Preview

Summary Of Dante's Inferno

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
936 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary Of Dante's Inferno
Canto 18 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 …show more content…
The Simoniacs are people who bought or sold pardons or offices. He ignored the evil of the third pit before him and Virgil had even arrived at the pit. When they looked into the pit, they saw sinners headfirst in the pits. They were stuck and you could only see their feet. While the souls are stuck, they are constantly hit with fire at their feet. Dante notices one of the flames redder than the others. This made him curious, so he went and spoke with this soul. The soul was Pope Nicholas the third. At first the soul mistakes him for someone else, Dante quickly corrects him and the souls tells him what he has done. He then adds that worse sinners stay on earth and are waiting on a greater punishment. Dante doesn’t show the sinner any mercy and tells him that he deserved what he got. He than says that all the corrupt churchmen should suffer the same fate. Virgil approves of Dante's action and helps Dante go on to the fourth …show more content…
They look to see a punishment other than the endless walking, but doesn’t see one. After looking for a little longer, Dante notices that the souls heads are pointing the wrong way. The souls necks are twisted, so that it causes endless pain. Dante feels bad for the souls, but Virgil quickly reprimands him for the compassion he is showing. While passing the fourth pit, Virgil tells Dante the names of the sinners that are there. He explains what the punishment for one and tells him why. He tells him that the sinner wanted to use unholy powers to see the future, and now has been forced to look backwards for all of eternity. After seeing the sorceress Mantua. Virgil tells a tale on the finding of Mantua. After Virgil completes the story, they move on to the fifth

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In my opinion i think that Gustave Dore's is best to illustrate Dante's Inferno. In the 9 circles of hell it talks about evil gruesome torments and Dore’s pictures best fit the description of dark and evil.…

    • 242 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dante’s Inferno Critique

    • 2263 Words
    • 10 Pages

    As they enter through the gates of hell they read the sign on the gate, which reads “ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER”. The first place they enter is the Ante-Inferno, which isn’t really part of hell but is still a place of eternal punishment for those who were neither good nor evil. In this part of hell they were continuously strung and bitten by bees and wasps and were consumed by worms. As they exit this part of the Inferno they pass a river called Acheron, which is the border of hell. As they cross the river Dante sees all the damned souls waiting to be punished and sent into hell he then realizes that only the punished and eternally damned souls enter into hell and faints at the thought of entering such a place he might not be able to get out…

    • 2263 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Evil in Dante and Chaucer

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages

    He is guided in this journey by the ghost of the Roman classical poet Virgil, who, as wise in the ways of the spirit as he may be, cannot go to Heaven because he is not a Christian. Virgil's experience in the underworld, however, make him an authority on its structure, and he is more than willing to share his knowledge with Dante in order that Dante might return to life and share his revelations with others. In Hell Dante is presented with insight into the nature of…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dante, the pilgrim, experienced Hell and as he reached the bottom of Hell, he experienced something completely different opposed to what readers would have expected. Dante Alighiere’s depiction of Satan once he reaches the bottom of Hell reveals the theme, that in Hell the punishment is always befitting of the sin. As Dante and his tour guide, Virgil, arrive at the last circle, Satan is described to have, “three faces on his head...underneath each came forth two mighty wings...at every mouth he with his teeth was crunching at sinner,” (Canto 34). The illustration of Satan does not satisfy the typical reader; the reader expects to be able to visualize Satan in a more depth illusion, showing how furious he must be after the punishment he has received, of having to be placed in Hell, being frozen; the irony of the Hell described by Dante is that the reader would have expected for Satan to be located where it would be extremely hot, and for there to be uncontrollable fire, not for it to be frozen. At the bottom of the slope, Satan is placed from his mid-breast forth issued from the ice, and as night approaches everything is opposite which is why they must climb down Satan’s leg. Dante was surprised as he reached Satan to see how frozen and powerless he became in circle 9. The ultimate evil is represented in this way by Dante, because Dante wants to show the reader how Satan, and…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Canto V Dante reaches the second circle of hell, the Carnal, and it is designated for the sinners who put their own passion and love for others before their love and passion of God. Dante felt sympathetic and pity for those who dwelled in this circle especially the spirits of Paolo and Francesca. Francesca told Dante how her and Paolo ended together, “Love led us to one death.” “In the depth of Hell,” (Canto V:103) both Francesca and Paolo were married and they had an affair and when Francesca’s husband found the two together he killed them both. The sin that they committed is adultery and so they spend eternity in a whirlwind of flight within the Carnal. Dante states, “Francesca, what you suffer here melts me to tears of pity and of pain.” (Canto V:113-114) Dante was so overwhelmed with compassion by this…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    contrappasso dante

    • 1928 Words
    • 8 Pages

    After the Antinferno is Acheron and with him we enter the first circle called Limbo, where we find the souls of children who die without receiving baptism, and all those who were born before God, but that followed all the good habits of humans . They are devoid of physical torment but are psychologically tormented for not having known the true God. The beginning of true Hell, characterized by the most terrible physical pain, starts at this point . To determine the punishment of the damned Dante draws on medieval legal tradition and the practice of the law of his time. The criterion of punishment is called ‘’contrappasso’’ . By contrappasso (but Dante is one- p) , we mean the correspondence, the relationship between guilt and penalty attached to the various sinners. The first example of contrappasso is in canto III, where the slothful, who never took a position, do not ever pursue an ideal and are doomed to run without stopping behind a streamer with no meaning . They are pierced by wasps and hornets , which stimulate them as they never had been stimulated during their…

    • 1928 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Virgil In Canto 24

    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages

    As Virgil and Dante descend into the seventh pocket of the Eighth Circle of Hell, they arrive at a collapsed bridge that forces Virgil and Dante to navigate through a steep slope littered with crags and rocks. On the way up the rigorous terrain, Dante loses his breath, becomes fatigued, and flops to the ground. Virgil scolds Dante's indolence, and urges him onward, stating that a long and steep climb still awaits him. Once they arrive in the Seventh Pocket, Dante and Virgil come across an arch which forms a wide span across the pocket. Dante moves to the edge of the cliff, to gaze downward into the deep abyss but is unable to see anything. He asks Virgil to take him deeper so that he may understand the sounds he hears coming from beneath. Virgil…

    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is set on the banks of the river Styx which formed the boundary between earth and the under world. Dante is with Virgil who is his guide through the nine circles of Hell. The circles are concentric, representing a gradual increase in wickedness, and culminating at the centre of the earth, where the devil himself is held in bondage.…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dante's Journey

    • 123 Words
    • 1 Page

    Dante’s journey begins in The Dark Woods, and from there Virgil leads him through all nine circles of hell. As Dante travels through hell, he crosses the paths of many mythological beings which correspond to the sins of those in a circle of hell. Each circle is dedicated to its own sin, and the farther down Dante goes, the worse the sins become. Dante is in the seventh circle of hell, the circle of the violent, when he encounters three of the most violent beings ever to have been; the minotaur, the centaurs (one of whom is named named Chiron), and Nessus. Since these were three of the most violent creatures on earth, they are used to punish the most violent in hell.…

    • 123 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Canto V Lesson Plans

    • 1027 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Dante and Virgil now go into the Second Circle of Hell, where people are punished for…

    • 1027 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Inferno Analysis

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Inferno describes a journey that Dante, with his guide Virgil, goes through different levels of the Hell. There are nine circles in the Hell, and sinners in each level are condemned to different crimes. They receive punishments in coincidence with their sins. Dante’s depiction of the Hell, including how sinners are punished and the appearance of different levels, contains many allegories that illustrate Dante’s ideas about the meaning of life. I will give three specific examples to show what the allegories are and their intrinsic meanings.…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Role of Virgil

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Virgil, the Roman poet, is more than Dante’s guide on this journey through the underworld. His relationship with the character of Dante in the poem is wide-ranging in importance and symbolism. He is a figure of authority, reason, and even a metaphorical father. Having traversed the territory before, Virgil serves as a figure of knowledge and safety to Dante, who is at times uncertain and timid about traversing such a treacherous terrain.…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays