Dantes Inferno and The Afterlife Essay - 1819 Words

For centuries humans have been drawing parallels to help explain or understand different concepts. These parallels, or allegories, tell a simple story and their purpose is to use another point of view to help guide individuals into the correct line of thought. â€Å"The only stable element in a literary work is its words, which if one knows the language in which it is written, have a meaning. The significance of that meaning is what may be called allegory.†(Bloomfield) As Bloomfield stated, it is only how we interpret the words in an allegory that matters, each person can interpreted it in a slightly different way and allegories are most often personalized by a reader. Dante’s Inferno allegory is present throughout the entire poem. From the†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Writers use allegory to add different layers of meanings to their works. Allegory makes their stories and characters multidimensional, so that they stand for something larger in meaning than what they literally stand for. Allegory allows writers to put forward their moral and political point of views. A careful study of an allegorical piece of writing can give us an insight into writer’s mind as how he views the world and how he wishes the world to be.†(Bavota) This passage, like the â€Å"up on your feet† lines from this poem, works to motivate and to help learn the value of the world around them. It works, like the passage in canto twenty four, the uplift and to see a more positive side of the battles we may face in life. Another example of Dante’s punishment is expressed in the following circle of hell where the heretics are punished for the sins they committed while living. The poets spend more time in this circle than in the previous circles, they stay in this portion of Dante’s hell throughout the ninth, tenth, and eleventh cantos of the poem. The heretics are those who believed the soul and the body passed away together and noShow MoreRelatedDepictions of the Afterlife1060 Words   |  4 PagesThe afterlife as a residence for souls after death has long been a topic of discussion and debate. This idea intrigues many. As Christians we believe that heaven is a place where believers go where life there will be a continuation of their present life, while hell is a place of judgment and punishment where many experience severe treatment. Direct experience is the only way individuals can experience these concepts, but once we obtain the experience it cannot be shared. This ultimately makes usRead MoreDante Alighieri s Inferno, And The Book Of Revelation1584 Words   |  7 PagesDante Alighieri’s epic poem, Inferno, and the Book of Revelation as told by John in the Bible each regale the natural curiosity of humans involving manifestations of endings and possibilities of new beginnings in the afterlife. 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