Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso Essay

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Introduction

The Divine Comedy by Dante is regarded to be the immortal epic poem of Italian literature. It relates the matters of death, power of the Universe, pride, relations between and among people, and surely, the matter of life itself. The main themes are revealed throughout the traveling by Dante Alighieri. Dante offers an inventive association between a soul’s sin on Earth and he or she gets in Hell. The Sullen strangle on mud, the Wrathful assault one another, the Gluttonous are made eat excrement, and so on. This uncomplicated notion offers many of Inferno’s instances of stunning imagery and representative power but also serves to light up one of Dante’s major themes: the excellence of God’s justice in the context of the discussed matters, such as power, human’s pride, and relations among people.

Discussion

While the plot of the epic may protect the living memory of its character, the story’s manner and skill may be the greater magnificence of its author. Nevertheless, lots of the sinners die a thousand deaths – being burned, torn to parts, or chewed to pieces, only to be recompressed again and again – Dante highlights with almost equal incessancy the power of his account to give both its themes and its novelist the gift of everlasting life.

Three steps, the first of shined white marble, the second of mauve, rough and cracked, and the third of blood-red porphyry, meaning admission, repentance, and reparation, lead to the gate where sits the angel clothed in a penitential dressing gown, with the gold and silver keys with which to open the outer and inner entrances. Purgatory proper entails seven porches, in each of which one of the seven capital sins, Pride, Anger, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lasciviousness are sentenced; Pride first, as no other sin can be cleansed from the body until this greatest sin is eradicated. The soul, liberated of these sins, escalates to the earthly paradise, which, above the area of air, crowns the Mount of Purgatory. Thus, pride is

Speaking on the matter of women, mentioned in the verses, the following quote should be mentioned:

‘Twixt Reno and Savena to say ‘sipa;

And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof,

Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart.”

While speaking in this manner, with his scourge

A demon smote him, and said: “Get thee gone

Pander, there are no women here for coin.”

Dante, as the lyricist of courteous love, clearly abhors Jason’s behavior toward women – seduce them, get them with child, and leave them. Charon, about whose eyes were helms of the blaze, endeavored to drive the writer and his direct away as they stood amongst the tired and naked souls that congregated shivering on the edge of Acheron; but as a blast of wind and a rupture of crimson light reasoned a profound sleep to fall on the poet, he was drifted across the stream, and awaking he found himself in the Limbo of the Unbaptized, the first of the nine rounds of hell, where were the souls of lots of men, women, and infants, whose only sentence was, without hope, to live on in longing.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, it is necessary to highlight, that the issues of power, pride, and relations between people are considered to be the most essential in our lives. The exact proportion of these three components define human destiny, and, as Dante argues, our position after death.

References

Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso) NAL Trade Publisher 2003.

Sophocles, Sophocles: Antigone, Cambridge University Press 1999.

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"Dante’s "The Divine Comedy": Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso." IvyPanda, 31 Oct. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/dantes-the-divine-comedy-inferno-purgatorio-and-paradiso/.

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IvyPanda. (2021) 'Dante’s "The Divine Comedy": Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso'. 31 October.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Dante’s "The Divine Comedy": Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso." October 31, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/dantes-the-divine-comedy-inferno-purgatorio-and-paradiso/.

1. IvyPanda. "Dante’s "The Divine Comedy": Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso." October 31, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/dantes-the-divine-comedy-inferno-purgatorio-and-paradiso/.


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IvyPanda. "Dante’s "The Divine Comedy": Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso." October 31, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/dantes-the-divine-comedy-inferno-purgatorio-and-paradiso/.

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