Inferno Excerpt

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April 29, 2019

Inferno excerpt

Dante was a poet and politician who was exiled from Florence. He belonged to a noble family of ancestry and joined politics. He was a white Guelf and when he was sent to Rome he planned to conquer Florence. As he left Florence Neri took control of the city. Florence contained a different group that was fighting for power. The Guelfs gained control after winning but the group was later divided into white and black Guelfs. The black Guelfs won and exiled Dante from the city and home because he was white and on the opposite group.

Dante's journey through hell is imaginative in which he witnessed purgatory and heaven. In the journey, he explains the pilgrim has to complete pilgrimage for attaining salvation. This journey allowed him to confer that the pilgrim must purge himself for his sinful nature and observe his actions for avoiding hell. Through his journey, he explores the stories of the sinners and their end. Learning about the sinners allows him to witness his excursion. In the hell he manages to witness different personas. The pilgrim is identified as a callous act that brings great degree of transformation. The journey permits Dante to see that he changed from a compassionate human to a cruel individual. His completion of the second circle allows him to view the sufferings of the sinners. In total he completed the nine circles of hell. The first circle is Limbo where he found philosophers like Socrates. The second circle was lust that contained people who were self-exploratory like Cleopatra. The third circle is gluttony that include people who are over indulging. The fourth circle is of greed, fifth circle is of anger and the sixth circle contain

The beasts encountered by Dante include a lion, leopard and a wolf. The beasts are used for explaining the evilness that prevailed in the forest. Dante meets these three beasts when he was lost in the forest. These are used for providing darker view of the forest that is full of wildness and horror. Dante relate these beasts with three different sins. Lion symbolized pride, leopard symbolizes lust and wolf represents avarice. The purpose of using these three beasts is to claim that humans must avoid these three sins. I think these beasts represents the three deadly sins that brings demise and fall of humans. I believe that humans must refrain from developing such traits for their own sake and welfare. The people who are victim of these attributes commit sins.

Beatrice is important in Dante's life because she is his deceased fiancé. She is important because she represents the positive energy of hope and light. When Dante is struggling and wanders in the dark forest, she becomes visible as a hope. Although she doesn't walk in the hell with Dante she remains his encouragement. She remains a source of hope throughout Dante’s journey of demise and fall.

I selected the quote, “souls in fire and yet content fire, knowing that whosoever it may be they yet will mount into the blessed choir” (Dante). This quote inspires me because it explains how souls of the sinners burn in hell. It has relevance with Socrates Crito "let it go because it is our obligation to run this risk in saving you and even greater ones if necessary" CITATION Pla12 \l 1033 (Plato). Plato also stressed on the evil nature of the man and his indulgence in sinful acts. The quote explains that one's actions take them to hell.

Work Cited

Dante. (2015). Crossings and Commitments. Retrieved 05 05, 2018, from https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-3/

Dante. (2008). Dante The Divine Comedy. (R. Kirkpatrick, Trans.) Penguin Classics.

Dante. (2015). He Seeks Freedom. Retrieved 05 05, 2018, from https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/purgatorio/purgatorio-1/

Plato. Crito. Creative Commons Attribution, 2012.