Examples Of Allegory In Dante's Inferno

The author’s use of imagery also leaves the listeners crying at their misfortunes. To fully illustrate the burning, agony of Hell, the author frequently uses the phrases “glowing flames” and “Hell’s wide gaping mouth open”. This depict that Hell is very “hot” to endure

the screams of pain, the pangs of hunger, and merciless evil. The novel recounts the

Dante's Inferno explores the nature of human suffering through a precautionary light. As Dante and Virgil move through the Inferno, Dante sees what has become of people who overindulged in things such as, lust, gluttony, violence, and bribery. Few of the punishments described in the Inferno have a direct correlation to the sin that the souls committed while they were living. Rather, they are a representation of what happens when we commit those crimes against ourselves and others. We create hells for not only ourselves, but those who we have sinned against. These hells are almost impossible to come back from as most of these sins cannot be taken back or undone. Some of the punishments that were clear representations were the punishments of

Throughout Dante’s, The Inferno, we are taken through Dante’s perspective of the different layers of Hell and get a first-hand look at how Dante interprets his faith. Throughout Canto 13, several examples of imagery, symbolism, and allusions are used to guide us through one of the first layers of Hell and allow us to observe Dante’s character as he explores and comments on his sins and morals. In Canto 13, we observe the punishments of those who took their own lives. Within this Canto, Dante learns a variety of new things about his faith and the punishment these sinners are facing.

Dante as a madman is defined as well as understood as an irrational figure, a figure possessing qualities that contradict Dante the poet who in turn is rational and calculated through his use of language within Inferno. The idea of madness can be portrayed in various different ways, one being to be in a state of madness (a madman), is to be, “mentally ill”, or otherwise to be someone that portrays irrationality in their actions (Soanes, Hawker and Elliott 2006). Wilson considers two such contrasting characteristics (the scholarly poet as well as the irrational madman) to derive from one Dante Alighieri: the author as well as creator of the Inferno. Such a form of malice can be seen through the idea of revenge, an intention to harm on a personal level. In the eighth canto through Dante’s encounter with Filippo Argenti, a political figure representing Dante’s opposition in political Florence during the thirteenth century, whom attempts to violently attack Dante

The wrathful are fighting each other on the surface of the Styx river while the sloths are lying at the bottom of the river doing nothing.

For the past two thousand years, an innumerable number of authors, poets and even play-writes, have portrayed the descent into hell, or catabasis, in some artistic medium. A famous and early representation of catabasis includes Book XI of Homer’s Odyssey. Vergil, centuries later, adapted Homer’s model and created his own version of the underworld in Book VI of Aeneid. These ancient texts, and likely others, provided the groundwork for numerous receptions of hell, with each work symbolizing a link in an intricate chain of classical receptions. Within this complex chain, I intend to discuss three works that portray different versions of hell: Vergil’s Aeneid (29 BC), from his Divine Comedy, Dante’s Inferno (1320), and Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now (1979).

Inferno, the first part of Divina Commedia, or the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is the story of a man's journey through Hell and the observance of punishments incurred as a result of the committance of sin. In all cases the severity of the punishment, and the punishment itself, has a direct correlation to the sin committed. The punishments are fitting in that they are symbolic of the actual sin; in other words, "They got what they wanted." (Literature of the Western World, p.1409) According to Dante, Hell has two divisions: Upper Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of incontinence, and Lower Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of malice. The

Infero; the Meaning behind the Allegory “The souls of the damned lie in the icy paste, swollen and obscene, and Cerberus, the ravenous three-headed dog of Hell, stands guard over them, ripping and tearing them with his claws and teeth” ( Alighieri, 6. 65). Cerberus is one of the many forms of punishments that some sinners have to endure. The beast portrays a consequential form of a corresponding sin committed by a soul in his or her live on Earth.

In the beginning of his epic, Inferno, Dante seems to have “abandoned the true path” (1.12). He is lost in a dark forest, which symbolizes not only Dante’s loss of morality, but all of humanity’s sins on Earth. The Dark Wood of Error is a foreshadowing of what the afterlife would be like for Dante without God and without any meaning. Dante appears to be suffering through a mid-life crisis as he flirts with the idea of death, saying, “so bitter–death is hardly more severe” (1.7). Dante has lost his dignity and moral direction following his exile from Florence. Dante must travel through Hell and witness the worst crimes ever committed by humans. By traveling through the depths of Satan’s world, Dante is given an opportunity to reconnect with Christianity. Many people claim that Dante journeys through Hell for revenge, but in fact he is hoping to reset his own moral compass and find God.

By his noble speech the reader learns that political corruption can damn a man's soul. The punished sinners who suffered death for political reasons are of paramount importance to Dante. Accordingly, he shows in the suicide's circle of hell the extreme consequences of failure in political life. Pier committed suicide for the shame of losing his favored position as Frederick's counselor. This illustrates the ancient Roman concept of honorable suicide, which protests any unjust action that robs one of reputation.

While every person has a different depiction of Hell, Dante provides fascinating imagery of his portrayal, so the reader can truly experience the

“I came to a place stripped bare of every light and roaring on naked dark like seas wracked by a war of winds” (Canto 5 inferno), this when Dante goes into the second circle of hell and watches as the lustful are swirl around in this never-ending storm of lust. Dante is using this point of view to try and give a realistic vibe to the readers. He talks to Francesca and Paolo two lovers who were murdered after found having affair against Francesca husband Giovanni Malatesta. After talking to them Dante is starting to get a sense of how real his journey is, he is feeling overwhelmed Dante falls to the ground and pass is out. “And while one spirit Francesca said these words to me, the other Paolo wept, so that, because of pity, I fainted, as if I had met my death. And then I fell as a dead body falls.”(139-142)

Others include Cleopatra, Achilles, and Semiras, each with their own story of love and lust. Dante is at once filled with great pity for those who were “torn from the mortal life by love” (V. 69). With Virgil’s permission, Dante asks to call to “those two swept together so lightly on the wind and still to sad” (V. 74). One woman answers him, recognizing him as a living soul. Dante knows her as Francesca, and she relates to him how love was her undoing. She was reading with a man, Paolo, about an Arthurian Legend of Lancelot, “how love had mastered him” (V. 129). The two came to a particularly romantic moment in the story, and could not resist exchanging a single kiss; that very day, they were killed because of it. Dante is so overcome with pity that he faints.

When Dante first begins in this story he was lost and clueless physically and mentally.  Dante was located in a forest with his life ruined and not knowing what was in store for him. Dante had given up on his future and had given up on finding the correct path of life for himself. However, when he sees a sunset and a very important mountain that represent Heaven he will soon change. Dante is given an opportunity to change and turn his life around but to do so he must first experience the darkness of Hell with the assistance of Virgil who helps him and guides him through what is right and wrong.