Raging Inferno By Dante Essay, Research Paper

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence, Italy in 1265. In his life, he composed

two major books of poetry: Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy. The Vita Nuova is

composed of love poems, sonnets, and lyrics. The Divine Comedy, is an epic poem

segmented into three books, each of which recounts Dante?s travels through

hell, purgatory, and heaven. The first section of The Divine Comedy, Dante’s

Inferno, is a narrative with a man named Virgil as his guide. Dante narrates his

descent and observation of hell through the various circles. One part of this

tale is his descriptions of the various punishments that each of the different

sinners has received. The various punishments that Dante envisions the sinners

receiving are broken down into two categories. The first category is borrowed

from various forms of medieval torture and the second type, though less

physically strenuous, are Dante’s creative and imaginative punishment for sins.

The torturous forms of punishments create physical and bodily pain for the

sinners and are designed to be interpreted literally; whereas, the creative

punishments are used to inflict a mental and psychological pain and are suppose

to be thought of on a more metaphorical plane of thought. However, the creative

punishments can inflict both a mental and physical pain upon the sinner. An

example of this is the penalty the simonists, those who use their power in the

church to acquire money , pay. There are two descriptions of tortures which are

very similar to the punishment of the simonists. The first one included: a man

to be chained down to a bare bed with his feet hanging off of the end, and then

his feet would then be seared by a "charcoal brazier." The second

torture that is similar is the penalty of famed assassins upon conviction: to be

buried head down alive. Dante seems to have fused the two punishments into that

of the simonists. Dante describes their punishment as such:"Out of the

mouth of each hole there emerged a sinner’s feet….both soles of every sinner

were on fire writhing with violence." Dante’s penalty for simony inflicts a

severe physical pain, but was also designed this way for an alternative and

ironic reason. When being baptized it is a common practice to dip babies, head

first, under water to symbolically cleanse the soul.In the opposite fashion of

the baptismal practice, the simonists were put head down into dark and narrow

pits, as opposed to the open and refreshing holy water, and fire burns their

feet and soul, rather than there heads and souls being cleansed by the holy

water. Although Dante uses, and occasionally combines, various practices in

order to inflict physical pain, sometimes famous acts of cruelty to punish the

sinners are used . One such punishment Dante borrows from the court of Emperor

Frederick II. Frederick II was well-known for his lead capes with which he

punished various criminals: He had a leaden cover made for the condemned man, to

cover him entirely. The cover was about an inch thick. Then, he had the man

placed in a cauldron, and the leaden cape put over him. Then he had a fire made

under the cauldron. The heat melted the lead which took the skin off piece by

piece. Finally, both the lead and the condemned man boiled. Dante used part of

Frederick’s punishment to punish the hypocrites in hell. He places all of the

hypocrites in "gilded" cloaks that "dazzled; but inside they were

all of lead, so heavy that Frederick’s capes were straw compared to them."

Dante uses this analogy to Frederick to demonstrate the extent of cruelty of his

cloaks in ?The Inferno? as well as those of Frederick’s. If Dante describes

one of the most evil punishments ever, as mild compared to those in his Inferno,

he effectively demonstrates how horrible hell truly is. Although this punishment

for the hypocrites is physically painful, this punishment contains a unique

metaphor.In Dante?s eyes, the hypocrites were those people who were seemingly

pure and good, but beneath their facades they were quite sinful. The cloaks are

a metaphor for the hypocritical characters: dazzling on the surface and cloaked

in lead or sin underneath. A sinner whose punishment was given with the

intention of creating mental anguish was flattery. While Dante is walking over a

bridge, he looks down and sees the sinners of flatterery "…plunged in

excrement that seemed as if it had been poured from human privies."

Although this punishment is quite unsanitary and repulsive the punishment is

designed to inflict a physical agony, in this case, of rolling in feces. Dante,

however, always has reasons for punishing sinners as he does. In this case, it

is ironic that the flatterers, whose mouths we always hear spewing rubbish in

the form of flattery, now sit immersed in it. Although this particular practice

is more disgusting and vile than actually painful, Dante does use known

practices of torture to inflict pain and anguish on the sinners. In sum,

examples of punishment that were physically agonizing and caused bodily harm are

only some of the punishments that Dante borrowed from medieval forms of torture.

These punishments were meant to be interpreted literally. On the other hand,

Dante’s creative and more original punishments are symbolic and interesting to

study. These types of punishment rely more on symbolism; but still inflict

physical and mental suffering. The more creative punishments for those who

were"damned because they sinned within the flesh subjecting reason to the

rule of lust." The lustful, sinners , are condemned to swirl forever in

"the hellish hurricane, which never rests." The punishment for the

lustful is both creative and simple. The lustful are swept up in a storm just as

they were swept about in life by the storms of lust. Although the sinners

experience a physical discomfort , the real punishment is mental: since these

sinners are incapable of self-control, they are condemned to an eternal lack of

self-control. This condemnation is an example of the difference between the

literal and the more symbolic punishments of sinners. By analyzing the two types

of punishments that Dante has used, it is clearly shown how horrible hell truly

is. The differences in the punishments can be viewed as a theme for ?The

Inferno? . Not only is ?The Inferno? a combination of visions of hell

(i.e. Ovid and Vergil) and original ideas, but ?The Inferno? is also a

journey with elements both physical and mental aspects included in it. The

physical tortures are #grim because of the extremes and the creative tortures

are mentally depressing . The various punishments have all been designed to

punish each sin through the law of counter penalty given by Dante. The two major

differences in these punishments are; first there are differences in the origin

of the idea for the punishment. Second, there is a difference in the intention

of the punishment: to punish with mental or physical anguish. These differences

add to the poem’s complexity and unexpected qualities about the poem.