Political and Religious Ambitions: Dante’s Justification of Punishments in the Inferno

In The Inferno, Dante descends through the nine circles of stone, encountering increasingly serious sins, to the highest degree of which be crimes. The levels of Hell can be interpreted as a gradation of crimes, with penalties in proportion to their relative solemness of sin. While crimes are transgressions against human law, Dantes Christian Orthodox ambitions translate the treatment of these seemingly earthly crimes as sins, transgressions against overlord law. For the purposes of this paper, the two terms can be used interchangeably because Dantes perception of crimes on Earth is in jibe to the punishment of those crimes as sins in Hell. For Dante, the most punishable sins are those of betrayal. With a lucid examination of Dantes political involvement, it becomes straightforward that Dantes political motivations strongly influenced his placement of sinners in Hell. Specifically, Dantes political motivation is illuminated in the final canto, in which we find the three greatest sinners suffering in mates mouth. Brutus and Cassius, political figures who betrayed and murdered Julius Caesar, are placed in the same realm of Hell as Judas, who betrayed Jesus. While virtually critics view Caesar as a divine figure, others argue that he was purely a human figure of authority and thus, not divine at all.

In this paper, I volition give that Dantes treatment of Brutus, Cassius, and Judas demonstrates his equal attention to both unearthly and political virtues. To arrive at this conclusion, I will outset establish the historical context from which The Inferno was written. After clear up Dantes political ambitions in its context, I will give up the diverging arguments over Dantes denunciation for betrayal. Finally, I will dissect the final canto in which Brutus, Cassius, and Judas are simultaneously penalize by Lucifer to illustrate Dantes motivation for his ideal of sin. Dante stresses justice, as shown by his punishment of sinners on relative levels of Hell for their respective sins.... If you want to get a full essay, tell apart it on our website: Orderessay

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