Impact Of Religion In Dante's Inferno

To merely say that Dante was interested in the world of hell would be an understatement. His needs to explore and write about the nine different realms could best be described as an obsession. It’s an adventure, a tale, a dream (or nightmare) of different historical, biblical, and Greek gods and creatures living their lives in the afterlife of the underground world. Each level has its own form of punishment fitting the crime one has committed.

Dante’s The Inferno is his own interpretation of the circles of hell. The people that Dante places in hell tried to validate their offenses and have never seen the injustice of their crime or crimes. They were each placed in a specific circle in Hell, Dante has nine circles in his hell. Each circle holds those accountable for that specific crime. Each circle has its own unique and fitting punishment for the crime committed. There are three different main types of offenses; they are incontinence, violence, and fraud. These offenses are divided into Dante’s nine rings of Hell. Each of these rings has a progressively worse punishment, starting with crimes of passion and

Who is Dante? He was a man that had a desire to find the truths of heaven and earth even from a very young age; his goal was to understand the three worlds in his mind of hell, purgatory and paradise so that he could find the true everlasting happiness. In Dante’s age there was not really a separation between church and state. “Dante 's philosophical view was also a political view. In Dante 's time, there were two major political factions, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Originally, the Ghibellines represented the medieval aristocracy, which wished to retain the power of the Holy Roman Emperor in Italy, as well as in other parts of Europe. The Ghibellines fought hard in this struggle for the nobility to retain its feudal powers over the land and the people in contrast, the Guelphs, of which Dante was a member, were mainly supported by the rising middle class, represented by rich merchants, bankers, and new landowners. The enemy was politically, philosophically, and theologically wrong — and thus a Heretic” He was a supporter of the papacy which was a direct opposition to the Holy Roman Emperor, therefore putting himself in danger of his beliefs.

In Dante’s Inferno, Dante is on a journey through hell in which he sees the different versions of sins and what consequences come after the immoralities. The person who commits a sin usually has to suffer in some way that would show revenge for the law of God. Dante threatens the people and tells them that they basically have nothing to look forward to except for having to suffer being separated from the will of God. Since these works were written by Dante, he had the power to judge others and decide how they will be punished for their sins. These visions that he had could very well be all false prophecies and may not be believed by every person. One thing that Dante did was to give enlightenment to sins that people did not know and made people

Dante is a poet who wrote an epic poem called The Divine Comedy. This epic poem is about Dante’s journey as he goes through 3 levels, which he calls Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. In the Inferno, he meets Virgil, his guide throughout his voyage. They both pass through the nine circles of Hell, where they witness many different punishments for those who have done awful things in their past. Good versus evil is a major theme that occurred throughout Hell. In the Inferno, there are times where Dante sees good and evil and also represents it himself.

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

In the first place, Christians of the new and old age primarily believe that after death their souls live on in the grace of God's presence. For example, in the Bible it states, “Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies.”’ In Dante’s Inferno, Dante is shunned by God’s grace and is trying to find his way back. In the concluding lines of inferno; “...and beauteous shining of the Heavenly cars. And we walked out once more beneath the Stars” (Alighieri 287). These last words represent Dante climbing out of the nightmare he called Hell and he is gazing upon the beautiful stars of Heaven. Which represents a sense of hope as if his sins are forgiven. Heaven and hell in the Bible have a rather vague description of the details embedded in the experience you will face in the afterlife. All that is very well known and established is Heaven is a place of light and God's love and Hell is the land in which you experience eternal suffering for your sins. These loose interpretations of hell are greatly represented in Inferno because Dante takes these thoughts and roughly based Christian ideology of the after life into his own “Visions of Hell” Henceforth, the Christian faith and ideas are the base to many other religions. Dante’s Inferno a like Christianity has multiple representations of faith including an abundance of Christian Beliefs.

You can see that the Inferno was influenced by Augustine and Virgil, they are noticeable throughout Dante’s Poem. As an example in the beginning of Inferno Dante is overcome with despair and struggles. In the forest of darkness where Virgil finds Dante and their journey begins. This scene is influenced by the description Augustine gives about being lost spiritually during his early years, when he gave in to the temptations before him, lived in misery and turned away from God. Another similarity between Augustine and Dante was the journey Augustine’s soul took becoming close to God. The trip Dante's took through Hell is figurative and literal. Whereas Augustine’s in more metaphorical than is it physical. Even though the way that the achieved their objective was different, both of them, in the end, were looking to being close with

Dante’s Inferno is an epic poem that is clearly centered on his hate for Pope Boniface VIII. Dante’s “circles of hell” described so vividly in his poem are the result of Dante’s angst toward Boniface as he was once on top of the world until Boniface exiled him only because of his political opinions. Although, he does not clearly name Boniface in the epic he makes sure to include him in five obscure allusions. The first instance alludes to the incumbent pope before Boniface, Pope Celestine V, as the one “who made the great refusal” in the circle of neutrals; as he allowed Boniface to plant seeds of doubt in the months before he suddenly and unexpectedly resigned, leaving Boniface the Pope. The second allusion would place Boniface perfectly in the eighth circle, sixth pouch as the fraudulent sinner he was to prey on Celestine with his utter gift of fraudulent gab to gain a political position of power. The third, fourth, and fifth instances all point to his questionable practice of selling indulgences or absolution. So, therefore, just because he cannot directly mention Boniface in his epic due to him still being alive during the time of his writing, he still manages to make it a point to let him know there is a place for him in Hell.

Through the interactive oral my understanding of Inferno by Dante Alighieri has improved, particularly the references to religion. Christianity plays a key role in Inferno since the plot revolves around the events following death according to Christian practices.

The inferno by Dante is a story of faith, religious and moral beliefs with various elements, symbols and themes. Through this journey Dante is guided through hell and back by Virgil a symbolism of his teacher and a comrade philosopher like him. The three elements through out this story that seemed to stand out the most are the perfection of God's justice, evil as a contradiction to God's will, and the style of language.

Dante Alighieri, an Italian poet and writer of the 13th century, creates a fictional account of his visions of his journey through Hell. His background as a Catholic influences his life and his writings, including The Inferno. He uses the historical and political events of his lifetime to influence his writings as well. Dante is educated and very familiar with the history and literature of the classical world. In The Inferno, he expresses his admiration for Greco-Roman history, literature, mythology, and philosophy, but he also places limitations on the ability of the classical world to gain salvation as taught and believed in Christian doctrine.

The Divine Comedy is much more than an epic poem depicting a man’s interpretation of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. Written by Italian poet, Dante Alighieri, the Divine Comedy frequently alludes to the political turmoil that was prevalent throughout 14th century Italy, specifically, the city of Florence. During this period of Italian history, there was a lack of a stable government and a power struggle between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor. This paper will analyze the political aspects within the Divine Comedy and its connection to religion, focusing specifically on the Inferno.

In Dante's Inferno, Dante places people of all types into one of the nine different circles depending on what they had done in their life and what punishments they deserve. His religion is what said which sins made someone have to spend eternity in Hell and what sins were worse than others. Some of the sins Dante chose to be included in his own version of Hell are wrath, sloth, greed, lust, and gluttony. These sins were seen as some of the worst in the Catholic religion, which influences Dante’s decision to have them in Dante's Inferno. Some of the other sins Dante chose also exemplified his strong Catholic faith. For example, the people who fall in Limbo did not believe in God and in the Catholic religion, this means they were not saved and would therefore end up in Hell (Brantl 208). Dante, just like all catholics, believed that going against God was a sin. In Dante's Inferno, there are punishments for people who go against the catholic religion and the Lord as well as betray them. Dante’s religion also influenced his choices for whom he put in hell and where. According to Dante, no madder how good of a person you are, if you didn't believe in God and Christianity, you were sent to hell. Hawkins says that “…Limbo, the first circle of hell. It is beautiful, refined, civil, and dead. Knowledge may well be perfection, but it is the knowledge of God, the beatific vision, that is the journey’s true end” (107).