This is also ironic, as humans themselves are a part of the earth and nature, yet are destroying it for their own ends. The imagery of the dump is used to symbolize the dystopic wasteland that society is approaching, a consumer society consuming itself. The confronting revelations of the persona’s experience compels the reader, as a vision of hell is established, as “attendants in overalls and goggles” and “laborers” allude to “devils” and “demons”. These “figures” of our future are portrayed in a pathetic fashion, as they “poke” around, and “wander in despondence”, looking for “scraps of appetite”, in order to fuel their humanity. The people who fork through the trash symbolize that we may, one day pick at the remnants of our long lost culture, 'with an eternity in which to turn up some peculiar sensation'.
The sixth circle is where the heretics dwell in fiery tombs. The violent are punished in the seventh circle and it is also the time when Virgil truly, and in detail, explains the layout of Hell. All human sins are divided into three big categories; those who lack self-control, violence, and fraud. And, so far the things Dante encountered fell into the first category and the seventh held the violent sinners. The final two circles contain the sinners of ordinary fraud and treacherous fraud.
The two main forms of violence are preformed by Grendel, the main antagonist of the poem and by Beowulf - the hero of the story. Due to the fact that Anglo-Saxon culture is immersed in violence and vengeance, these acts are accepted without question. The motivation for each character’s violence varies immensely. Grendel was an “unhappy creature” and this was “after God condemned [him] as kin of Cain”, this led Grendel to become a vengeful and wicked creature. When he attacked Herot his attack was, “grim, and fierce, was quickly ready, savage and cruel, and [he] seized from their rest thirty thanes.” Grendel kills to fulfill a blood lust and a deep hatred because he is alone in his
Shelley probably read Dante’s Inferno because of the reference in her book, stuck in ice remind us of Dante’s description and the ninth and innermost circle of Hell. Further references to Dante’s Inferno is in Chapter 24, “Like the archangel..chained in an eternal hell”, concept that Victor’s “hell” is within him- gothic concept of the dark psyche. Arguably Shelley was probably influenced by Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner to seek penance as like Victor, the Mariner defies God by killing the “Albatross”, whilst in contrast Victor creates a “deamon” that would justify his defiance from God. In Letter 2 Robert Walton quotes the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, “I shall not
In Virgil's underworld, everyone sins equally and therefore is entitled to equal punishment. From a religious perspective, the distinction between these levels is representative of the deadly sins which explains why Dante's underworld contains levels of hell and levels of sin, and this distinguishing characteristic means that the punishment for those sins is equitable for the sinner. One of the simplest lines written in Dante’s Inferno that encompasses the dismal feeling of entering the underworld is "All hope abandon, ye who enter here." (Inferno, Canto III). The
According to Dorothy Sayers, “The Inferno is not only hell, it is also human life when life has become hell. It is the closed human heart, a funnel of dissipation, violence and malice. The Inferno raises questions about the individual human heart and the human community. Dante’s hell gradually reveals itself not as a bizarre book of horribly arbitrary punishments in another world but as a clinically accurate unmasking of human corruption in this world.” Based on human actions upon earth we do live in a hell. Dante takes us on a journey through his version of hell but upon a deeper look you realize that the same weight that each sin holds in hell is equivalent to that of earth.
Each level of Hell has a certain punishment and that punishment is for a reason. For Example, in Canto three the people are being chased by giant wasps, “Strange utterances, horrible pronouncements, accents of anger, words of suffering, and voices shrill and faint, and beating hands-” (Dante, 25-27). Virgil explains to Dante that the reason they are placed here is because they had no direction in life. Their punishment is exactly how they lived their life; they could not choose a side. Virgil told Dante “They now commingle with the coward angels, the company of those who were not rebels nor faithful to their God, but stood apart.
One of the central questions of the play is whether Faustus dams himself entirely on his own or whether the princes of hell somehow entrap him. How do you respond to this question? While it is Mephastophilis and Lucifer who allow Faustus to access supernatural powers, it is Faustus’ own self-centred nature that blinds him from the more macabre elements of the agreement between him and Devil. Throughout the play Faustus focuses on what he wants to achieve with his powers and the help of Mephastophilis for example while contemplating on what dark magic can achieve he mentions how he can “wall all Germany with brass” and “fill the public schools with silk”. This could show that while Faustus has got a desire to learn, his emphasis on material objects distracts related to wealth distract him from observing the immoral deal that he is about to undertake.
Andrew Tuloca Mrs. Zalock AP Lang 3/4/11 Paradise lost is a work which explains god reasoning for allowing suffering in the world, and depicts Satan, the devil, pitted against God in a civil war. Specifically in the section read from our textbook, Milton writes story as to the downfall of Adam and Eve and continues on to depict and explain Satan’s reasoning behind his gradual progression towards waging war with heaven. Despite his negative connotation however, and the clear evil that is associated, Milton portrays Satan as a hero throughout Paradise lost (The section we read). Satan does not necessarily perform heroic acts of kindness as the common day idea of a hero does, but is rather depicted as fighting and working towards a cause he believes in. Likewise, Satan does not seem scared of the power of God, nor does he seem phased at the consequences of death, or eternal damnation which makes him seem courageous and bold; two crucially important characteristics of a hero.
Beowulf’s goodness is described in his battle against evil, symbolized by Grendel, one of the monsters defeated by him. The epic shows conflict between good and evil. In the beginning of the epic poem Grendel, who represents evil, is introduced. He is a giant man eating demonic monster. Grendel lives in the darkness and appears from the shadowy marshes in the darkness every night to kill.