The Divine Comedy : Love And Lust In A Nutshell

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.

Dante’s representations of women and feminine sexuality in the Inferno show contrasts within the various natures of women and their sexuality. His era’s vision of the perfect woman one that idealized beauty, passiveness and purity is represented by his life long love Beatrice. This ideal and its representation in Beatrice are contrasted with the dark depictions of women, their sexual sins, devious devices, and evil act, which Dante encounters in hell. This paper will argue that the severity of condemnation in hell for women’s sexual sins is related to the increasing degrees of deceit.

“The power of fear is has very little limits,” (Shorto). The great writer, Dante, was aware of this singular fact, and used it to fuel his famous text The Inferno. As Dante constructs his masterpiece his creative mind is let loose on a rampage of pain. He forges a variety of punishments for the souls damned to Hell. Each consequence follows a sin made by the common people, and as these common people read about what could become of them they experience fear. In The Inferno written by Dante, the text contains several vivid punishments that strike fear in the hearts of its readers, and motivates them against sin.

As Dante, the pilgrim, makes his way through the second circle of hell in Canto V of Dante’s Inferno, he comes across the lustful. Lust is a very strong sexual desire. Having the desire to have sex is not a sin, but it becomes sinful when the desire is defected. This means, if the sexual desire is out of context such as desiring another married man or woman, it then becomes a sin. In Dante’s Inferno, Francesca da Rimini tells a story of her and Paolo Malatesta and how lust and adultery lead to their deaths. For the first time in Hell, Dante feels pity for a soul and I believe he reacts this way to her story because he puts himself in their shoes and feels their pain. Dante empathizes with Francesca because this is now her eternal fate.

In this canto Dante addresses one of the great moral problems of Christianity, which was particularly pressing for Renaissance scholars who revered the Ancients. Baptism is necessary for salvation, but it seems essentially unfair that all the good people who lived before Christianity, or who never heard of it, should suffer for something over which they had no control. Dante solves this problem by keeping the good Pagans and infidels in Hell, but giving them a painless and honorable fate. Limbo is not a happy place, but it is contemplative and calm. Its inhabitants are not tormented and they can converse with one another among green fields and noble castles.

In Dante’s Inferno canto III,1-9 it says “I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY, I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL GRIEF, I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN RACE. JUSTICE IT WAS THAT MOVED MY GREAT CREATOR; DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE CREATED ME, AND HIGHEST WISDOM JOINED WITH PRIMAL LOVE. BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS WERE MADE, AND I SHALL LAST ETERNALLY. ABANDON EVERY HOPE, ALL YOU WHO ENTER.” It is understood that hell is created out of “The Primal love.” In other words, hell is created from God as the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. Also, a message of any situation; in which it warns all souls to “ABANDON EVERY HOPE, ALL YOU WHO ENTER” can have a purpose that comes from love which seems strange. Dante’s depiction of the sinners challenges the assumption of hell being created from love. He doesn’t easily accept that a loving God would create such severe punishments for his favored children. I was raised to believe in God. I know others may have their own beliefs and practice different religions. None the less, every so often I come across those who question God. Just as Dante felt puzzled as to why God put people he created through any type of cruelty. I feel that just as God can create heaven and greatness from love, he can create hard times and punishment from love as well. In the reading of Dante’s inferno, they have a special place for those who sided neither with God nor Lucifer which were called the “coward angels”. Many of those who question Gods doings belong there.

“What is meant by humanism in this case is once again the exaltation of worldly interests as well as the sympathetic presentation of indomitable, defiant heroes and of human passions in their most mundane and captivating forms” (Montano 206). The Renaissance was a time of “rebirth”. It was a time of bringing back the ideals of the Classical Era and focusing on how mankind could use these ideals to become more knowledgeable. Dante Alighieri’s writing, though penned in the Middle Ages, indicates the true beginning of the Renaissance in Italy. His ideas and passions expressed through his many works have left their impression on the world, extending to modern times. One of Dante’s greatest masterpieces, “Dante’s Inferno”, truly expresses his beliefs

While one can understand how Divine Justice and Supreme Wisdom could be the aspects of God that have created Hell, the ultimate punishment for mortal sinners, a remaining attribute still puzzles any reader of Dante’s Inferno, that being: Primeval Love. This paradox urges us to ask, how could a place of ice and hailing fire, of eternal lamentation and woe, where God’s light never shines, be the result of an act of love? This questioning is natural when it comes to the stark contrast between the nature of Hell and the nature of God. On the other hand, we must keep in mind that the reason Dante is able to embark on this journey in the first place is because Beatrice, his lover who was then in Heaven, has asked Virgil to save him while he was lost

Inferno by Dante Alighieri is beautifully woven to reflect the realities or unrealities of the time. The various circles of hell are used by the Florentine writer Dante, to tell the tale in a structured and elaborate manner, with the use of nine circles of the Inferno (Havely, 374). Interesting, however, is the manner in which Dante describes the characters, as they are seen to be facing tragedies in their life in hell. The author of this medieval text categorizes the different types of sins that people can commit and subjects the characters to various punishments; each is in a separate circle in hell. Lawall opines that the writer uses a style that makes the reader envision themselves in the poem (Lawall, 17). The infamous guide of Dante the character is none other than Virgil the poet, and being born before the time of Christ, places him in the category of a “virtuous pagan”, who is in a matter of speaking, lost and without hope in Inferno, but not without safety that the author bestows as homage to Virgil (Alighieri, 1028). With the various messages of political strife and religious tension seeping throughout the text of the Inferno, it is clear to see that a couple who faces a tragic situation that has no ending is Paolo and Francesca. In so doing, the author subjects this adulterous couple to relatively tragic states even though they appear to possess incredible beauty in character, personality and intellect.

Dante’s Inferno (Hell) is the first book from The Divine Comedy. The literary work is an allegory telling about Dante’s journey through Hell. The inscription on the gates of Hell read, “ABANDON EVERY HOPE, ALL YOU WHO ENTER” (line 9). The chief punishment of all the inhabitants of the Inferno is no hope. They have no have no hope of salvation, no hope of release, no hope of any improvement, or escape from their punishments. Each inhabitant is punished in a fashion befitting their crime. For centuries, the meaning of justice is a controversial question. The punishments in Dante’s Hell are justified in proportion to their sin.

Critical Analysis Dante Alighieri's principal work, L'Inferno, details the first part in his journey in life from Hell to Purgatory to Heaven in a work of epic poetry unseen since the time of Virgil. Alighieri’s purpose in this work is to illustrate that God’s judgement, and by extension God himself, is always perfect. Dante describes this purpose through his vivid imagery, the ways in which he changes in his journey through Hell, and the setting of Hell itself. L’Inferno is frequently praised for its images that come to life while reading. It is not difficult to visualize the expansive mires of the River Styx, or the bleak, forlorn city of Dis, or the frigid lake Cocytus with its icy winds gusting.

In the Inferno, Dante is taught that the people who are located in Hell are there to pay for their sins in their life and they deserve it because it was their own choice to sin. In the beginning of the Inferno, Dante felt pity for the sinners since they had to spend the rest of eternity in such a horrible place but, later he learns that the people in Hell are their because of the horrible things they’ve done in their life. When Dante goes through the Fifth Circle, he sees a man that he didn’t like when the man was alive. Dante tells the man that he “may weep and wail all eternity, for all I know you, hell-dog, filthy as you are” (Canto VIII, Lines 37-38). He wishes that the man will suffer for eternity for the sins he committed during his life. Virgil praises Dante by saying “Indignant spirit, I kiss you as you frown. Blessed be she who bore you” (Canto VIII, Lines 42-43). He says this because Dante finally realized that the souls in Hell deserve it because of the sins they’ve committed. He has gotten closer to the light of Heaven because of

In Canto 27 of Dante’s Purgatorio, Dante travels through the terrace of lust along with his guide Virgil and Statius, a poet newly released from Purgatory beginningand begins a transition from an epic mode to a lyric one. Oddly, reparation for the sin of lust draws Dante back to his past as a lyric love poet, although such a life is notorious for its connotations with sensuality. However, this placement indicates a central theme of the Divine Comedy: to ascend to God, Dante must learn to love Him. Although classic Christian mysticism, such as that of St. Augustine’s Confessions, seeks union with God through abandonment of earthly goods, Dante can only reach the Divine through the guidance of his old love, the beautiful and saintly Beatrice.

The Inferno was written by Dante Alighieri around 1314 and depicts the poet’s imaginary journey through Hell. Dante spent his life traveling from court to court both lecturing and writing down his experiences. His Divine Comedy – the three-part epic poem consisting of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso (Hell, Purgatory and Heaven)– is generally regarded as one of the greatest poetic feats ever accomplished. All three parts are incredible literary feats with symbolism so complex and beautiful that scholars are still unraveling all the details today. However, this essay will focus on the first part of Dante’s work, Inferno, which consists of 34 cantos. Dante’s Inferno is a masterpiece of allegorical imagery where Virgil represents human

Most people imagine hell as an evil, dark, and scary place, burning with fire. This is also how Dante depicts it, full of violence, gore, and blood. This horrid description is meant to scare people from sin. The inscription on the gate to hell read 'Abandon every hope, you who enter here. (Alighieri, 5)'; This inscription does not apply to Dante in the poem because he is still alive, but it does imply horrific despair for some. The inscription implies that anyone who enters this Inferno must abandon all hope of ever escaping. Inferno is for those who consciously choose an evil way of life.