The Inferno
Uploaded by abstractspace (98) on May 3, 2004 |
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"The Inferno" by Dante:
"The Inferno" starts off "La Comedia", or "The Divine Comedy". Dante is the main character in his own story, and he is on a journey through hell to go to Purgatory and then ultimately Heaven. In the story, Dante meets Virgil, the poet, in the first chapter. Virgil then guides Dante through hell. The first human residents near hell (not in hell, but near it) that they encounter are the opportunists. The opportunists are the people who take no sides and were neither bad nor good, which leaves them outside hell, that is, neither actually in heaven or hell. From here, Dante and Virgil (the poets) cross a river to hell. The first stage of hell that they encounter is the circle of Limbo. The pagans stay in limbo. The next circle is the stage where the people who where constantly passionate on earth are. The third circle is made up of horrible smelling snow and cold rain. The famous three-headed dog of hell, Cerberus, is here. The dog constantly tears at the people who reside in this circle, those that are the gluttons during their life on earth. The point is that because on earth they ate food and produced waste, here they wallow in waste and have no food. The fourth circle contains those that thought of no one but himself or herself. In circle five there are the souls of the wrathful. While trying to get into the sixth circle, the poets have some trouble. Virgil prays for assistance and all of hell shakes. An angel touches the gates that block their path and they are opened. In the sixth circle the poets see nothing but coffins encased in fire. The souls that reside here are the heretics. In the seventh circle the poets come across the violent people. They reside in boiling blood forever. If they ever try and get out of the blood, Centaurs shoot them down with arrows. Here Dante sees Attila the Hun and Alexander the Great. They are in the first part of the seventh circle, that is, those that were violent to others. Next, they come upon the second part, those that were violent to themselves. Here there is an interesting situation: the suicides' souls are in trees. There are spirits there that constantly tear and eat the trees. The suicides are only allowed to speak when they bleed. The last part of the seventh circle consists of those who were blasphemers, usurers, and sodomites or, those that were violent towards God, towards art, and towards nature. The eighth circle must be reached by descending a cliff, which the poets accomplish by riding on the back of Geryon, the master of fraud. This circle starts the Hell that contains the Fraudulent and the Malicious. Throughout the eighth circle the poets meet seducers, fortunetellers, diviners, panderers, grafters, hypocrites, falsifiers, alchemists, thieves, and those of evil counsel. In circle nine the poets come across a huge frozen lake, and beneath it are those guilty of "Treachery Against Those to Whom They Were Bound by Special Ties". At the very center of hell they meet Satan, who has three faces: The faces of Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius. Dante climbs along Satan, who is stuck in the ice, and begins to ascend, mount purgatory. This is where the next book begins.
As far as the point of "Inferno" goes, it seems it is just another story. You could say that Dante was just trying to get back the people who knew and hated in real life by putting them in hell on paper. "La Comedia" by itself was a huge step for Literature in general because it was on of the first works written in the vernacular. That is, the common language of the area.
Dante lived most of his early life in Florence, Italy. But, when he was acussed of opposition to the pope, he was exiled from Florence in 1309 and he wandered around for a while. In 1318 he settled in Ravenna. La Comedia was started about 1307 and was mainly affected by his activism in politics and philosophy. |
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