The idea of the contrapasso, or counter suffering, explains that punishments must arise from the sin itself, not the damage that the sin created. Dante’s Inferno expresses the contropasso through nine circles of Hell which are distinguished based upon the specific sin of a mortal being. The job of placing mortals into a particular circle of Hell can be an arduous, but given the opportunity to fulfill this task; Katherina from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew displays the distinct characteristics which allow her to be placed among the sinners in the Inferno. Kate’s tragic flaw of being the shrew in the play means she personifies anger. Her anger is clearly seen at the beginning of the play, but appears to lessen during the remaining acts. On the surface it can be easy to conclude that Kate is a shrew no more and her marriage has tamed her. Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew contains clues which can conclude that Katherina is not tamed at the conclusion of the play and therefore she embodies the characteristics that most closely correspond to Dante’s fifth circle of hell, Anger.
In the Inferno the fifth circle of Hell is the realm where the wrathful and sullen sinners reside. Wrathful sinners are those who express their anger, and sullen sinners repress their anger. The wrathful are seen fighting each other on the surface of the river Styx and the sullen are gurgling beneath the surface of the water (Inferno, 7, 109-26). The line between what constitutes wrathful and sullen
Throughout the works of Shakespeare there are several relationships that develop in order to help guide the story into its conclusion. For instance, in Othello, and Taming of the Shrew, similar relationships between the male and female lead characters are displayed and emphasized to bring large meaning to each of the texts. It is these relationships between fathers and daughters, as well as husbands and wives that form to progress the plots of each play. Through these bold and sometimes fatal relationships, Shakespeare portrays a domino effect that each of the female leads put into play through their actions.
In Dante’s Inferno, part of The Divine Comedy, Canto V introduces the torments of Hell in the Second Circle. Here Minos tells the damned where they will spend eternity by wrapping his tail around himself. The Second Circle of Hell holds the lustful; those who sinned with the flesh. They are punished in the darkness by an unending tempest, which batters them with winds and rain. Hell is not only a geographical place, but also a representation of the potential for sin and evil within every individual human soul. As Dante travels through Hell, he sees sinners in increasingly more hideous and disgusting situations. For Dante, each situation is an image of the quality of any soul that is determined to sin in
The Hell depicted by Dante Alighieri in the Inferno, the first part in his epic The Divine Comedy, is one full of endless suffering and torture brought on by a completely wrathful God. This is not the place of God’s divine and perfect justice that Dante attempted to construct, but rather one that almost glorifies torture as not only the most effective form of punishment, but the most fitting and just one. The way in which the different circles of Hell are so brutally described make it very hard to see this place as anything other than a place filled with endless amounts of cruel torture.
The Taming of the Shrew, written by William Shakespeare, is historical proof that flirting and temptation, relating to the opposite sex, has been around since the earliest of times. Because males and females continue to interact, the complications in this play remain as relevant and humorous today as they did to Elizabethan audiences. This is a very fun play, full of comedy and sexual remarks. It's lasting impression imprints itself into the minds of its readers, for it is an unforgettable story of sex, flirting, and happiness. The Taming of the Shrew remains as relevant today because of its relation to the age-old story of the battle of the sexes and dynamics of marriage, as well as the woman's struggle with both of these.
A comedic story can be summed up as one thing; a hero who triumphs over evil and wins the day. In these tales, our main character encounters around one hardship and overcomes it with much ease. The ancient Greek playwrights had a similar view on comedic tales: in order for something to be a comedy, the main character must reach a positive outcome. So no matter what comes their way, our hero will be in a better spot than he was at the beginning. Well-known comedies include A Midsummer Night 's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, and Cyrano de Bergerac. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Taming of the Shrew, the main character achieves their goal with few hardships. Yet, in Cyrano de Bergerac, our main character’s ambitions are never
Women in the era of Queen Elizabeth I were often portrayed through stereotypes such as, “The Good and the Badde” by Nicholas Breton. In this work women have desired traits such as loyalty, obedience, and innocence. Undesirable traits would be just the opposite, disobedience, raunchiness, treachery, loudness, and being outspoken. The play, “The Taming of the Shrew” by William Shakespeare, plays heavily to these stereotypes with the two female main characters; Bianca and Kate. Whereas Kate plays the Un-quiet one in the beginning, but transitions to more of a quiet one or the good wife while Bianca plays The Virgin.
The story of “Dante’s Inferno”, by Dante Alighieri is a dark story which depicts nine circles of Hell. The one circle of Hell that we will be discussing is that of greed which happens to be the fourth circle. In the Fourth Circle of Hell, Dante and Virgil see the souls of people who are punished for greed. They are divided into two groups (The Prodigal and the Miserly), those who hoarded possessions and those who lavishly spent it. They use great weights as a torture mechanism where they are pushing them with their chests. This symbolizes their selfish drive for fortune during their lifetime. As they make their way further down, they come across a swamp filled with naked people with their faces scared by rage. One other form of greed is that of anger, which overcame these terrorized souls. The two groups are guarded by a character called Pluto which also happens to be the God of Wealth from the Underworld. The fourth circle (Greed), is one of the iniquities that most incurs Dante's scornful wrath, thus is of great importance to understanding the text.
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
Dante clearly distinguishes crimes of passion or desire between crimes of violence and punishes them according to their degree. These sinners, the carnal, the gluttonous, the hoarders and wasters, along with the wrathful and sullen fall just below the virtuous pagans in Dante's hell. Somehow, they represent a loss of self-control, of reason gone amiss, as each dives into a personal world of self-indulgence. To Dante, those that surrender to the pleasures of the 'will' deserve an eternity less painful than the individuals who fall into emotional or mental despair.
As demonstrated would be the second circle of hell which consists of the lustful. As their punishment for their unholy desires, they are being blown violently back and forth by strong winds which prevents them from getting rest in comparison to a higher level such as the fifth circle which contain the wrathful who live in the mud river and is constantly fighting and hurting each other because they could not manage their anger in life. The punishment reflects the type of sin committed during their lifetime. All of this organized based on the severity of the sin. Dante teaches us that whatever you do will always come back regardless. Justice is considered one of the most important theme and concept that it comes with. The term “right of law” means that a person does what is “just” or “ morally right” and for things to be overall fair which ties in with the concept that involves people getting what they had coming for them.
In Dante’s Inferno, Dante narrates his descent and observation of hell through the various circles and pouches. One part of this depiction is his descriptions of the various punishments that each of the different sinners has received. The various punishments that Dante envisions the sinners receiving are broken down into two types. The first type he borrows from various gruesome and cruel forms of torture and the second type, though often less physically agonizing, is Dante’s creative and imaginative punishment for sins. The borrowed torturous forms of punishments create a physical pain for the shades, whereas the creative punishments are used to inflict a mental and psychological suffering. However, it is possible for the creative
When William Shakespeare and Aeschylus create purpose, they create it in a direct manner. Executing it with carefully chosen language, Shakespeare and Aeschylus implement multiple layers to construct meaning and multiple interpretations. Without alienating the audience and regardless of it’s controversial theme’s, both text’s were at a time developed when devoted leaders condemned the idea of Eve and praised the Virgin Mary, Neoclassical scholars welcome the idea of feminism, reversed gender roles, and that women could be the dominant domain. The everyday couple would settle and incorporate pieces of the popular ideas of societies hierarchy of the male position, masculinity over ruled femininity, which was embedded in a tradition constructed society. This essay seeks to create an understanding of the symbolic characters of Katherina in Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of The Shrew’ and of Clytemnestra in Aeschylus’s ‘Agamemnon’. By exploring both texts in conjunction, it comes to attention that both female characters play masculine roles to be able to achieve their dominance stance. Both women not only revel the real life female, but also depicts to the audience the double bind due to the patriarchal world they live in. This essay will show how both characters use their actions as well as their words as an opportunity, yet becoming problematic due to the idea of ‘a mans world’.
The role of woman in the society has always been really controversial, whether it was 400 years ago or now. Shakespeare's two very famous comedy plays, The Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice challenge a very serious social issue, the role and importance of woman in society. We all know the stereotypical image of woman in the society but Shakespeare questions the society on these thoughts through his plays. While Shakespeare expresses his ideas in a very unique way in each of his plays, this issue is common in both plays and is portrayed very similarly. Whether it is the way woman are treated, portrayed or judged, Shakespeare repeats the same idea through difference acts and events between the two comedies. There are some
Love is one of the most powerful things in this world. People will go to great lengths to achieve another’s love. From youth we have been showered with tales of true love’s kiss and of Prince Charming breaking the Evil Queen’s curse. Time and again, we are made to see the power of love. In the play, “The Taming of the Shrew” by William Shakespeare, the renowned playwright takes love deeper than just passion. Shakespeare goes under the surface of love, all the way to its core. The story truly begins as Baptista Minola’s two daughters are readied for marriage: Bianca the sweet and innocent; Katherina the shrewd and curst. Men gravitate towards beautiful Bianca and flee when Katherina appears. Hortensio, a good friend of the main protagonist, Petruchio, wants to marry Bianca, in order for that to happen, Hortensio must get Petruchio to marry Katherina. Yet, Petruchio knows what he is getting himself into and he wisely sees past Katherina’s prickly outer shell. He proves that the Katherina isn’t what everyone in Padua thinks she is. Petruchio exposes the superficial problems in his society and demonstrates that respect and love are one and the same. Furthermore, Petruchio’s determination and heart allows him to woo the girl, marry her and activate the Taming of the Shrew.
In order for two comparative texts to develop ones understanding of shared themes and ideas they must over come the boundaries of differing contexts and explore the strong parallels between them. Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew” (1590-1592) was composed during the Elizabethan era in contrast to Gil Junger’s “10 Things I Hate About You” (1999) set around 1990s America. Although the diverse time periods their correlating plots are indicators of appropriation and pronounce an intertextual relationship. Both of these texts explore universal themes of gender roles and social hierarchy. Gender and roles is a prominent parallel throughout the two texts exploring the stereotypical standards that have been long withstanding in society. Likewise, society has developed the concept of social hierarchy to categorized people into different groups based on political, and socio-economic status. These themes have significant relevance to society and have reoccurred through to present day. Despite the differing context and era, an understanding of the corresponding ideas in these texts may be developed a comparative study.