One of the more drastic punishments in the novel for sinners is for the Sodomites, who were violent against nature; they were punished by having to eternally walk under a rain of fire, constantly burning. They were described in the novel as homosexuals who are eternally “mourning eternal loss in eternal flame” (120). Another punishment that Dante uses vivid imagery to describe occurs in the 9th pouch, where the devil splits open every sinner who walks by him; one of the most painful punishments. It was so severe that whenever Dante first saw some of the victims he said “See how Mahomet’s mangled and split open! Ahead of me walks Ali in his tears, his head cleft from the topknot to the chin” (228).
At the end, Dante comes to the final circle of hell to see Satan’s three heads perpetually chewing on Brutus, Cassius, and Judas, the three great traitors. The relevance of Dante’s Inferno to society can be seen in the first Canto. “Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood” (Alighieri, 194). This represents those who go astray in life, who have fallen into temptation, committed sin, and cannot seem to bring them self back to God. Dante describes the dark wood: “Its very memory gives a shape to fear” (Alighieri, 194).
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.
Fire Dante’s Inferno is about the dividing of hell into 9 different levels. They are for what Dante believes exist for different stages of sins. Free of weaknesses, is ultimately his ticket to hell. Dante's travels into hell so he knows how to better the way he lives his life. Through the first cantos, Dante shows how each level of his hell is an expression of human weakness and a loss of hope.
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
Grendel: Evil? Or Misunderstood? Does being an outcast in society make a person evil? That is one of the questions that is constantly addressed in the epic poem, Beowulf. In the epic poem, the great hero Beowulf sets out to kill the supposed demon Grendel, who everyone widely views as one of the most evil beings to walk the Earth.
I agree with Dante on this placing, because those violent against kin, country, the innocent, etc., deserve the punishment they are given. This parallels the other sin I came up with in class: hurting the innocent and defenseless. It’s extremely disgraceful and disgusting. Suicide is the main theme for canto XIII, the second circle of circle seven. I honestly don’t know why this is so low in Hell.
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.
The epic of Dante teaches a lesson of how a person should live his or her life. Through The Inferno, Dante shows the consequences of specific sins a person can suffer. Dante uses imagery, metaphors, and other literary devices to emphasize how horrible the punishments can be. Canto V is full of details of the punishment in a way that one can feel their selves there. A theme that is conveyed throughout The Inferno is justice.
Although in Christianity, the dragon represents Satan the devil and sin. These feelings are expressed in Revelation 20:2 where it states, “He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.” As shown from the text, the Bible is comparing the fire-breathing monster to Satan the devil, who is the cause and ruler of all sin, thus having the dragon be associated with all that is sin. The pagan tale then combines the two different beliefs and morphs them into one, thus allowing its non-Christian readers to be able to fully understand its hidden Christian principles of what is sin. Another example of a Christian element would be when Beowulf is dying and gives thanks, some of his last few words being “To the everlasting Lord of All, to the King of Glory, I give thanks that I behold this treasure here in front of me, that I have been allowed to leave my people so well endowed on the day I die.”. By thanking God for all of the victories and the treasures that he earned all throughout his life, it demonstrates how he is not taking full glory for all that he has obtained.