... . The arrangement of the poem takes the reader step by step through greater and greater sins. The content of the book shows the different punishments for sins, which are symbolic of the sins themselves. The sins committed have a direct connection to the severity of the punishment and the punishment itself. Dante is forced to battle his own sin, as well as the ... , meaning a "step against." The Divine Comedy signifies Dante's journey through Hell and Purgatory to gain salvation into Heaven. Therefore, the "step against" also refers to steps taken backward in the journey to salvation. It i...

• Word Count: 1352
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... Christian day, writes a guidebook for Hell and, in doing so, questions his own rocky past and his chances for Hell, for Heaven. Dante, a Christian poet living during a Christian age, sets out to write a poem about his fictionalized version of Hell. I believe Dante's initial intent, beyond poetic creativity, is to be an instructional wake-up call to the misbehaving Christians of his day. As ... his horrors unfold, Dante finds himself faced with his own standards of living. Dante wonders if he satisfies the ... , we took no care/To rest, but climbed Some of the beautiful things that Heave...

• Word Count: 839
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... holly on hym leye. (V, 1842-6) When liminally translated, this passage says to love him who, out of true love, died upon a cross and rose and sits in heaven; for he will not deceive any living creature who on him lays all his heart. I'd like to take a moment to focus on the word "falsen."" According to the Middle English Dictionary, this word means ... Prodigal, Wrathful, Heretics, Violents, Simply Fraudulents, and Treacherous. Recall the sins from which Troilus flees after receiving Criseyde's favor. They are pride, envy, ire, and avarice. The sin of avarice is directly mentioned in th...

• Word Count: 3564
• Approx Pages: 14
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. Allegorically, "Divine Comedy"  represents the journey of the soul ... towards God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin. The poem starts on Maundy Thursday in the year 1300. The narrator, Dante himself, is thirty-five years old, and thus "halfway along our life's path" (Nel ... the Roman poet Virgil, who claims to have been sent by Bea...

• Word Count: 817
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... let Satan control him. He "falls away from God to become a negative reflection of omnipotence." (Vaught, 21) His soul desired the sin. His pear-stealing episode pointed out his need for redemption. (Vaught, 54) While Augustine is studying at Carthage his sinful nature takes over again. He ... represented as Dante goes through each circle. His personal sins are shown and represented throughout the poem. The deeper Dante and Virgil travel through the circles of hell, the worse the punishment for each sin gets. The first circle Virgil and Dante approach is called Limbo "where the sad ... of...

• Word Count: 2063
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the cherubim, "a splendor of cherubic radiance- (Canto XI, line 39), which was the second order of angels and those acknowledged as the wisest. He is portrayed in military terms, referred to as "God's athlete- (Canto XII, line 56). There is an emphasis or importance placed on their complementary nature, and of the ... as "Bereft of her first spouse, despised, ignored,/ she waited eleven hundred years and more,/ living without a lover till he came,"" (Canto XI, lines 64-66). She had climbed the cross to be with Christ, as the poem tells, remaining loyal to him even to his death. St. Fran...

• Word Count: 1058
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School