The Inferno begins when Dante strays off the rightful and straight path of moral truth and gets lost in a dark wood. He gets attack by three beasts that symbolize different sins. Fortunately, he then meets the spirit of the Roman epic poet Virgil. Virgil to the rescue! He’s an appropriate guide because he’s very much like Dante, a fellow writer and famous poet. For the rest of the Inferno, Virgil takes Dante on a guided tour of Hell, through all its nine circles and back up into the air of the mortal world.…
Inferno is Dante’s first poem in his The Divine Comedy. The poem starts with Dante traveling in dark where he loses his way. He is trying to get to his beloved Beatrice who is waiting for him. She sends ghost of Virgil to bring Dante to her. In order to get to Heaven, Dante will have to go through heaven, something that almost everyone did in Christian world. At the beginning, they enter the gate of hell. The First Circle of the Hell is for those people who never done anything good or bad in their life, here they run all day long with hornets biting them. In the Second Circle of the Hell, Dante sees that the some souls are stuck in a devastating storm. In the Third Circle of Hell, Dante sees that Gluttonous…
Dante and Virgil are outside the eighth Circle of Hell, known as Malebolge. The circle has a wall along the outside, and has a circular pit in the center. The ridges create ten separate pits. This is where the people receive their punishment for fraud. This is where Virgil and Dante see souls from one side to another. The demons with great whips cause pain to the souls when they come to the demon’s reach, which then force the souls to the other ridge. There is an Italian that Dante recognize and he speaks to him. The Italian tells Dante that he lived in Bologna, and now is there to sell his sister. The pit is for the Seducers and the Panders, and then Dante saw the Jason of mythology who abandoned Medea. When Virgil and Dante had…
The book starts out with Dante wandering through the woods but has strayed off “the right path.” He runs into three creatures that block his path and turns around. Dante flees and runs into Virgil, the great roman poet. Dante tells Virgil of the beasts that stand in his way by saying, “Behold the beast, for which I have turned back.” Virgil then tells Dante that one of the beasts, the she-wolf, will one day be driven back down hell where it originated. Virgil then tells him about the path that will ascend them up the hill into heaven, but warns him that they will have to make it through hell before they can even get to heaven. Dante can only remember two men who made it through hell and came back which gets him a little worried about his adventure he is about to embark on.…
In the first Canto, Dante realizes he is lost. He says that he does not remember how he lost his way, but he has wandered into a fearful place, a dark and tangled valley. Above, he sees a great hill that seems to offer protection from the shadowed vale. The sun shines down from this hilltop, and Dante attempts to climb toward the light. As he climbs,…
Dante’s journey began by meeting Virgil who is described throughout the story as Dante’s guide, master, teacher, protector and Lord. Virgil stated to Dante, “I think it well you follow me and I will be your guide and lead you forth through an eternal place.” “There you shall see the ancient spirits tried in endless pain,” (Canto I:105-110)…
While Dante’s imagery is sometimes straightforward, he also has disparate instances where his the elegant diction in his imagery leaves the audience haunted such as when he describes those in hell for committing suicide, “Our bodies will be hung: with every one, fixed on the thornbush of its wounding shade” (XIII. 101). The imagery of this mutilation leaves the audience wondering about the about the wounding shade.…
On the evening of Good Friday in the year 1300, Dante is travelling through a forest, when he gets lost. In the morning, he finds a mountain and tries to climb it, but is stopped by a lion, a wolf, and a leopard. The spirit of the poet Virgil appears and offers to take him to the top of the mountain to Heaven when his love, Beatrice, is, but the way first leads through Hell.…
While he stands in peril, Dante wishes that each individual would put themselves in the same position as the aforementioned, as all of mankind knows some form of sin, and also wanders lost in a dark wood. Before achieving moral redemption, an individual must take a hard look at evil both in the world and in himself. Only by confronting inner evil can people achieve self-knowledge, which is the first step toward redemption.…
Dante expresses his thoughts in this following passage when he states, “Do not come back this way a second time; The sun’s just rising; he will show a place, At which the mountain is less hard to climb.”(76) The reader can’t help noticing this passage refers to Easter morning, a time to most civilizations, of a hope of the Resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ. One’s soul is anxiously waiting it’s placement in this journey, the belief of the unity of body and soul. The celebration symbolizes the journey to everlasting goals and objectives that are within reach.…
Dante believed that pious choices and religious views could get you closer to God. By hating sinners and thinking that you are above them, you are able to get closer to Heaven. Readers are able to see the pious growth in Dante throughout the story as he moves from pitying spirits to despising and attacking them. In the beginning of the Inferno, Dante meets Paolo and Francesca. These two sinners are punished for their lustful affair, causing Dante such grief that he faints (5.141-142).…
Dante's sympathy towards the damned souls gradually changes as he progresses in his journey through hell. At first his actions of pity were through his own ignorance and lost sense of moral disposition. Dante is led by Virgil, through limbo and on to the second circle of hell, lust. Here is where the souls, condemned by lust spend eternity blowing in the squalling wind. Dante encounters Francesca da Polenta of Ravenna, whom is one of the first damned souls to attest Dante and his sense of pity. Dante's newly met curiosity encouraged Francesca to share her lustful tale in which secured her fate in hell. Francesca vividly tells Dante of her tragic tale, which ultimately ended in her and Paolo's lives. "Love brought us to one death" (V. 106). Francesca's sin is lust; she tries to remove guilt by deviating the blame from herself to love', as the culprit. Francesca ultimately gives into her desires, which is her lust for Paolo. The love that Francesca and Paolo shared was not one out of romance, but one out of lustful desires. Although, Francesca has wronged, Dante feels sympathetic or pity upon her soul. " Francesca, your torments/ make me weep for grief and pity" (V.116-117). Dante is captivated by Francesca's sorrowful tone in her story that he weeps in pity. Dante has in a sense…
Dante then commands it to charge into the city where he sees Lucifer announcing his plans of marriage to the souls in the city. Dante strikes Phlegyas down, and chases after Lucifer.…
The Inferno by Dante Alighieri written around the fourteenth century depicts the three sins; treachery, greed, and violence which are relevant in today’s society.…
Dante and Virgil reach the gates of Hell and read the printed inscription. When Dante is concerned, Virgil comforts him and tells him he must have courage. The two come to the first level of hell filled with people who only worked to benefit themselves and lacked conviction, including the angels who took no side in the battle between Lucifer and God. Here, the dead are seen naked, chasing after an ever-moving banner while being stung by hornet and treading on maggots. In this crowd Dante spots Popes Celestine V and Boniface VIII whom he disliked in real life. They continue on and meet Charon the ferryman who at first refuses to take Dante across the river but then reluctantly agrees. There are souls gathered along the banks wanting to cross…