Journeying Abandonment
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published 19/10/2007
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SummaryDante’s Inferno, while a fictionalized version of the dichotomy of Heaven and Hell, is in many ways an accurate portrayal of the doctrines of Christianity. However, this Hell he creates is a Hell the Bible never expected. Influenced by the growing mistrust of the Pope throughout his native Florence, he never hesitates to write with personal opinion in the forefront. He burns Church officials next to petty thieves, and his self-righteous pursuit of salvation creates an animosity toward sin, especially the sins of other less devout individuals. The Inferno is a vivid painting of eternal torment, punishments directly influenced by the crimes with a touch of Dante’s repulsive imagination. However, he is also quick to make his passion for the human body clear: he is completely disgusted by the disfiguration of any fellow man. His hatred of non-human shapes, echoed in the xenophobic attitude of the Church, is glorified by his use of monsters in his Inferno, monsters that are all distortions of humans. These pre-Christian monsters, presented as horrendous entities in contrast to living creatures, never had a chance for Heaven, and Dante never gives them a chance for redemption. Limbo is a place for virtuous pagans; Dante presents the monsters in the Inferno as purely blasphemous. He assumes this judgment to be common sense, that anything not created by God in his very likeness can never deserve sympathy. Yet a modern world, separated from Roman Catholic control, looks beyond original sin to declare damnation. Dante fails to prove that the monsters in the Inferno belong there beyond reason of their foreign birth, and in the numerous contradictions throughout, he proves the opposite.
Table of Contents
- Dante's Inferno, while a fictionalized version of the dichotomy of Heaven and Hell, is in many ways an accurate portrayal of the doctrines of Christianity.
- One of the most famous monsters that Dante meets on his journey through Hell is the Minotaur.
- The Minotaur remains trapped for his entire life; it can be questioned if he ever tried to get out or simple accepted his fate.
- While the Minotaur is the embodiment of man and bull, the Centaurs are horse and man joined together in a similar fashion, but less monstrous in that they have the heads and torsos of man.
- The willingness of the monsters in the Inferno to submit themselves to the level of steeds is also expressed in the character of Geryon
- In many ways, Dante's Inferno is a piece of propaganda. While Virgil's Aeneid served a political purpose and honored Caesar, the intent of Dante's work personal.
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