Dante s. Inferno. A Breif Guide to the Poetic Imagery of Hell

Transcription

1 Dante s Inferno A Breif Guide to the Poetic Imagery of Hell

2 The Forest Dante's Journey begins when he lost in a dark forest. Although he is telling this story as himself, there is a clear distinction between 2 facets of himself: the poet and the traveler. This was a moment of great contemplation in Dante s life and the journey symbolizes not only his spirt search for God, but also his wanfering days of exile. He encounters three beasts: a lion, a leopard and a wolf. These beast symbolize all the sin that Dante has to overcome before he can enjoy the gifts of paradise. He instantly faints after encountering the beasts and thus begins his Journey through Inferno. Circle 1 - Limbo When Dante awakes he is met by Virgil, the great Roman poet, who wrote about the fall of the Trojan empire and the rise of Rome. The reason Dante chose Virgil as his guide was because the Roman empire is credited to the forming of Christianity and Virgil s writings are an allegory for Dante s Journey from Inferno to Paradise like burning Troy to glorious Rome. Dante is told by Virgil that he is sent by Dante s early love, Beatrice, to make the journey from Hell to Heaven, but as a mortal. They begin their journey in Limbo, where he meets literary figures like Homer, Ovid, Plato, Aristotle, etc. These figures were not considered sinners, however, they were born pre-christianity and were hence never baptized, that is why they are found in Limbo. This is when they encounter the ominous gates of Hell atop which the following words are etched: All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here Circle 2 - Lust As Dante and Virgil enter the second circle, the see a swarm of people are constantly swept away by stormy winds, uncontrollably. Virgil informs Dante that these are the people who have committed sins of the flesh. Those who could not control their physical urges on earth care forever controlled by a storm. He meets several figures that have been victim to committing lust such as Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Achilles, Paris, Dido, etc. Here Dante sees a couple that are inseparable and insists on talking to them. Upon speaking to them, he finds that hey are Francesca and Paolo, who have committed the act of adultery. As the story of their brilliant romance is narrated by Francesca, Paolo wept continually because their love was true yet considered morally reprehensible according to Christianity. Dante, here is possibly reminiscent of the love he felt for Beatrice and the lines he write for Francesca are heart-breaking: Love, that on gentle heart doth swiftly seize, Seized this man for the person beautiful That was ta en from me, and still the mode offends me Dante soon faints upon hearing this story. When he awakes, the couple are gone, but Virgil lets him know that he must be stronger because there are far more traumatizing visuals to be witnessed. 2 3

3 4 Circle 3-Gluttoy D ante and Virgil enter the 3 rd circle where they run into Hades 3 headed Cerberus who guards the gluttons. Forced to lie in a vile slush produced by ceaseless foul, icy rain, Cerberus is fed mud by Virgil to obtain passage from the beast. The gluttons lie here sightless and heedless of their neighbors, symbolizing the cold, selfish, and empty sensuality of their lives. Just as lust has revealed its true nature in the winds of the previous circle, here the slush reveals the true nature of sensuality which includes not only overindulgence in food and drink, but also other kinds of addiction. Circle 4 - Greed The fourth circle includes the avaricious or miserly who hoarded possessions, and the prodigal, who squandered them. Those whose attitude toward material goods deviated from the appropriate mean are punished in the fourth circle. The two groups - the hoarders and the squanderers - fight each other using weapons that are very heavy and pushed with their chests. The following lines were very powerful: I saw multitudes To every side of me; their howls were loud While, wheeling weights, they used their chests to push. They struck against each other; at that point, Each turned around and, wheeling back those weights, Cried out: Why do you hoard? Why do you squander? Circle 5 - Wrath In the swamp-like water of the river Styx, the wrathful fight each other on the surface, and the sullen lie gurgling beneath the water, withdrawn into a black sulkiness which can find no joy in God or man or the universe. Virgil and Date are transported, across the Styx to the Gates of Dis. They reach the lower parts of Hell which are contained within the walls of the city of Dis, which is itself surrounded by the Stygian marsh. The walls of Dis are guarded by fallen angels. Virgil is unable to convince them to let Dante and him enter but an angel sent from Heaven secures entry for them, opening the gate by touching it with a wand, and rebukes those who opposed Dante. Allegorically, this reveals the fact that the poem is beginning to deal with sins that philosophy and humanism cannot fully understand. Circle 6 - Herecy In the sixth circle, Dante holds discourse with a pair of Epicurean Florentines in one of the tombs: Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante de Cavalcanti, The political affiliation of these two men allows for a further discussion of Florentine politics. Farinata explains that what the souls in Hell know of life on earth comes from seeing the future, not from any observation of the present. Before the steep descent to the foul-smelling seventh circle, Virgil explains the geography and rationale of Lower Hell, in which violent and malicious sins are punished. In particular, he asserts that there are only two legitimate sources of wealth: natural resources ( nature ) and human activity.

4 Circle 7 - Violence Circle 8 - Fraud The The last two circles of Hell punish sins that involve conscious fraud or seventh treachery. These circles can be reached only by descending a vast circle houses cliff, which Dante and Virgil do on the back of Geryon, a winged monster is the violent. described having three mixed natures: human, bestial, and reptilian. Dante s Its entry is Geryon is an image of fraud, having the face of an honest man on the body guarded by of a beautifully colored wyvern, with the furry paws of a lion and a poisonous sting in the pointy scorpion-like tail. The fraudulent those guilty of the Minotaur, and it is divided into three Panderers and seducers march in separate lines in opposite directions, deliberate, knowing evil are located in a circle named Malebolge. rings: violence whipped by demons. against man, Sorcerers, astrologers, and false violence against oneself and violence against God. prophets here have their heads twisted Outer ring: This ring houses the violent against people and property. around on their bodies backward, so Sinners are immersed in Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood and fire, to that they found it necessary to walk a level commensurate with the siners sins. The Centaurs, commanded by backward, / because they could not see Chiron and Pholus, patrol the ring, shooting arrows into any sinners who ahead of them. emerge higher out of the river than each is allowed. Corrupt politicians (barrators) are Middle ring: In this ring are suicides and profligates. The suicides the immersed in a lake of boiling pitch, violent against self are transformed into gnarled thorny bushes and trees which represents the sticky fingers and and then fed upon by Harpies. The trees are a metaphor for the state of dark secrets of their corrupt deals. mind in which suicide is committed. The profligates, who Thieves are guarded by the centaur destroyed their lives by destroying the means by which Cacus, who has a fire-breathing dragon life is sustained i.e., money and property, are perpetually chased and mauled by ferocious dogs. equine back. on his shoulders and snakes covering his Inner ring: Here are the violent against God (blasphemers) and the violent against nature (sodomites and usu- are concealed within individual flames. Fraudulent advisers or evil counsellors rerers ). All reside in a desert of flaming sand with fiery Various sorts of falsifiers (alchemists, flakes raining from the sky, a fate similar to Sodom and counterfeiters, perjurers, and impostors) who are a disease on society Gomorrah. The blasphemers lie on the sand, the usurers are themselves afflicted with different types of diseases. sit, and the sodomites wander about in groups. 7 6

5 Circle 9 - Trechery The ninth and last circle is ringed by classical and Biblical giants, who perhaps symbolize pride and other spiritual flaws lying behind acts of treachery. There are four concentric zones of traitors. In contrast to the popular image of Hell as a fiery pit, the traitors are frozen in a lake of ice known as Cocytus, with each group encased in ice to progressively greater depths.. Dante and Virgil encounter Count Ugolino who pauses from gnawing on the head of his former partner-in-crime Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini to describe how Ruggieri turned against him after an accidental death of Ruggieri s illegitimate son during a riot and had him imprisoned along with his sons and grandsons, condemning them to death by starvation.. Ugolino then proceeds to eat his childrens flesh to survive, after htey have perished.this part is particularty moving because of the narration of Ugolios story. It invokes great sadness even though the act is morally and sacredly reprehensible. In the very centre of Hell, condemned for committing the ultimate sin, is Satan. Satan is described as a giant, three faces, one red, one black, and one a pale yellow. Satan is waist deep in ice, weeping tears from his six eyes, and beating his six wings as if trying to escape. Each face has a mouth that chews on a prominent traitor. Judas,Brutus and Cassius. The two poets escape Hell by climbing down Satan s ragged fur. The pair emerge in the other hemisphere described in the Purgatorio.