Based on Dante’s standards and how I have been living my life thus far, the place for me in Hell is in Limbo, the first level of Hell for “Virtuous Pagans”. In other words, I am a good person and live a life of virtue; however, because I do not practice any religion, I do not deserve a place in heaven, and will therefore join the ranks of the great poets and philosophers such as Aristotle, Socrates, Homer, and Virgil, the representation of Dante’s human reason and an important character in The Inferno. The inhabitants of Limbo don’t actually suffer through eternal torment, but rather, live without hope. This is definitely understandable and just, as it would be strange and cruel to have to punish those who have not sinned. It would also be unheard of to send those who did not believe in God to a holy place such as Heaven. …show more content…
In addition, Dante’s visit to Limbo is towards the beginning of his and Virgil’s journey, where he is still sensitive to everything he sees and experiences in their descent into Hell. It is mentioned time and time again in the end-of-chapter notes that one of the more important themes of this piece is Dante’s growing indifference the further he goes down. This serves as an allegory that Dante is attempting to emphasize, which is that one must harden oneself to sin in order to be welcomed into heaven. Sinners don’t deserve sympathy, and they are suffering torment because they deserve it. Dante even goes as far as to contribute to the torture of some of the inhabitants he meets. In this particular circle, he feels a mutual respect and even some pity towards the shades that dwell in Limbo, and therefore, Dante himself does not view them with contempt or worthy of any harsh
limbo, 2. lust, 3. gluttony, 4. greed, 5. anger, 6. heresy, 7. violence, 8. fraud, and 9. treachery. Dante journeys through hells layers and as he gets closer to the center of hell, the sins, and their penalties get crueler. In the first level, limbo, all the individuals who died before becoming Christians reside, including famous philosophers Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates. After limb, arrives the part of hell which is comprised of sins of the flesh: greed, anger, gluttony, and lust. In the last remaining circles, Dante witnesses’ souls that have committed severer sins such as; violence against God, fraud, false prophets, violent against nature, thieves, and hypocrites. The punishments for these sins are extremely painful, including souls being submerged in boiling blood and fire. The last circle of hell is treachery. This round is separated into four compartments corresponding to the gravity of their sins and all of the sould are stuck in the frozen
Dante’s divine comedy focuses on the journey of a Pilgrim by the name of Dante from Italy in which he travels through the circles of Hell, the terraces of Purgatory and the spheres of Paradise. Dante the Pilgrim has lived his life the wrong way, in a way that goes against how God would live life and through this journey the pilgrim hopes to find a way to return to the path he was once on: the right path. Throughout his journey he encounters numerous souls who have either been placed in Hell, in Purgatory or in Paradise. At first the Pilgrim felt sympathy and compassion towards the souls for the punishments they had to endure but those feelings soon went away as he continued on. He no longer felt sympathy or compassion but instead felt merciless and hatred towards the souls. It then becomes apparent that Dante the Pilgrim changed as a human being because the way he saw others changed, as well as how he saw life.
The Inferno is a tale of cautionary advice. In each circle, Dante the pilgrim speaks to one of the shades that reside there and the readers learn how and why the damned have become the damned. As Dante learns from the mistakes of the damned, so do the readers. And as Dante feels the impacts of human suffering, so do the readers. Virgil constantly encourages Dante the pilgrim to learn why the shades are in Hell and what were their transgressions while on Earth. This work’s purpose is to educate the reader. The work’s assertions on the nature of human suffering are mostly admonition, with each shade teaching Dante the pilgrim and by extension the reader not to make the same mistakes. Dante views his journey through hell as a learning experience and that is why he made it out alive.
Journeys can be taken many ways. Some people take the path less traveled and some people take the easy way out. Dante happens to be on journey that is less traveled, by exploring the depths of Hell in the Inferno. The epic poem’s story is about self-realization and transformation. It sees Dante over coming many things to realize he is a completely different person from the start of the Inferno journey. Dante sees many things that help him gain courage in order to prove to himself and the reader that accepting change and gaining courage can help one to grow as a person and realize their full potential. After seeing people going through certain punishment Dante realizes that he must not seek pity on himself and others in order to fully realize his true potential.
The fact that people could be punished for love startled Dante so much, he describes the feeling as being wept by death and even faints. By pitying the lovers, Dante was taking part their sin, but failed to recognize that. The other extreme is when Dante and Virgil enter circle six. Virgil has given advice to Dante that
Dante calls Limbo, at around this same point in the poem, the place where “the only penalty is hope cut off” (IX.17) however the torments are that much more regrettable: the individuals who are more distant down in Damnation are there in light of the fact that they lost the benefit of the judgment; none in Limbo did. These souls are the individuals who had eyes however could see, the individuals who contemplated yet couldn't fathom, the individuals who coordinate the depiction of Brunetto Latini later: the individuals who “[look] more the winner/ than the one who trails the field”
“The Christian church … conceived of hell as a place where the good were separate from the evil, and the deeds on earth were weighed and judges.”(Bondanella XXXIII) Hell is a place that was created as a punishment for those people who died with mortal sins and did not ask for forgiveness. In this case Dante’s hell in the Inferno is divided into three sections and nine circles. These circles within hell were based off of the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. Along with the seven deadly sins Dante’s Catholic religion also influenced him in his choices about who to put and where to put people in Hell. According to his beliefs, if you were not a Christian, you automatically went to Hell. (Trotter) As well even though Dante's hell affected all people no matter their religion, the representation of how Hell
After emerging from the dark woods after Dante’s vision, Dante and Virgil find themselves at the gates of Hell, which were inscribed with “Abandon every hope, Ye that Enter.” ( This should be found in the second or third Canto of The Divine Comedy, at the place that Dante and Virgil are about to enter Hell). If it is not there, just leave the sentence and remove the brackets for the citation) Hell is a funnel shape pit that is divided into nine terraces. Virgil, Dante’s escort resides in the area known as Limbo. He is placed in this area because he died before Christianity. Nevertheless, Virgil is not subjected to Hell. Each terrace provides living space for individuals who were in Hell for the different categories of sin for which they were suffering. The lower the terrace, the more severe the punishment. Satan resides in the very bottom level of Hell. Dante gives a very vivid description of his first sight of Satan when he writes, “The emperor of the despondent kingdom so towered—from midchest—above the ice, that I match better with a giant’s height than giants match the measure of his arms; now you can gauge
In Inferno, Dante and Virgil continued to travel down each circle of hell. In the beginning, the two men went through the first circle of hell, Limbo, in Limbo, Dante and Virgil found the “sinners” that were known as the Virtuous Pagans. They were the ones who were born before Christianity and as a result can not go to Heaven, but they are not tormented in any way. The only pain they endure was having no hope (Alighieri, 4. 49). Their journey through Limbo only allotted one canto indicating that it didn’t take much time for the men to go through it and proceed to the next circle.
As Dante explores the Second Circle of Hell, he is horrified by the punishments that the sinners must suffer through. When he hears the story of Francesca and Paolo’s lustful actions, Dante relates deeply to their stuggles because he reflects on his own sins and believes he may be cast to a similar fate in the afterlife. Dante reacts to the story when he says, “I fainted, as if I had met my death. / And then I fell as a dead body falls” (5.142-143). Dante faints from compassion for the two sinners’ pitiful story. Dante struggles to grasp the wrongdoing these people have participated in to be placed in Hell because he continues to search for the noble qualities in everyone. On the one hand, Dante believes God’s punishment for the lustful sinners, relentless winds and storms, is unethical. On the other hand, this belief is naive because it is known that all of God’s punishments are just. The lustful are condemned to an eternity in Hell because they did not care about their actions on Earth, so the raging storm that torments them is not concerned with what is in its path. Dante is not only attempting to discover the possible consequences of his own actions, but also learning to trust in God’s judgement.
And this arose from sorrow without torment.” At this stage one can imagine that Dante waits with some apprehension for things to clear up, unsure whether he wants to go on. As Dante gets to realize the true nature of this first level, one can only speculate what must be on his mind. He has met a few people, but they seem to represent the best of humanity (Lawall & Maynard 12). Surely they would not be in hell.
Dante's depiction of Hell is not meant to entertain but to change the behavior of his readers so that they will choose behavior which will lead them to the "city" of Heaven, rather than behavior which will lead to the dark wood and, eventually, damnation: A place is there below, stretching as far from Beelzebub as his tomb extends. . . . My Leader and I entered by that hidden road, to return into the bright world; and . . . we mounted up . . . so far that a round opening I saw some of the beautiful things which Heaven bears, and thence we issued for again to see the stars (Dante 52).
In Dante’s Inferno, Dante is taken on a journey through hell. On this journey, Dane sees the many different forms of sins, and each with its own unique contrapasso, or counter-suffering. Each of these punishments reflects the sin of a person, usually offering some ironic way of suffering as a sort of revenge for breaking God’s law. As Dante wrote this work and developed the contrapassos, he allows himself to play God, deciding who is in hell and why they are there. He uses this opportunity to strike at his foes, placing them in the bowels of hell, saying that they have nothing to look forward to but the agony of suffering and the separation from God.
Being constantly stung by wasps and forced to chase a white flag would be mentally and physically exhausting and seems to be a torture straight out of hell... yet they aren 't even technically in hell. On the other hand, in Limbo one merely walks around and talks to other luckless souls, which does not seem to be a punishment constant with what other sinners face in hell. Dante correctly assigned the right punishments to each group of sinners, but he misplaced both groups. Limbo should be outside of Hell because they did not have the knowledge of either Heaven or Hell. The Ante Inferno should be the first level of Hell, reserved for those who knew about Heaven and Hell, choose neither side, and now must face the fact that by their indecision, are bound to suffer in Hell.
Judging by the character in the story Dante is a god fearing man who has moral issues in his life. He seem to be in a constant fight with himself about the right way he should live his life. By the end of the story Dante gives the impression that he a is strong believer in the theory of “you reap what you sow”. By the end of the story Dante gives you the impression that he does not feel pity for sinners being punished because he looks at it as a form of divine intervention.