Like in the Inferno, where the gates of Hell begin the journey to the bottom, so life is began by birth, and the journey to Eternity begins. Some lives are more easily lead than others, like some of the punishments in Dante’s version of Hell are worse than others. Although in Hell, there is no hope, not even the hope of hope, the journey that Dante and Virgil take can be compared with the journey of life. Just the fact that Dante has someone to guide him can be comparison, everyone in life has a Guardian Angel assigned to them, as Dante had his own guide in his journey. But to compare all parts of life to the Inferno, one must start at the beginning to realized the end. The birth of body, and the death of the soul.
Midway on his journey through life, Dante realizes he has taken the wrong path. He is lucky. Many of those on the wrong path in their own lives have started on that same path on which they will also end; Dante realizes his error and, in attempting to set himself back on the right path, he goes on an important journey. Like those who also stray from their “right” path, this poet must embark on a fantastic and terrifying journey of exploration and self discovery. In the Inferno, the circle of Hell is determined by the sins the person (soul) committed while still alive on earth. For their deeds, they suffer eternally according to Divine Justice.
The Essay on Dante Alighieri’s Inferno Paper
Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. Inferno is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is described as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. Allegorically, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul towards God, with the Inferno describing the ...
The people one sees in life can already have chosen their eternal fate. Their outward actions may determine which part of Hell they are sent to, if indeed they are fated to go there and if Hell is the way Dante puts it. In the first Canto, Dante realizes he is lost. He says that he does not remember how he lost his way, but he has wandered into a fearful place, a dark and tangled valley. Above, he sees a great hill that seems to offer protection from the shadowed vale. The sun shines down from this hilltop, and Dante attempts to climb toward the light.
As he climbs, however, he encounters three angry beasts: a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf-which force him to turn back. Returning in despair to the dark valley, Dante sees a human form in the woods, which soon reveals itself to be the soul of the great Roman poet Virgil. Often, when someone loses the way in life, they don’t realize that they are lost until they take a big look around to see where they are. Like in Dante’s story, it is not always possible to turn around and go back the way one came, one must continue the journey and take the right path after they have done what they needed to do, and seen what they have needed to see. Some are fortunate, as Dante, to have a guide to tell them the right from the wrong. Dante recounts that as he and Virgil approach the mouth of Hell, his mind turns to the journey ahead and again he feels terror. He only knows of two men who have ever crossed into the afterlife and returned: the Apostle Paul, who visited the Third Circle of Heaven, and Aeneas, who travels through Hell in Virgil’s Aeneid.
Dante considers himself less worthy than these two and fears that he may not survive his passage through Hell. Virgil scolds Dante for his cowardice and then reassures him with the story of how he knew to find Dante and act as his guide. According to Virgil, a woman (Beatrice) in Heaven took pity upon Dante when he was lost and came down to Hell (where Virgil lives) to ask Virgil to help him. The journey of retribution is always more difficult than the cause; and not everyone who attempts it succeeds. Dante’s journey is both literal (the narrative) and analogous (the symbolism).
On a literal level, the Inferno portrays Dante’s adventures in the realms of Hell, but these adventures allegorically represent a more extensive subject: the trials of the human soul to achieve morality and find happiness with God; whether they know it or not. Virgil leads Dante up to the Gate of Hell, upon which they read a ominous message that includes the warning “abandon all hope, you who enter here.” The same could be said to those who have no faith in themselves; if one has no faith, there is no hope. If the aforesaid is the warning into Hell, then perhaps the warning into life should be, “Abandon all hope, you who enter here without faith.” Dante’s reluctance can be symbolic to those who, at first, find themselves to be eager to go on their journeys, but upon finding the risk and work that the journey entails, become hesitant to begin.
The Essay on Story Dante Hell People Virgil
The Inferno by Dante is a story of a mans voyages through the treacherous depths of hell. Dante is a man who has strayed from the path of a catholic way of life. Now he needs to travel through hell to reach the virtuous path that will take him to heaven. He is guided through hell by a man who is in limbo, the first circle of hell, named Virgil. Virgil takes him through hell and shows him people ...
One must always remind their own self (or, as in Dante’s case, be reminded) of the joy of the reward at the end of the winding road. Often, though, the promised reward for the journey can be forgotten or lost in the trials that lurk ahead, and the reward lost unless it is remembered. But the journey alone is not enough. Choices must be made upon this journey, and blinded by distractions, wrong choices are often made. Many are afraid of where their trip will take them, whether or not they will make the right choices, and like those in the ante Inferno, they make the choice not to make a choice and receive a punishment appropriate to their crime, and are forever tormented by their own indecision. But there are far worse punishments.
As Dante and Virgil go through Hell, Dante observes the different punishments of the souls for the corresponding crimes that they committed while still on earth. This raises a question: was Dante biased in his placement of the souls in Hell? Did his own personal experiences with people he placed in Hell affect the way they were punished in his story? Would someone else put it differently? To answer this question, yes. Based on the personal opinions of many asked, Dante did put people he disliked in certain lower circles of Hell than he did of other well known people. But this raises more questions..
