The Towering Inferno

In the beginning of The Inferno, Dante walked in a dark forest lamenting the loss of his beloved Beatrice. When Dante started his journey he was not sure that he would be able to write about the epic he needed to undertake. He wrote about traveling thought hell, purgatory, and heaven. Dante and Virgil’s relationship is a complicated one. At the start of the story Dante respects and looks up to Virgil, whereas Virgil sees Dante as a pupil more than an equal. However towards the end of the epic…

being Santa Clause. Parents threaten children that Santa Clause will not come, unless they behave well. Other examples include, reward systems, activity times, and punishments. The most consequential propaedeutic know was introduced by Dante in his Inferno. “Both damnation and blessedness, weal and woe, are not something imposed from without, but rather something developing out of the inner being....” (Scartazzini) Dante uses allegories to explain the fates of hell. These extremely graphic…

“an allegory is ‘the use of symbols in a story, picture, etc., to convey a hidden or ulterior meaning, typically a moral or political one; symbolic representation’”(Baker). Throughout his poem, Inferno, Dante uses an allegory in each one of his Cantos. Examples of such allegories present in Dante’s, Inferno can be found in Canto 1,…

Many people envision Hell as a place with demons and torture, but they don’t realize Hell can be found on Earth. People will work to find and exploit others’ fears and secrets. This is just what happens in Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit. Estelle, Garcin, and Inez, the protagonists of the play, have all died and gone to Hell. They expect the faceless torturers and punishment for their sins, but they soon discover they’re to be each other’s torturers. Through their actions, Garcin, Estelle, and…

With an intellect ample in wisdom and a hard-heart rotund with insight, Virgil embodies reason as it bleeds out from those who have wronged. He paints the epitome of heroism as achieved via actions that damn the so-called hero, their glorified sins no match for his unblemished integrity; while his demonstrations of morality attract the adoration of many, namely Dante, infatuated with his logic. Dante selects Virgil as his guide through hell due to his adulation for Virgil, displayed through his…

Dantes Inferno Dante awakes and he has been moved to another stage in the levels of hell. A three headed dog named cerberus blocks the path of virgil and Dante but virgil pleases the dog and they are able to pass. They go into the circle of gluttonous. One of the people there recognizes Dante soul and he ask Dante if he recognizes him. Dantes does not and the guy respond his name is John he was a man with a political past. There were other people in the guy political past that has been set in…

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri was one of the most influential poets of all time. He wrote works such as The Divine Comedy and De Monarchia. His works continue to be read today and almost all who read them are fascinated. Alighieri was born in Florence, Italy in 1265. After a long life there, he was exiled for 2 years, though, he never returned. He didn’t technically settle down anywhere for a while. People believe that he then settled in Bologna in 1304, where he wrote De Vulgari…

Was Dante Trying to Scare the Hell Out of Us? (A discussion of how Dante’s The Inferno, is used as a moral propaedeutic) “Heaven would be wonderful, but it looks even more wonderful when there is also a threat of Hell. People probably believe in Heaven more when they have just been threatened with Hell.” (Heflick). People of the church are often known for their ability to make individuals who do not attend church feel lesser and more sinful than themselves. This seems to be the case because…

Dante’s Divine Comedy has a focus on sin and throughout the poem he has the benefit of seeing the punishments for all the different divisions of sin. Before even seeing the punishments for particular sins, in canto I Dante is climbing a hillside and winds up spotting three beasts before him that have a more significant meaning than just instilling fear in Dante. The three beasts, the leopard, lion and she-wolf, all represent different things in what is to be seen during Dante’s journey. In this…

claims “When Hecate put me in chare of Avernus’ groves she led me through them all.” (6.655-657, pg. 201” referring to the punishments of the Underworld, as a way of proving herself of being a viable guide for Aeneas. A similar event occurs in the Inferno when Virgil first appears. He states “Therefore, for your sake, I think it wise you follow me: I will be your guide, leading you, from here, through an eternal place…” (I.112-114, pg. 9). This guide-follower relationship is kept up as we…