The Concept Of Sin In Dante Alighieri's Inferno

Often, we cannot see the good until we have experienced the bad. Dante Alighieri, a poet who makes himself the main character in his Divine Comedy, finds himself lost in a dark wood at the start of The Inferno. Though he sees a safe path out of the wood towards an alluring light, he is forced to take an alternate route through an even darker place. As the ending of the pilgrim Dante’s voyage is bright and hopeful, Alighieri the poet aims to encourage even the most sinful Christians to hope for a successful end. Thus, Dante the pilgrim goes to hell in The Inferno to better understand the nature of sin and its consequences in order to move closer to salvation; his journey an allegory representing that of the repenting Christian soul.

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

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

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

Our first glimpse of struggle occurs at the beginning of the epic poem where Dante awakens in the Dark Wood of Error feeling lost and fearful because he “went astray from the straight road” (Canto I, Line 1-2) and ended up in a “valley of evil” (Canto I, Line 13). When Dante sees The Mount of Joy, “a little hill” (Canto I, Line 16) that could take him back to where he needs to be quickly and efficiently, he gains enough hope to go climb it but he is blocked abruptly by three beasts: “a spotted Leopard” with “tremor and flow and gaudy pelt” (Canto I, Line 33-34), “a great Lion,” who is “raging with hunger” (Canto I, Line 44-45), and “a She-Wolf” who is “a starved horror ravening and wasted” (Canto I, Line 48-49).

Dante’s descent into Hell in Inferno, the first part of his Divine Comedy, tells of the author’s experiences in Hades as he is guided through the abyss by the Roman author, Virgil. The text is broken into cantos that coincide with the different circles and sub-circles of Hell that Dante and Virgil witness and experience. Inferno is heavily influenced by classic Greek and Roman texts and Dante makes references to a myriad of characters, myths, and legends that take place in Virgil’s Aeneid, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Some of the most important references, however, are the most obvious ones that are easily overlooked simply because of the fact that they are so blatant. Dante is being escorted through Hell by the

In Dante Alighieri’s book Inferno Dante travels through Hell and witnesses the torture and punishment of sinners. In Cantos 32 and 33 the sinners are frozen in a vast lake for betraying kin, homeland and guest. Though some of Dante’s values are still valued today many have taken new meaning or been discarded by some people. In Cantos 32 and 33 Dante and Virgil pass through the ninth circle of hell which is divided into four rings.

In The Inferno of Dante, the second part of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, shows the main protagonist, Dante, exploring Hell. Throughout his time in Hell, Dante experiences the multiple layers of it and the people within each layer. Dante describes the conditions people are in by expressing it as contrapasso; the punishment of souls by a process either resembling or contrasting with the sin itself. In the second circle of Hell is where the lustful reside. Lust is one of the seven deadly sins in the Catholic religion.

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.

     Infidelity, murder, betrayal, and conspiracy all play an integral part in the story of the relationship between Jason and Medea. Jason is guilty of all four acts and Medea involves herself in three. Yet, perhaps, in the eyes of Dante, Medea might fall further into the realm of Dis than Jason. But, should she? And, is Dante's view of Jason and his sentence in Hell appropriate?

In Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno” Dante sets up Hell as an inverted cone with nine concentric circles, symbolizing an increased depravity, reaching the highest level of wickedness at the centre of Earth, where Satan is stuck in ice, chewing on the worst sinners in his 3 mouths The further down the cone you go, the worse the sin gets and the worse the punishment gets. The punishments that the sinners receive are symbolic of poetic justice; most of the punishments that Dante has placed on sinners is agreeable, however some punishments don’t fit the crime. In circle 1 we find virtuous pagans and unbaptised infants living in fog, symbolizing god blinding them with no hope, eternally longing for the presence of god. Those who reside here in Limbo are not punished, which seems to appropriately fit.

“My Guide and I crossed over and began to mount that little known and lightless road to ascend into the shinning world again.” The Inferno, by Dante Alighieri, is an epic poem, divine comedy, which was written in the 1500’s in Italian. Dante Alighieri lost his mother at a very young age and was exiled from his hometown, Florence when his group, the White Guelphs got into a disagreement with the Black Guelphs. Dante was a writer and greatly involved in politics which influenced him to write this epic poem. The story starts at with him meeting the ghost of Virgil, his idol, who becomes his guide for the remainder of the book and tries to escort Dante to heaven to be with his love, Beatrice.

Dante’s Inferno begins in a dark forest, a place of confusion, because he lost his way on the “true path”. Seeking an escape, Dante finds a hill where the sun glares down on him. This light seen in Dante’s Inferno symbolizes clarity as the sun represents God. After encountering three beasts and turning back to the murky forest, Dante crosses paths with the great Roman Poet, Virgil. Virgil is an aid and guide to Dante to Heaven, the ultimate Paradise. He warns Dante he must pass through Hell and Purgatory in order to reach his salvation in heaven. Virgil is depicted as nature or human reason perfected by virtue. It is strongly emphasized that Virgil can only take Dante so far in his journey by guiding him to heaven. Much like St. Thomas Aquinas’ reasoning, nature or human reason can only bring you so far in the journey to God. As Virgil and Dante approach the mouth of Hell, Virgil preaches to Dante about a woman in Heaven who took pity upon Dante when he was lost in hell. The woman Virgil speaks of is Dante’s departed love Beatrice. After Dante hears that Beatrice is heaven he now sheds the fear of traveling through Hell and Purgatorio.

Hell. Everyone has their own version of it, whether “hell” is where Satan whips his slaves and makes them work in flames, or its where people endure the pain of endless torture devices. In Dante Alighieri’s book “Divine Comedy”, however, Dante tells his own imagery of the awful place which lies in the underground. His inferno consists of nine rings, each with punishments for those who sin, and two others for those who aren’t religious. Dante’s Inferno inspired many artists and writers, including Dan Brown who revolved his novel “Inferno” around it.