...The Beasts and Monsters in Dante's Inferno The Inferno is the first section of Dante's three-part poem, The Divine Comedy. Throughout Dante's epic journey into the depths of Inferno he encounters thirty monsters and five hybrid creatures. The most significant of these monsters are of central importance to his journey and to the narrative, as they not only challenge Dante's presence in Inferno, but are custodians of Hell, keeping in order or guarding the "perduta gente". In this essay I am concentrating on these prominent beasts, namely Minos, Cerberus, Plutus and Geryon, establishing why they feature in Dante's eschatological vision and discussing the sources which influenced his inclusion of these particular creatures. These four monsters all fulfil important functions as well as representing important themes in Inferno, establishing them as symbols which reinforce Dante's allegory. Minos, as the infernal judge and agent of God's justice, represents our own conscience and morality. When the sinners come before him "tutta si confessa", which causes the reader to reflect on their own sins.His terrifying treatment of the souls is significant as after Charon, he is one of the first figures who they encounter on their passage into Hell, and his unique method of demonstrating which area of Hell that the souls should be sent to increases the horror and adds to the alarming atmosphere. His warning to Dante, is similar to several of the infernal custodians, who continually remind...
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...Dante’s Influences on Modern Works Over the years some literature works have left a legacy throughout human history. Their legacy was built through their influences on the different works of art, sculptures, later pieces of literature, songs, poem, films and sometimes video games. The Inferno part of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy is one such literature work that is also one of the most well-known, well-referenced pieces of work today. It described in great detail Dante's vision of what hell would be like, and in doing so invented many of the tropes associated with Hell. This has led to several film adaptations and— most recently — a video game "adaptation”. References to Dante's Inferno in film can be found as far back as, draws heavily from Dante's Inferno. Se7en is a 1995 American crime film starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and many other star-powered actors and actresses. The film is about the hunt of two homicide detectives, Detectives Sommerset and Mills, for a sadistic serial killer who murders in correspondence to one of the Seven Deadly Sins which his victim has committed. The murderer is determined by his desire to punish the world for its ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins, viewing himself as akin to the Sword of God in handing out punishment of sins. As Detective Sommerset researches the Seven Deadly Sins to better understand the motive of the killer, Detective Mills simply scoffs at his efforts. Throughout the film, the detectives make numerous references...
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...In Dante’s Inferno he includes several laws. One law of nature he includes is contrapasso. Contrapasso states that for every sinner’s crime there must be an equal and fitting punishment. Throughout the story he explains several sins with their punishment. However, some of the punishments are fit for the sinners, but others are not fit. To begin, in the third circle for sinners that committed gluttony, Dante clearly presents a fitting contrapasso. For instance, he mentions, “Such as that dog is, who by barking craves, And quiet grows soon as his food he gnaws, For to devour it he but thinks and struggles” (Dante, Canto 6, Lines 28-30). This punishment is fit to the sinners because the punisher itself has also committed gluttony. In other words, they are being paid with the same coined. Furthermore, he illustrates, “ So we passed onward o’er the filthy mixture Of shadows and of rain with footsteps slow…” (Dante, Canto 6, Lines 100-101). This also shows this punishment...
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...Surname 1 Name: Instructor: Course: Inferno Symbolically, the Inferno signifies the Christian humanity seeing iniquity for what it actually is, and the three creatures denote three kinds of sin: the self-indulgent, the forceful, and the mean These three forms of sin too deliver the three key partitions of Dante's Hell: Upper Hell, outside the town of Dis, for the four iniquities of absolution which are gluttony, lust and anger; Circle 7 on behalf of the sins of forcefulness; and Circles 8 and 9 for the evils of meanness, fraud plus treachery. Additional to these are two dissimilar groups that are specially spiritual: Midpoint, in Circle 1, covers the righteous pagans who be situated not evil but were unconscious of Christ, and Circle 6 encloses the heretics who disputed the principle and mixed up the inner self of Christ. The circles numeral 9, with the account of Satan finalizing the configuration of 9 + 1 = 10. Love, a subject all over the Inferno, is predominantly significant for the outlining of iniquity on the Foothill of Purgatory. Although the love that comes from God is wholesome, it can turn out to be wicked as it streams over mortality. Hominids can sin by means of love towards inappropriate or spiteful ends or applying it to correct ends however with love that is moreover not strong enough or love that is else strong. Metaphorically, the Purgatorio characterizes the Christian natural life. Christian souls reach accompanied by a guardian angel. In his Message to Can...
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...Influence of “The Aeneid” and “Confessions” in Dante's Poem Dante in his poem “"The Inferno" talks of his journey to hell and back. He narrates it in the form of an autobiography. The poem does, however, indicate a strong influence from Maro's "The Aeneid" and Augustine's the "Confessions." The influence from the two in the “Inferno” range from the themes, concepts, literature devices and the language styles used. Maro Virgil, the author of the poem “The Aeneid” was a controversial figure in most Christian texts at the time. His influence in the “Inferno” is clear because Dante uses the name for the leader in the poem. Virgil is an influence in the poem rather than just a fiction figure or character. Dante does not borrow directly from the Aeneid, but expresses his own ideas in different twist. A major difference in the texts is that while Dante uses the underworld to denote hell, Virgil extends the physical world, as we know it. Dante feels that the pagan Virgil is contradicting in his ways, and Dante’s hell is an extension of Virgil’s underworld. Virgil influenced the way Dante denotes hell in specific circles or steps. While Virgil had only three; Tartarus, Elysium and Lugentes Campi, Dante had nine; Limbo, Gluttony, Lust, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery. Apparently, it is also clear that the concept of underworld is yet another influence Dante received from Maro’s “The Aeneid” (Maro 930-939). Throughout the “Inferno”, Dante exhibits a sense of redemption and...
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...The Inferno Essay Dante's The Inferno, is an epic poem that has thrilled and informed the common man for centuries. He portrays a vivid description of one man's journey through hell and back with the past poet Virgil at his side. This epic has lead many through the depths of Medieval Christianity, displaying its importance on every society since then. With this description, man is awakened to the ethical, political, social, and philosophical aspects of Dante's time, later introducing the Renaissance era. Society in the Middle Ages consisted of two focuses; survival and God. These focuses lead many to forget the developed areas of knowledge and reason before their time. This society's people were believed to be laborers, or otherwise known as the hands of God, as displayed in their art work and literature. All actions were taken not for themselves but for God alone. This was described clearly, by Dante's witnessing of the thirteenth circle of hell containing the suicides. Those within this circle committed an act completely self centered, altering their intentions from God to themselves, leading them to a circle lower then murder. God and the church were not only a primary religious focus, but a structured hierarchy system for all society to follow. With God at the absolute highest position, his principles created an ethical map structuring nine circles of hell along with a social structure in the Middle Ages. This social structure was a fixed hierarchy where individuals never...
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...the Church believes. Separating the Churches beliefs of hell, and Dante’s is very difficult in terms of art. The amount of art that was created after the inferno was written that isn't heavily based off of the inferno is negligible. However, the Church believes that hell is just where people who go are completely separated from God, and there is no coming back. We can see the influence of Dante’s work in what basically everyone thinks of Hell, this horrible place that you go to be tortured for all of eternity physically, but the church believes that its more of a mental torture, knowing that you will...
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...August 20, 2015 3.2.13 Practice: Revision Strategies The tempest one of the most difficult Shakespearean works in my opion to stage, from its stormy, chaotic first scene to its sureality to its ambiguous resolution, with Prospero facing his silent, treacherous brother and renouncing the power that has made every action in the story possible. Potent language remains the central force and mystery of this fathomless play. Prospero speaks almost a third of the lines in The Tempest, and controls the amount of speech every other character on the island has through manipulation and magic. Prospero’s narrative of how he came to the island, what he did once there, and what he is owed for this history, goes largely unchallenged in the text. Yet the play offers innumerable readings and opportunities for alternate staging, particularly in light of postcolonial discourse about Prospero’s relationship with Ariel and Caliban, the legitimacy of his authority, and the nature of his magic and command over language. Though Prospero can be played many ways, there is no doubt he is The Tempest’s show runner. The metatheatrical nature of the play sometimes detracts from its action on the page, but it also offers the chance to explore exactly why Prospero needs an audience for his revenge, and whether or not it satisfies him, onstage. Prospero restricts the sight and knowledge of the other characters, putting them to sleep or manipulating them with invisible forces, but he often lets us, the audience...
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...Would the Tortoise in The King’s magic drum be bound for hell? The answer is yes. In the Divine Comedy: Inferno the author Dante Alighieri takes the reader on a trip through the circles of hell from limbo to the deepest depths of hell. Through his work he takes the reader on a journey through the different circles of hell to show them what could be expected expect in the afterlife if they lead anything other than a virtuous life. What if Dante’s moral structure excluding limbo where applied to say the tortoise in the Nigerian tale “The King’s Magic drum” would the tortoise be sent to one of the circles of hell? The tortoise, because of his greed, gluttony and violence would find himself condemned to an eternity of torture in one of the many circles of hell. Avarice is defined as an as excessive or insatiable desire for wealth or gain which can be boiled down to one word and that is greed which those that are guilty of this are punished in the fourth circle of hell. “Thus we descended into the fourth chasm…Now canst thou, son, behold the transient farce of goods that are committed unto fortune, for which the human race each other buffet; for all the gold that is beneath the moon, or ever has been, of these weary souls could never make a single one repose.” (Silva and Overton 620-621) There are two instances in the story that show the greed of the tortoise, first “Then the tortoise, who very much wanted the king’s drum, thought he would make plenty of palaver over this and force...
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...The Devil and the Modern Manager The Devil and the Modern Manager Organizational lessons from the Inferno – first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy By Mainak Sankar Maiti (1730 words) Fig 1 – “The Abyss of Hell” by Sandro Botticelli1 Introduction Dante Alighieri wrote the epic poem “Divine Comedy” (Italian: Divina Commedia) in the period 1308 A.D to 1321 A.D. Considered one of the greatest works on World literature, the poem is an allegorical representation of man’s journey towards God. The poem is divided in three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Of all the three parts, Inferno remains the most celebrated and the most influential till date. Numerous artworks and books have been inspired by the Inferno. The works inspired by the Inferno range 1|P age The Devil and the Modern Manager from the Renaissance painter Botticelli’s illustrations of the hell to modern computer games. More than seven hundred years have passed; however, the Inferno continues to enthral readers all around the world. But, does the Inferno have anything in store for a manager seeking to achieve organizational efficiency? Dante’s macabre vision of hell was brought to life by Botticelli in his infamous painting “The Map of Hell” or, “The Abyss of Hell”, which remains one of the most fear-invoking artworks of all time. But, can that work invoke some new thoughts in the mind of a management student and expand his span of thinking, his horizons? Hell – the Model Organization “Organizational...
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...In Dante’s inferno there are punishments that are to fit with the crime committed, in order to fill in the sin that has been confined. In Dante’s inferno many souls are sent to their punishment in order to be equally punished, due to the crime that they have committed or sinned. In hell the levels that are set out apply to the souls that have sinned from the least , non-important sin to, the greatest more foul important sin. During Dante’s experience through the inferno he notices that each sinner is to be agonized with there own proper punishment that they too have done. That is why they are sent deeper into hell, when they have committed a grave crime. In Canto 6 there are , punished souls that are eaten alive just like how they too have...
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...written over 1,400 years apart, the two works share many similarities in their views of death and the afterlife. In both works, the Underworld is structured with souls separated into good, evil, and neutral sectors based on their actions during life. Dante’s hell, however, is much more clearly defined compared to Vergil’s broad categories, with physical barriers separating the different circles of hell. In Inferno, hell is segmented into circles based upon the sins of incontinence, violence, fraud, and betrayal, which are further subdivided into sections that map the seven deadly sins: gluttony, wrath, sloth, avarice, lust, envy, and pride. The weight of the sin is also considered: the closer to the core of Hell, the eviler the sin. In Vergil’s underworld, the souls are not categorized based on the weight of their sins. However, they are still placed in hell because of violations of his society’s ethical code. The cheaters, hoarders, adulterers, and betrayers in Vergil’s hell are the forebears of the categories Dante uses to divide his Hell. The defined separation of the sinners in Dante’s hell is reflective of the Christian Church, which held great social power during the Middle Ages. Compared to Vergil’s society, the Church of Dante’s time had a much more severe view on...
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...In Dante’s Inferno, the author chooses certain punishments for each sin in the 9 Circles of Hell. A few of these circles include Gluttony, Greed, and Heresy. In the story, at the gates of hell, it is said God created hell to achieve justice, and so each punishment is based off the desire for moral righteousness. The crimes committed in the real world coincide with the punishments for each sin in hell. As Dante and Virgil progress deeper into hell, the sins (received at the time) become more immoral and the penalties become even more severe. Gluttony is the third Circle of Hell. Souls of gluttons are observed by the monster Cereberus, a worm-like monster with three heads, and are punished by laying in filthy slush, while icy rain falls upon them. Elements of the punishment symbolize traits of gluttony. The slush represents the indignity when one indulges in excess of food, while selfishness is punished by having to lie where you can see no one else. Dante and Virgil speak to Ciacco, who tells of the symbolic purpose of Cereberus: “The ravenous hellhound is a torturer of gluttons. He feasts on our souls and disgorges them, so that he may always eat with insatiable hunger.” This creature may be meant to mock the gluttons as well, representing what God wants them to be seen as....
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...The Divine Comedy represents the mature Dante’s solution to the poet’s task annunciated in The New Life. Its three canticles (the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso) display a nearly limitless wealth of references to historical particulars of the late Middle Ages and to Dante’s life. Even so, its allegorical form allows these to function as symbols. The Pilgrim’s journey through Hell to Heaven thus becomes an emblem of all human experience and a recognition of life’s circularity. The “Comedy” of its title is, therefore, the situation of life and the accumulation of experience that attends it. Correspondingly, however, chronological placement of the narrative from Good Friday through Easter Sunday, 1300, particularizes the experience even as it implies the death and rebirth that attends a critical stage of any person’s life. The poet tells his readers in the first line of the Inferno that he is midway through life, and indeed Dante would have been thirty-five years of age in 1300. Though he maintains present tense throughout the poem, he is, however, actually writing in the years that follow the events that he describes. This extraordinary method allows the Poet to place what amounts to prophetic utterance in the mouth of the Pilgrim. Dante thus maintains and further develops the thesis of The New Life, that the progress of the Pilgrim corresponds directly to the progress of the Poet. The literal journey that the Pilgrim undertakes toward the Beatific Vision succeeds only...
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...“Through me you enter into the city of woes, through me you enter into eternal pain, through me you enter the population of loss…. Abandon all hope who enter here.” One of the world’s greatest poets began a legacy that is still influential today. His writings were so powerful that a lot of today’s poets use his work as an idea base. This writer was Dante Alighieri, the man who wrote the famous epic Inferno. Dante began this story in the early 1300s when he was exiled from his own home town, Florence. With this problem he used it to make stories and symbols to help him better introduce this story. Dante uses a variety of different metaphors that have similar sayings apply to religion that make this epic a major head turner. There have been several views on this epic. It has been seen as a religious eye opener with every step taken throughout this extraordinary journey that Dante begins. The symbolism that Dante uses gives a very clear insight on how he felt...
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