Theme Of Symbolism In Dante's Inferno

When Dante first begins in this story he was lost and clueless physically and mentally.  Dante was located in a forest with his life ruined and not knowing what was in store for him. Dante had given up on his future and had given up on finding the correct path of life for himself. However, when he sees a sunset and a very important mountain that represent Heaven he will soon change. Dante is given an opportunity to change and turn his life around but to do so he must first experience the darkness of Hell with the assistance of Virgil who helps him and guides him through what is right and wrong.

Imagery: Imagery is an important theme through Dante’s Inferno that Dante uses frequently to give us images to describe "..my guide, Embraced my neck and kissed me on the face.." (VIII.40-41). The imagery used in these lines provide an image of how Virgil treats Dante.

Born and raised in Florence during periods of political instability and fragmentation, Dante Alighieri, a devoted White Guelph and poet, became very familiar with the conflicts rising between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines––and between the Blacks and Whites. When the Blacks eventually overpowered the Whites, Alighieri was exiled and wrote The Inferno, in which he directly described the politics of his life and pressed on the topics of sin, treachery, and loyalty, while mentioning specific Florentine people he respected and others who, he felt, were deserving of harsh punishments because of their actions throughout their lives. In this epic poem, Alighieri writes himself as the main protagonist, Dante, in describing his journey through the nine circles of Hell, while meeting several sinners and witnessing their tormenting punishments along the way. When Dante encounters both loyal and traitorous Florentines, Alighieri uses diction, imagery, and actions to express compassion to three Sodomites––Jacopo Rusticucci, Guido Guerra, and Tegghiaio Aldobrandi––and Farinata Degli Uberti, and hostility to Bocca Degli Abati, revealing that Alighieri’s amount of sympathy and malevolence towards the sinners depended on their loyalty or betrayal to Florence.

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence, Italy in 1265 when Italy was facing conflict. This trouble started when Pope Gregory IX excommunicated Frederick the second of the Holy Roman Empire. The pope wanted to control the Holy Roman Empire, but the Holy Roman Emperor wanted to be independent from the church. Entire families and sometimes cities chose sides. The people who sided with the Holy Roman Empire were called the Ghibellines, and the people who sided with the Papacy were called the Guelphs. After a few decades the Guelphs pushed the Ghibellines out of Italy. Since the Ghibellines were no longer a threat, there was peace in Italy for fifteen years. After a political argument within an important family in a city nearby Florence, a blood

These themes can be found throughout the novel. For example, everything in groups of three in the novel can be seen as a symbolization of the Holy Trinity. In the beginning of the novel, D​ante's Inferno,​by Dante Alighieri, Dante Alighieri is first represented as lost in a forest, searching for the 'the right road". Dante sees light at shining through at the top of a mountain, but when he goes towards it, he is stopped by a lion, a leopard, and a she­wolf and is forced to turn back into the dark forest.

As John M. Najemy, author of “Dante and Florence” within the book The Cambridge Companion to Dante succinctly notes, “Dante’s political career coincided with the onset of a violent split among the families of the Florentine elite,” which would trickle down to the rest of Florence’s unstable society. Knowing that Dante was “first and foremost a citizen of Florence, and Florence is the root of his knowledge of and interest in politics,” unfortunate timing, his involvement with politics, and his dedicated investment for an independently run Florence would be his social downfall. Dante’s Florence was marked by two centuries of rapid growth among financial and commercial interests, and the reach of Florentine influence had spread throughout Europe, extending as far north to England and to Constantinople in the east, making it one of Europe’s largest and most important cities by the early fourteenth century. This swift increase in Florentine wealth, population, and civil strife, as argued by Robert M. Durling in his edited translation of the Inferno, helps to explain the certain convictions held by Dante, particularly his condemnation of avarice and political factionalism. Dante’s opinions, as expressed later on during his exile, can be found dispersed within the Inferno, for instance within the fourth circle of Hell where, “…clerics, cardinals, [and] popes, in whom the passion of avarice has wrought excess. Dante’s specific mention of ecclesiastical members here underlines his disillusionment of the Church in reference to its internal corruption and the unmoral greed of its leaders. But before scholars can analyze Dante’s embittered relationship with the Church and its members following his exile in 1302, they must examine his involvement within Florentine political life that led to his

Dante Alighieri cleverly uses his character Dante’s development throughout The Divine Comedy to describe his views and judgement on sin and love. In the literal interpretation of Alighieri’s allegory, Dante begins his journey lost in a wood but soon finds a guide, Virgil, who explains that he will lead Dante back to where he needs to be. Virgil leads Dante through the 9 circles of Inferno, showing him where the sinners reside, the levels of Purgatorio, for those who sinned but turned to God, and Paradiso, the eternal paradise for the blessed. Alighieri ends the story abruptly with Dante finally seeing God. There is, of course, the metaphorical and deeper meaning that Alighieri portrays through Dante’s actions, learnings, and revelations which are meant to enlighten and teach the reader. As Dante grows and learns from Virgil and his journey, the readers are taught what Alighieri wants us to learn about sin and love.

Dante Alighieri is considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of all time and his work The Divine Comedy is considered a masterpiece in world literature. He born in Florence Italy in 1265. His mother died when he was a young boy and his father would get remarried twice having more children in the process. At the young age of 12, Dante would meet Beatrice Portinari, who give him inspiration for his future literary works. Dante lived in a political

Florence at this time being a loathed, despised, derogated community with corruption and discard, Dante Alighieri lived most of his days working on his writings that will last hundreds of years. Church versus independence of the city-states gave Dante the motivation to get involved of becoming a member of political governing body. In this time Florence has split into two parties, Guelphs who support the pope and Ghibellines that support the Roman Emperor with the need of more freedom. Dante was part of the White Guelphs and fought in war of his cause but with seeing life and death in the horrific battle of war, this may have lead to vision of his own Hell. Dante was exiled from the city by Black Guelphs or else he would be burned to the stake in result of his family having to split apart leaving behind his wife Gemma Donati and his four children.

What he thought was his moment of realization and his chance to finally return to the right path, he was again thwarted by his personal demons. The three beasts are allegories for substantial sin ― most likely representing the three divisions of Hell: fraud, violence and incontinence. (2) Dante again aligns the pilgrim with mankind, having the pilgrim deal with the same flaws as common people. He wants to use the entire story to explain what it means to repent, try again and push through evil and find the way to God. The distinction of which beast would corresponds with which sin is heavily disputed between traditional interpretations, but the specific categorization is far less important than the message Dante is trying to convey.

Dante’s skillfully placed people, used guardians or guides of different circles of hell, can be seen as a foreshadowing of what has yet to come. The first human-like figure Dante encounters, Charon, is the boatsman of the river Acheron. Charon was described as “a man of years whose ancient hair was white… whose eyes were set in glowing wheels of fire.” (Inferno 3.83-99) Shouting at the sinners, Charon recognizes Dante as a living soul. Charon’s description from an elderly years changes to a devil. This can be seen as to symbolise Dante’s descent into hell, where torture changes just as quickly as Charon’s appearance. Beyond Charon, Dante confronts Minos, the next anthropomorphic personage. The only aspect separating him from a human is his coiled tail, used to pitch sinners down to their rightful circle. He ceases his duties for a moment for shout at Dante, “who come to the place where pain is host… be careful how you enter and whom you trust it’s easy to get in, but don’t be fooled.” (Inferno 5.16,19-20) These lines foreshadow the trickery of the malebranche who mislead Dante and Virgil. The next

Dante’s Inferno is one of the most influential and renown works of the Renaissance period, which was a period of rebirth of classical elements of ancient Greece and Rome in Western Europe from 1350 to 1600. It is the first part of the epic poem, The Divine Comedy, written during the fourteenth century by the Italian poet, Dante Alighieri. His background in politics, a young love, and philosophy shaped him to create this great piece. This literary work was well received at the time of its publication and is still widely read today. This is due to its significance in representing and influencing the world around it, which can be seen in its representation of the time’s melding of classic and modern values and its influence on other poets and

On the other hand, Dante was exiled from Florence, due to the actions of Pope Boniface VIII (Mazzotta 8 ). This action made Pope Boniface VIII a mortal enemy of Dante and influenced Dante’s decision of dedicating the eighth circle of hell to fraud.

One of the important themes that stands out in Dante’s epic poem, “Inferno”, is a theme of legacy via endurance of one’s name. In other words, the human need to have one’s name and story shared with others in an effort to gain some sense of immortality. Even from the depths of hell the characters in the “Inferno” express a wish to have their stories told. The “Inferno” tells of Dante’s adventure through the depths of Hell with the spirit of the great Roman poet Virgil as his guide. In this epic adventure, Dante treks the Nine Circles of Hell and in each circle he encounters prominent figures in both his personal life and in history. The poem as a whole is a commentary on sins and transgressions, but the significance of these transgressions are amplified with the attachment of names we the readers recognize from history and literature. Among them are figures one would expect to be Hell for their famous transgressions such as Judas Iscariot, Attila the Hun and Brutus but also more surprisingly Ulysses, the hero from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, who is in the Eighth Circle of Hell for the crime of spiritual theft and Pope Celestine V, whom Dante condemns for abdicating the papacy and thus allowed Pope Boniface VIII to become the new pope. This was a transgression worthy of hell in Dante’s eyes because historically Pope Boniface VIII was something of a rival to Dante, who had been an advocate for the separation of

In the Fourth Circle of Hell, Dante encounters those who have been condemned to the