The Punishment of Lust in Dante’s Alighieri’s Inferno PDF

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An in depth analysis of the literary devices used in Dante Alighieri's Inferno to show the sin of lust, the importance of details, and the overall message conveyed by the picture it paints....

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The Punishment of Lust in Dante’s Alighieri’s Inferno In Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, he analyzes hell and the afterlife in The Inferno. In this piece, there are no coincidences, and every detail serves a purpose. All of the sins are punished in a proportional fashion. In Canto five, Dante and Virgil explore the second circle of hell, full of those who are guilty of lust. In it, the sinners are thrown around in a storm of violent winds and rain. When it comes to lust, Dante uses it as an excellent example that, no matter how seemingly small the sin may be, all sins ultimately lead to suffering. In the second circle of hell, among those who have committed similar sins, those guilty of lust are thrown around in a torrential storm. Dante describes it as “The infernal hurricane that never rests / which bellows as the sea does in a tempest / if by opposing winds ‘t is combated”. He is describing the sheer ferocity of the storm, comparable to the lives they lead as sinners. He describes their suffering, saying “there are the shrieks, the plaints, and the laments, / there they blaspheme the puissance divine.” It has become impossible for the sinners to rest, as they are perpetually thrown around. The description of this punishment is very important, as every word used is done so intentionally. In summary, the entire description of the punishment is to demonstrate the lives they lived. Strong emotion guided the sinners, and not reason or God. They were thrown into turmoil, tossed around by their emotions like they are in the wind and rain, never allowed to rest. It is interesting to note that Dante has placed the sin of Lust in the second circle, and not any of the latter. Dante’s powerful description of the punishment and lives of the sinners may compel the reader to believe that the sin is much more volatile than Dante seems to believe, as all other sins are seen as being even worse. It can be concluded that Dante believes that, regardless of magnitude, all sins ultimately lead to suffering.

It is possible to refute this claim by saying that not all sins lead to suffering, as demonstrated in the first circle of hell (limbo). However, despite the fact that those souls are not actively suffering in a physical way, i.e. wind, rain, wasps, etc, they are still suffering in their denial from paradise. The sin of lust, along with all other sins, ultimately leads to human suffering. In the end, those who committed lust in life suffered equally in death. Though there may have been brief pleasure, the eternal suffering far outweighs it. Dante espouses the belief that all sins are equal, and that all will lead to suffering proportional to the sin. He utilizes the lust to show that, not matter how small the sin may appear to be, suffering is guaranteed....