The Importance Of Sin In The Inferno By Dante Alighieri

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.

Dante's use of allegory in the Inferno greatly varies from Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" in purpose, symbolism, characters and mentors, and in attitude toward the world. An analysis of each of these elements in both allegories will provide an interesting comparison. Dante uses allegory to relate the sinner's punishment to his sin, while Plato uses allegory to discuss ignorance and knowledge. Dante's Inferno describes the descent through Hell from the upper level of the opportunists to the most evil, the treacherous, on the lowest level. His allegorical poem describes a hierarchy of evil.

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

Enforcing religious moral codes in societies can lead to a total disregard of these codes through hypocrisy.

When we focus on our own needs, and we ignore the plight of the people around us; then we are living in a way that is contrary to the will of God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer referred to sin as selfishness, and Karl Barth said that the root of sin is pride.

Sin has undergone many different definitions because of the dramatic mutation of Christian ideas (Fredriksen). The idea of sin itself has undergone many changes as the ideas grew and changed as Christian ideas grew and changed (Fredriksen). Envy is often regarded as the sin that is at the root of all sins (Epstein). Envy is the deadliest of the fall seven sins because it affects the vast majority of the public, it encompasses the other sins, and envy can manifest into something much worse than simply coveting others (Epstein). Although envy is often referred to as a negative connotation it is also can be views psychologically as helpful and empowering (Laham). These can all be shown through real life examples such as academia and popular culture references. All in all, envy is the deadliest sin of all.

Inferno, written by Dante Alighieri illustrates the idea of justice through the belief that with each action arise a consequence. What you sin above ground, you deal with under. Through this he gives examples of the sins done and the punishment that is inflicted from doing such thing as a disgrace to God. All through Dantes imagination and his views as to how it should be done, there is a punishment for each area of sin committed which is why a person who bribes will be in the further in the level of hell, as compared to someone who has killed an innocent.

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.

In Dante's view the next circle of sin consists of acts of fraud. He classifies these sinners as seducers and panderers, flatterers, simoniacs, fortune tellers, grafters, hypocrites, thieves, evil counselors, sowers of discord, and counterfeiters or falsifiers. These are the souls who in life betrayed the confidence of another. They preyed on other people solely for gain and knowingly deceived without concern for their victims' psyche or physical being.

Religious people always fear that they will not make it to Heaven or the place their God resides. The bible and other religious text give advice on how to avoid the pain of Hell. Dante Alighieri, a famous Italian poet, wrote about the physical description of Hell and the punishments each sinner would receive for their sins. Although The Divine Comedy chronicles Dante's journey from the depths of Hell to the glory of Heaven it contains a deeper meaning. Dante reveals the true meaning of the Inferno through his leading motif, his interactions between the sinners, and the intertwining of other literary works into the Inferno.

1. There are many different sins not listed here. However, many of these great sins, like murder, adultery, stealing, etc., have root causes, like Pride. Pride was the devil's great sin, as he wanted to be like God, and rebelled. There are 7 basic kinds of sin that lead to all others, known as the Seven Deadly sins. It takes heroic virtue in most cases to overcome these. Most of us are afflicted greatly with at least one or two of these. And once you give in to one of these sins, the spirits of the other 6 will be only too glad to come into your soul also. All of these sins will lead you directly to hell.

In his first article of The Inferno, Dante Alighieri starts to present a vivid view of Hell by taking a journey through many levels of it with his master Virgil. This voyage constitutes the main plot of the poem. The opening Canto mainly shows that, on halfway through his life, the poet Dante finds himself lost in a dark forest by wandering into a tangled valley. Being totally scared and disoriented, Dante sees the sunshine coming down from a hilltop, so he attempts to climb toward the light. However, he encounters three wild beasts on the way up to the mountain—a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf—which force him to turn back. Then Dante sees a human figure, which is soon revealed to be the great Roman poet Virgil. He shows a different path

     We must make our own decision on what we think sin is. We can look at what others say it could be or we can look to the Bible and ask the Lord what it is. I think it is also different for everyone. There are however some things that are a standard for everyone. These are specifically mentioned in the Bible. God gave us the Ten Commandments to follow and Jesus gave us two simple rules to follow. If we look at these we can

The Bible classifies the seven deadly sins – greed, envy, sloth, wrath, gluttony, pride and lust – as the characteristics of people which will lead to unhappiness. One particular sin evident in our world today is greed. Greed is defined as an excessive desire to possess wealth or goods. The greed that exists in our world leads people to unhappy and selfish lives. Greed is evident through individual people, corporate companies and in our governments.

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.