Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Circle 7 and Circle 8: Fraud and Violence
Dante’s Inferno can be classified as a creative understanding of human evil, which Dante categorizes, explores, separates and judges. In Circle Five and all of Upper Hell, Dante becomes more aggressive, vivid, and detailed of the sins, punishments and descriptions in the circles. Sometimes we ponder his path, questioning why, for example, a sin punished in the Eight Circle of Hell, such as cheating, is worse than a sin punished in the Seventh Circle of Hell, such as murder. Dante says that sins of malice can be either sins of fraud or violence, which is why God hates both types of sins. However, among the two sins committed by man, God hates fraud more than violence, and, therefore, the penalty for cheating is more grievous than the punishment for violence. Showing that Dante’s moral system is on God’s will in Heaven rather than human happiness or peace on Earth.
While in the rounds of Circle Seven we see the sinners, guarded by Minotaur, Centaurs and Harpies, who have committed the sins of the lion, which are the sins against neighbors, murder and war- makers, against self, suicide and destroyers of their own body, and against God, art and nature. While Dante may not correspond to violence, it seems as though he has sympathy for the sinners. In the book, Inferno, Dante feels sorry for those who committed suicide, because that was a viable option for him after his exile. In Circle Seven, there are many half- beast creatures, which Dante considers humans as halfway between angels and animals. Dante believes that creatures can kill, but only humans are able to offend people and God.
The unlawful and malicious sins of the leopard are in Circle Eight and Circle Nine. In Circle Eight, there are seducers and panders, flatterers, simoniacs, fortune tellers and diviners, grafters, hypocrites, thieves, evil counselors, sewers of discord, counterfeiters and alchemists. Dante states, “The former mode of fraud not only denies the bond of Nature, but the special trust added by bonds of friendship or blood-ties,” which shows us that he believes fraud is an argument to God’s will, which is to treat others with the love given to us by God (86). He also believes that fraud destroys the traditional wants for authentic faith that should exist between men. For example, in Bolgia Six we see the Hypocrites, who are people that pretend to have admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings but behaves differently. Also, meaning that people are using their God given talents for their own selfish needs, and not to do what is best for God or others.
However in society, violence is more corrupt than fraud. So why does Dante believe that murder of a person is less corrupt than a lie to a person? All of his beliefs trace back to his Christian values. He believes that God is the only one who has the ultimate power, no one else. Also, Dante believes that even though someone dies, the pain that one gets from that death will soon recover. Although, one is able to recover from betrayal, deception still can affect us not to trust others, which can lead to alienation. Dante believes that unity among others and God will salvation.
While in the rounds of Circle Seven we see the sinners, guarded by Minotaur, Centaurs and Harpies, who have committed the sins of the lion, which are the sins against neighbors, murder and war- makers, against self, suicide and destroyers of their own body, and against God, art and nature. While Dante may not correspond to violence, it seems as though he has sympathy for the sinners. In the book, Inferno, Dante feels sorry for those who committed suicide, because that was a viable option for him after his exile. In Circle Seven, there are many half- beast creatures, which Dante considers humans as halfway between angels and animals. Dante believes that creatures can kill, but only humans are able to offend people and God.
The unlawful and malicious sins of the leopard are in Circle Eight and Circle Nine. In Circle Eight, there are seducers and panders, flatterers, simoniacs, fortune tellers and diviners, grafters, hypocrites, thieves, evil counselors, sewers of discord, counterfeiters and alchemists. Dante states, “The former mode of fraud not only denies the bond of Nature, but the special trust added by bonds of friendship or blood-ties,” which shows us that he believes fraud is an argument to God’s will, which is to treat others with the love given to us by God (86). He also believes that fraud destroys the traditional wants for authentic faith that should exist between men. For example, in Bolgia Six we see the Hypocrites, who are people that pretend to have admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings but behaves differently. Also, meaning that people are using their God given talents for their own selfish needs, and not to do what is best for God or others.
However in society, violence is more corrupt than fraud. So why does Dante believe that murder of a person is less corrupt than a lie to a person? All of his beliefs trace back to his Christian values. He believes that God is the only one who has the ultimate power, no one else. Also, Dante believes that even though someone dies, the pain that one gets from that death will soon recover. Although, one is able to recover from betrayal, deception still can affect us not to trust others, which can lead to alienation. Dante believes that unity among others and God will salvation.
http://www.onlinelawyersource.com/consumer_fraud/law.html
This link above tells us how our socitey views fraud and what the punishment for fraud is.
http://www.houseofruthdothan.org/dvlaws.htm
This link above tells us what the punishments for violence is.
This link above tells us how our socitey views fraud and what the punishment for fraud is.
http://www.houseofruthdothan.org/dvlaws.htm
This link above tells us what the punishments for violence is.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Circle 4: Fate and Fortune
"No mortal power may stay her spinning wheel.The nations rise and fall by her decree.
None may foresee where she will set her heel:
She passes, and things pass. Man’s mortal reason
Cannot encompass her. She rules her sphere
as the gods rule theirs. Season by season” ( Canto VII, lines 82-87).
In Sophocles, it did not matter what they did to try to change their fate, they still would fulfill what their destiny was. For example, Oedipus’s fate was that he was going to marry his mother and kill his father. So, Oedipus left his home so that he would not be able to perform his destiny. However, while leaving, he was very furious and got into a fight with a chariot driver, over who had the right to go first. That was when Oedipus kill Laius, his birth father, in self defense, without knowing that he fulfilled part of the prophecy. On the other hand, Dante believes that we are able to change our fate anytime in our lives. In Dante’s quote, he says “Her changes change her changes endlessly” (pg 55, line 88). Meaning that every second of everyday you are introduced to new things that will change your fate and fortune and those thoughts and ideas with soon be changed again and again and the changes will never end.
The faith of Dante is weak in the first canto. This is shown when he does not trust and look for his God for support during the appearance of the three beast. However as we get further into the circles of hell we start to notice that Dante is starting to overcome his fear or evil by trusting in God’s control and grace. Dante shows that he is more trusting in God when he says, “ No mortal may stay her spinning wheel.” In this quote Dante is revealing that God, a non-mortal, is able to control and observe the way we maintain out lives.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
First Circle of Hell
In the book, Inferno, we first find out about the First Circle of Hell in Canto IV. The idea of the word Limbo, also known as the First Circle of Hell, means a region on the edge of Hell.
Dante’s First Circle of Hell includes many non-Christian people, un-baptized children and heroes, philosophers, and creative minds of ancient Greece and Rome. Once Virgil and Dante enter Limbo, they are presented with an area full of light. While entering Limbo, Dante says, “No tortured wailing/but sounds of sighing,” showing that the people are not being tortured in Limbo (Line 25-26). While in Limbo Virgil tells the story of a Mighty One descending down and choosing some souls to win salvation, which is like the medieval belief that when Christ descended into Hell and turned over Hell and freed all those who believed in Christ before his time. In Limbo, Dante was honored by a group of four classical poets, who were Homer (8th century B.C.), Horace (December 8, 65-November 27, 8 B.C.), Ovid (March 20, 43 B.C. - 17 A.D.), and Lucan (November 3, 39-April 30, 65 A.D.). They all walked on to a noble castle, inside of which is a fresh green meadow, and there Dante sees many women and men of Greece and Rome. All the souls in Limbo were free of sins, but they were not in Heaven because they were never brought into the Christian Church through baptism, or because they lived before Christianity, like Virgil, or because the teachings of Christianity never reached them. Once hearing their free sins and their punishments, Dante says, “A weight closed on my heart for what the noblest suffer,” illustrating Dante’s emotions to spare the people from suffering in hell and to grieve for them (Line 44-45). The contrapasso of Limbo was that since you did not get to know God while you were alive, you did not get to go to Heaven and meet God.
Virgil says “Without hope we live on in desire” (Line 42). The symbolic meaning of that line and of Limbo was that to live a good and honorable life without knowledge of reality with love and happiness, was to live without joy, desiring something more but having no hope of getting it.
Dante’s First Circle of Hell includes many non-Christian people, un-baptized children and heroes, philosophers, and creative minds of ancient Greece and Rome. Once Virgil and Dante enter Limbo, they are presented with an area full of light. While entering Limbo, Dante says, “No tortured wailing/but sounds of sighing,” showing that the people are not being tortured in Limbo (Line 25-26). While in Limbo Virgil tells the story of a Mighty One descending down and choosing some souls to win salvation, which is like the medieval belief that when Christ descended into Hell and turned over Hell and freed all those who believed in Christ before his time. In Limbo, Dante was honored by a group of four classical poets, who were Homer (8th century B.C.), Horace (December 8, 65-November 27, 8 B.C.), Ovid (March 20, 43 B.C. - 17 A.D.), and Lucan (November 3, 39-April 30, 65 A.D.). They all walked on to a noble castle, inside of which is a fresh green meadow, and there Dante sees many women and men of Greece and Rome. All the souls in Limbo were free of sins, but they were not in Heaven because they were never brought into the Christian Church through baptism, or because they lived before Christianity, like Virgil, or because the teachings of Christianity never reached them. Once hearing their free sins and their punishments, Dante says, “A weight closed on my heart for what the noblest suffer,” illustrating Dante’s emotions to spare the people from suffering in hell and to grieve for them (Line 44-45). The contrapasso of Limbo was that since you did not get to know God while you were alive, you did not get to go to Heaven and meet God.
Virgil says “Without hope we live on in desire” (Line 42). The symbolic meaning of that line and of Limbo was that to live a good and honorable life without knowledge of reality with love and happiness, was to live without joy, desiring something more but having no hope of getting it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)