is happening during the story. The way he describes the sinners and their punishments in this canto is extremely helpful in describing future events as well.…

In the poem The Inferno , Dante Alighieri uses various allusions, many of them referencing Greco-Roman myths that were well known at the time. They are to create a sense of familiarity with the reader and help them better understand the ideas Dante is trying to convey about God’s justice and the reasoning behind the punishments in correspondence to each sin. With his intended audience’s knowledge of these Greco-Roman character’s stories, it would be unnecessary for Dante to provide additional…

1. In the epic poetry, The Inferno of Dante translation by Robert Pinsky (1320), Dante Alighieri implies that the sinners in Hell are selfish and only care about themselves which is also one of the biggest reasons that they ended up in Hell. Alighieri supports this claim by introducing the ten pouches in the eighth circle as they are all connected through fraud which is basically is deceiving others for financial or personal gain which is very much being selfish. The author purposely emphasizes…

In the words of early twentieth century novelist Jeffery Farnol, “For vengeance is an emptiness, and he that seeketh it wasteth himself.” Just as Farnol implies, Edmond Dantès was drowned in his desire for revenge. Dantès’ life was ruined when three men, jealous of his perfect life, framed him for treason and sentenced Dantès to fourteen years of pain and sorrow in the Chateau d’If, France’s most notorious prison. When Dantès eventually escapes, he sets out on a quest to avenge himself by making…

The Inferno, typical depictions of Hell centered on the idea of a dark pit, adorned with fire and torture. However, in Canto XXXIV Dante describes Hell as a frozen icy lake. In relation to religion, the ninth circle of Hell is farthest from the light of God. In duration of Dante’s time period, everyone was very religious and the government was controlled and up-held by the Church. The Church wanted to make sure the rules were constantly being followed. Dante Alighieri’s epic poem, the Inferno is…

Love makes a person do things that they would normally not do. In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, written by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante tend to look out for each other. When Dante tries to stop the kids from shooting the sparrows, Ari supports him, even though he doesn’t really know why. Another time is when Dante is helping the bird on the street and a car is coming at Dante. Ari risks his life by jumping in front of the car to save his friend. By the…

The environment affects the ways people react towards society and each other. In the prison of Chateau d'If, Dantes had occupied a cold, dark chamber with no human contact and received malnourishing food and little water which, if not already, drove him mad. Everyone around him refused to listen to the truth, with the idea infused in their heads that he was guilty and there was nothing more to him than a traitor. This jurassic change in environment tinted Dante’s optimistic views to a more…