Dante’s inferno is a story in the 14th century that was developed to show the experiences that are found in hell as well as in heaven. This story has been narrated by Dante himself, who had experienced problems in hell. This story has been very influential to many audiences in the world. It has also been narrated as a poem. In addition to this, there are games that reflect the happenings in this story. It forms the initial part of the poem of Divine Comedy. This poem was also written by Dante to express his experience both in the real word and in the underworld. This poem has gained familiarity in the world due to its important teachings. In addition, it has a sense of humor that makes it more interesting to the writers.
The story of Dante’s inferno has been depicted as an allegory. This is mainly because it is explaining the journey of Dante. From the view points of the story given by Dante, it is obvious that he recognized the fact that the world was split between good and bad. This means that he had spiritual knowledge about moral behaviors and what was expected in the community. Most of the part of this story shows that Dante had plenty of knowledge about Christianity. Christian believers believe that the behavior of people can be distinguished between good and bad. In this story, God is depicted as being supernatural and the creature of human beings. God is also seen as the protector of the creatures created by Him.
Dante explains that there are various consequences of the behavior depicted by a person. He does this by recognizing the fact that good people will go to heaven. He also argued that bad behavior will be paid in hell. One thing that can be used to prove that Dante recognized Christianity is the fact that he knew much about the Good Friday. The story actually started during this season. At this time, the narrator was in his mid thirties. According to the biblical view, people are expected to live for around seventy years. This means that the age of Dante at this time was half the age of the expected death age.
Dante is outlined as a warrior who is holy in nature. As the story starts, he is seen as coming from a place that was holding crusades. He had really missed his fiancée. He therefore wished to return home in order to see her. Her fiancée was called Beatrice. He did not know whether he would not see her fiancée alive again. He found that her fiancée was dead. He later came to realize that she was murdered. Dante was filled with wrath since the death of her fiancée came as a surprise to him. He really wished that he could save her fiancée, although this proved to be very difficult. He therefore came up with the mission to save her. However, this mission became more difficult due to the nature of the underworld.
Dante’s inferno can also be explained by a theme of seduction. Seduction here explains how the devil can try to induce a person into doing unwanted things in the society. The devil’s seduction is so attractive that it is difficult to resist him. In this story, the soul of Dante was attracted by Lucifer. That is the reason why Dante found himself in the underworld. He later found out that he was in hell. Here, he was willing to get redemption from the evil deeds of the devil. In addition, he had to face many demons. He had to think of how well to deal with them.
Dante had some reasons to use the idea of heaven and hell. He used this in order to show that these were two distinct places that had different treatment of people. The experience gained in these places is extremely different. In addition, even the leaders of these places are very different. He also shows that the leaders of these places have certain powers that can influence and affect the lives of people. From a Christian stand point, Dante explained that the concept of heaven and hell have been separated since people entering these places reach there on the basis of their behaviors and their actions on earth.
Dante explains that the supernatural being leading heaven is God. He shows that God is supernatural since he has angels surrounding Him. More so, He gave out His son to come and save the sinners on earth. He adds that He created the entire universe and everything in it. This shows that He has power over everything in the universe. This is a complete contrast with hell. Hell consists of the devil. Dante argues that the devil was initially an angel in heaven. After disobeying God, he was sent away by Him and sent to hell. This is the reason why many people who disobey God will be sent to hell, where there is everlasting fire. Heaven is therefore a place for good people while hell is a place for bad people.
Dante’s distinction between heaven and hell is depicted in his experience in the underworld. He therefore used this ideology to show that hell was not a good place. This is merely because he had a bad experience in hell. Here, he faced many demons that disturbed him. From this story, it is obvious that the devil has a lot of temptations that can induce a person to do bad things. This is similar to the biblical teachings that show how Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil. These temptations were done in the wilderness, where there was little food or water. The devil usually tests people when one is in trouble so that he can show how he can be in a position to help you.
In explaining how he found himself in hell, Dante explains how he woke up in a world unknown to him. He then realized that he was lost. This felt so strange because when he had slept, he was not in this world. He found out that he was in a section of the town that looked unfamiliar to him. He had never seen such a place before. He therefore decided to ask where he was. It is here that he found Virgil, whom he somehow trusted. He had to trust Virgil since he had no one else to turn to. He therefore decided to follow this poet, who was a Roman. The inferno is actually portrayed as the journey of these two people. One thing that may have convinced Dante to follow Virgil is the fact that the latter was in a mullet. Mullet would offer some kind of protection at that time.
Dante and Virgil moved together towards the underworld. It is Virgil who showed his counterpart most of the features of the inferno. According to the story, these features resembled the urban life that was in the decayed form. The chronicles of these two people have been explained in relation to some of the activities that take place in the modern world. For instance, in the modern world, there are some gated communities that may accept little or no access to any strangers. There are also several car lots that indicate that there are people who have a higher class than others. In addition, major night clubs contain stripping places. Obviously this does not depict a desirable behavior in relation to God’s expectation.
The experience of Dante and his counterpart has also been compared to some of the actions made by politicians in the present world. Some of them may undergo suffering because of protecting the interests of other people. Others may undergo suffering simply because they have evil deeds that cannot be viewed by other people. In the present world, if a president was not performing well according to expectations, he can get severe punishment depending on the nature of the wrongs that he did. However, these punishments are mostly done in the real world. According to Dante, the punishments on earth may be less severe than those that are done in hell. This is simply because hell consists of a fire that does not end, meaning that sinners will suffer forever.
Dante had certain reasons as to why he created hell in his story. One of the reasons for this is that hell depicts the problems that are encountered there as a result of the seduction of the devil. Hell also consists of the highest punishment that one can get after doing bad things. This therefore means that it is used to explain how bad his experience was. Another reason is that hell is used to show the struggle between him and the demons. The devil is found in hell. Therefore, he had to use it to show his encounter with demons. He also uses hell to show that he does not wish to have such an experience again. This is used to show sinners that if they don’t change their behaviors, they may get the worst experience ever.
In explaining the creation of hell in the story, it is important to review the experience of Dante in hell. According to the story, Virgil is portrayed as a person who had been sent by Dante’s fiancée. This is also one of the things that convinced Dante to move with him. The reason why he had the desire to enter hell is that he wanted to save her fiancée. This could not be done without courage. Fortunately, the warrior was a man of strength, who was focused to achieve his objective. Due to the courage of the two warriors, they were able to enter the gate of hell. To their surprise, they saw the souls of people who had died. Some of them were people who had committed sins that were despicable while in the real world.
Among the souls that were recognized by Dante was that of a popular pope. At this point, all the people that were sinners are in great pain since their souls have been engulfed by stinging insects that are merciless. Dante and his counterparts are taken to the actual hell by means of a boat that is steered by Charon. Initially, Charon had refused to ferry Dante because he was not a non-living being. Fortunately, Virgil was able to convince him to take them to the divine world. In this part of the story, Dante loses his consciousness until they reach the desired point.
Dante’s inferno explains that hell consists of circles that are nine in number. It is important to review them in order to understand the reason why Dante created hell in his story. The first circle is known as Limbo, which consists of pagans and souls that had not been baptized. These people were not sinners. The only problem with them is that they were not followers of Christ, which was contrary to the wishes of God. In this circle, Dante comes across several artists who did not follow the teachings of Christ. There was a judge who came up with the punishment that was to be given to these souls. This shows that even pagans will also be punished in hell since they have not followed the wishes of God.
The second circle is called Lust. In this circle, Dante sees the souls of several people who had greed for luxurious things in the world. In addition, there were certain souls that had committed sins such as adultery and sleeping with other people’s partners. This shows that people doing these types of sins will be punished in hell. The souls of these people were blown by very strong winds that were not ending. This means that these souls were disturbed at every moment. The third circle, Gluttony, consisted of souls which were very addicted to the excess consumption of basic commodities of life. There were some souls which had eaten excess food while on earth. Gluttony here may also imply selfishness. Dante explains that people who are selfish should change their lifestyle because there is no way that a person can survive on his own.
The fourth circle is called Greed. The form of greed depicted here does not explain food items. Instead, it depicts the excessive desire for material things. In this category, Dante saw the souls of people who had the desire of keeping so much wealth at the expense of other people’s well being. This is mostly going to apply for the many politicians who create excess wealth from the money contributed by citizens. The fifth circle depicts souls which had uncontrollable anger. In this circle, Dante is able to realize his own mistakes after seeing souls of people he knew. He did this as he was being sailed through a river that was known as Styx.
Heresy was the sixth circle. Here, there is condemnation for people who perform heresy. The souls of such people are punished by being trapped in certain tombs in hell. In this circle, Dante also sees souls of people who had performed heresy while alive. During this circle, Dante was told that the lower part of hell consisted of souls that had despicable sins. In the seventh circle, the punishment made on the sinners tends to be more severe than the other named circles. This was the circle of violence. This circle consisted of three rings, that is, inner, middle and outer rings. The outer ring consisted of people whose violence was in relation to property. People who were violent against other people were also included in this ring. They were punished by being dipped in a fire that was boiling.
The middle ring of the seventh circle consisted of souls of people who had killed themselves. From this experience, we can learn that killing is a sin, which should be condemned. Suicide, which is a form of killing oneself, should also be condemned. The inner ring depicts the violence against our creator. The eighth circle was about fraud. Here, there were souls of people who committed fraud in order to achieve personal goals. Most of the fraudulent activities conducted by people in the modern world are deliberate. Dante argues that these activities will also be punished severely in hell.
The last circle is called treachery. This circle consists of traitors that go against the wishes of the supernatural being. In the Bible, there was one traitor who denied the Son of Man. His name was Judas Iscariot. He did this three times. In the circle of treachery, there are four zones that have been designed in concentric form. The souls in this circle were punished according to the severity of the sin committed. The biblical betrayal of Jesus Christ has been portrayed in the last round of the zones. In this round, Jesus had told Iscariot that he would betray him. This shows that Jesus was aware of what would happen to him.
Generally, the story of Dante’s inferno helps us to know that heaven, as well as hell, exist. Dante therefore uses this concept to compare the pope and other believers of the church in the experience and those in the real world. In his experience, he was very astonished to find the soul of pope and some of the people he thought were true believers. According to him, the church should give teachings regarding the wishes of God and the consequences of not following His commandments. He argues that it should build the faith of its followers in order to ensure that sinners are transformed into obedient and well behaved followers of Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, the experience of Dante in hell is used by the narrator to show that hell is not a place to be. The punishments in hell are life everlasting. This means that whoever gets there may suffer forever. The concept of hell is actually used to help sinners change their behaviors in order to avoid going to hell. Some of the actions that will face severe punishment in hell include lust, anger, fraud, suicide and violence. Dante also uses this concept to show that some politicians have sins that cannot be viewed by other citizens. He therefore indirectly teaches politicians to avoid greed and fraud in order to see the kingdom of heaven. Finally, Dante’s inferno should be appreciated based on the fact that it has provided religious and moral teachings to various readers across the world.
References
Dante, A. Dante’s Inferno: The Indiana Critical Edition. Indiana. Indiana University Press. 2001.Print.
Martin, K. A Review of Dante’s Experience. London. Palgrave Macmillan. 2000. Print.
Wallace, F. A Reading of Dante’s Inferno. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 2000. Print.
Evie, B. Dante’s Inferno. Samhain. Samhain Publishers. 2008. Print.
Christos, G. Dante’s Inferno and the Divine Comedy. New York. Titan Books Limited. 2010. Print.
Jenifer, K. Introduction to Dante’s Inferno. New York. Mc-Grade. 2009. Print.
