Essay On Dante's Inferno

Dante’s impression of hell is definitely very imaginative. Supposedly the deeper into hell you go the more serious the offense. The first eleven cantos seem to mirror the seven deadly sins found in the Catholic faith. The next eleven address murder which you’d think would be higher on the list but Dante feels very strongly about Fraud being a major sin. I feel the punishments Dante assigns to the crimes are appropriate. My personal belief is that heaven or hell isn’t a physical place you go to when you die. I don’t happen to have an answer for where you go when you die but what I do believe is that the “kingdom of heaven is within”. Meaning if you are spiritually at peace here on earth, whenever your energy changes form it will change in peace.
Dante describes his hell as levels in circles. That metaphor seems fitting that your eternal torment just keeps going round and round. There doesn’t seem to be any redemption either so he makes the case for society to get its act together now. For murderers and tyrants who have spilled blood I think it fitting for their hell to be permanently stuck in a river of boiling blood. Flatterers who wade in a river of excrement or psychic’s with their heads on backwards also seem fitting. Some symbolism of the punishments isn’t so obvious though like why the thieves’ combust after being bitten by snakes only to regenerate. Perhaps that reference is borrowed from the snake in the Garden of Eden and the fact that snakes shed their skins symbolizing regeneration.