Moral Standards of Humanity and Behavior
In Inferno, by Dante Alighieri, Dante the Pilgrim goes through Hell under the guidance of Virgil in order to understand the levels of punishments and how sinners are designated to certain circles within Hell. The standards that Dante Alighieri uses to categorize sinners can still be applied to people regardless of time as shown through the analysis of Jeffrey Dahmer and Henry H. Holmes. Through the analysis of Dante’s Inferno and 20th century criminals, it can be inferred that the standards of humanity and behavior are susceptible to both time and culture while still remaining true to the idea that committing the act of killing another human in any way other than in self-defense is immoral. The absolute standard of morality can be applied to Jeffrey Dahmer, a murderer and rapist that ate his victims, who would be placed in the circle
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He admit to killing 17 boys and men, and he raped or ate a few of those victims. The people of Dahmer’s time period believed that Dahmer’s “urges to have sex with the dead led him to drug, kill and dismember” his victims. The use of the phrase “urge to have sex with the dead” shows that the people of the 1990s believed that Dahmer’s ulterior motive when committing his sins was based upon his inability to avoid giving in to lust. The families of the victims deal with the “pain they suffered” that was caused by the crimes of Dahmer and one girl even went as far as to call Dahmer “Satan”, thus showing that the people of Dahmer’s time believed his crimes worthy of Hell ("Dahmer Is Sentenced to 15 Life Terms”). Dahmer had “consensual sex” with the majority of his victims or the victims were “photographed nude” before they were drugged ("Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer”). The author mentions that most of the victims engaged in consensual sexual activities with Dahmer and that Dahmer had sex with their corpses in order to point out that Dahmer’s primary reason for committing murder
One of the most infamous serial killers and sex offenders in America and around the world is Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer is widely known for his killing, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism. He killed seventeen males between the ages of 14 and 33. He was so well known the was even mentioned in a Katy Perry song. Fortunately his brutally gruesome killings were put to an end in 1994 when he was convicted and sent to prison.
Jeffrey Dahmer was a notorious serial killer in the late 70’s throughout the early 90’s. What made him stand out from most serial killer’s was what he did to the bodies of his victims. During this research paper, I will cover his childhood life, what led to his lifestyle of killing and cannibalism and also the crimes that were committed during his murderous acts. I will also compare what theories relate to Jeffrey Dohmer and what could possibly be the reason why he did what he did.
Dante's "Inferno" is full of themes. But the most frequent is that of the weakness of human nature. Dante's descent into hell is initially so that Dante can see how he can better live his life, free of weaknesses that may ultimately be his ticket to hell. Through the first ten cantos, Dante portrays how each level of his hell is a manifestation of human weakness and a loss of hope, which ultimately Dante uses to purge and learn from. Dante, himself, is about to fall into the weaknesses of humans, before there is some divine intervention on the part of his love Beatrice, who is in heaven. He is sent on a journey to hell in order for Dante to see, smell, and hear hell. As we see this experience brings out Dante's weakness' of cowardice,
Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 men between the years of 1978 to 1991 in which he participated in necrophilia, dismemberment and cannibalism (Meyer, 2006). As a child, Dahmer was shy and suffered from low self-esteem. At a young age, Dahmer displayed abnormal behavior starting with the collecting of dead animals and using acid to strip off the meat having necrophilia desires. This escalated in his teen years turning into fantasies of killing and mutilating men. After graduating from high school, he was living alone and the feelings of abandonment returned giving him justification in his mind to commit crimes. Throughout his teens years he abused alcohol, which also lead to abnormal behavior. By the
Antisocial personality disorder is “a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.” (National Institute of Mental Health, 2007). It is often characterized by blatant inattention to social norms and laws, pathological lying, putting others at risk for personal benefit, and an obvious lack of remorse (NIMH, 2007). One of the most notorious people with this disorder is Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer and necrophiliac whose sexual nature and gruesome offenses captured the nation’s attention (Talbott, n.d.). This paper will attempt to provide an overview of Dahmer’s life, as well as explain how both nature and nurture played roles in not only the production of a criminal, but also in the personality of all people.
When he realized that he was a homosexual, the thoughts of naked men, with dead things would arouse him even more. It would not be until the age of eighteen, when Dahmer would lure his first victim, and then take his life. He picked up a hitchhiker, they drank alcohol, had sex, and then when Dahmer did not want the man to leave, he would hit him over the head with a dumbbell. In an interview he once had with a FBI profiler, he stated “the guy wanted to leave, and I did not want him to.” He now had a dead human being lying on his floor, for him to have his way with. He would masturbate on to the body; he cut him up, put him into trash bags, and dumped the bags into a ravine. His parents would soon be settling for a divorce, which did not go over well with Dahmer, especially with his abandonment issues. He started drinking, which would cause him to steal to get money to buy more alcohol, which led him to drop out of college, and down a path of self-destruction. With no other choices, he joined the army where he became a cook, which is where he picked up his butchery skills. The alcohol once again got the best of him, and he was discharged from the army. A few years later his urge to kill had grown stronger and could not resist it any longer. He started luring men to him apartment, where he would drug and disremember them. He would start to experiment with trying to
Jeffrey Dahmer, also commonly known as the Milwaukee Cannibal, is one of America’s most notorious serial killers. In the span of nearly 15 years, between the years 1978 and 1991, it is estimated that Dahmer was responsible for the death of fifteen to seventeen young men (Radford University). As his nickname suggests Dahmer was known for drugging his victims, then raping them, then disembodying them, and if the mood fit him, cooking and eating his victims. Dahmer’s unique case resulted in him being psychologically analyzed and diagnosed by at least seven different psychologists during his trial (Palermo & Bogaerts, 2014). This paper seeks to explore the diagnostics given to Jeffery Dahmer and prove, through the use of available information, their accuracy.
Jeffery Dahmer is arguably the most notorious serial killer -cannibal in history. Targeting men and boys, Dahmer‘s life of crime began with drinking and sex offending. His murders were exceptionally gruesome, often involving rape, torture, necrophilia, dismemberment, and cannibalism. The media often commented on how “normal” Dahmer appeared. Jeffrey Dahmer made everyone question how one develops into such a monster. By the time of his apprehension, Dahmer had sodomized, murdered, and cannibalized at least seventeen men, mostly black, Hispanic or Asian, in the Milwaukee area between the years of 1978 until his arrest in 1991 (Williams pg.1).
Dahmer’s mother had pregnancy issues and took several different drugs to help; his mother was also extremely depressed--after a while, his mother developed an addiction to the drugs and abused them severely, which is extremely pernicious to the health, both physical and mental, of a growing fetus (Giannetakis). While growing up, Dahmer enjoyed to be by himself. He often took walks into the woods near his house. He would find dead animals and examine their innards; although he liked to dismember dead animals, he didn’t wish to inflict pain onto any living creature (Giannetakis).
Jeffrey Dahmer, a notorious serial killer and sex offender in Milwaukee, Wisconsin responsible for killing, dismembering, and consuming 17 male victims during 1978 to 1991. Jeff Dahmer was the child of Joyce and Lionel Dahmer; he was born May 21, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dahmer’s father was a graduate student working on his masters in analytic chemistry, and his mother worked as a Teletype machine instructor. The marriage of Dahmer’s parents showed signs of early problems with continuous fighting. Joyce Dahmer suffered from extreme psychological issues such as depression, and anxiety. Jeffery’s mother attempted suicide when he was a young child. Growing up, Dahmer seemed to be a very happy child until age 6, where he had a surgery to
Jeffrey Dahmer killed and committed acts of necrophilia on 17 males between 1978 and 1991. In the article “Jeffrey Dahmer Biography”, it states that “Dahmer initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, despite having confessed to the killings during police interrogation, but he eventually changed his plea to guilty by virtue of insanity” (Biography.com). His defense then described all the gorey details of his behavior and murders, trying to prove that only someone who had psychopathic tendencies could commit such horrendous acts, but the jury decided to believe the prosecution's statement that Dahmer was fully aware that his acts were evil and chose to commit them anyway. The trial was so complicated that “on February 15, 1992, they returned after approximately 10 hours' deliberation to find him guilty, but sane, on all counts” (Biography.com). He was then sentenced to 15 life sentences in prison, which were going to be run consecutively, with a 16th term added on in May. Another well known serial killer was John Wayne Gacy. Gacy would dress up as “Pogo the Clown” and perform for children’s birthday parties, but no one knew that he would eventually murder and rape 33 boys. He would then hide the bodies in a crawl space in his house and kept them there for years until he was caught. The article states that “the discovery of his murders and subsequent arrest shook the community as he
Serial killers have fascinated the imaginations of people for a long time. One of the most notorious serial killers is Jeffrey Dahmer whose gruesome murders shocked the nation. Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer also known as Milwaukee monster was a notorious American serial killer and sexual offender in the 1980s and early 1990s. Between 1978 and 1991 Dahmer had murdered 17 men. His victims were usually raped, tortured, dismembered, and cannibalism was also involved. Jeffrey was a troubled child psychologically and his social skills had a lot to be desired. All the way through his childhood he was ignored and had queer fantasies of cadavers. In his adulthood this psychosocial status quo didn 't change and was in fact aggravated.
After developing a fascination for the mindset of criminals at an early age, two cases that I personally found most gripping were those of the infamous Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen. Like most people in the UK, I too am familiar with the crimes of Nilsen, the Scottish serial killer well known for forming sexual relationships with his victims. Albeit the second serial killer is less well known in Britain, Jeffrey Dahmer is a household name in USA and became particularly famous for cannibalising and sodomising his latter victims.
My Friend Dahmer explores the beginnings of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s mental sickness and how, though he tries to suppress his tendencies, he
In Dante’s Inferno, we followed Dante as he narrates his decent and observations of hell. A wonderful part of that depiction is his descriptions of the creative yet cruel punishments that each of the different sinners receive. This story is an integral part of literary history, and even if I were to have the imagination and ability of Dante Alighieri, I don’t believe I would change this tried and true version known universally.