Abstract
This paper discusses Dante Alighieri's allegorical tale, "The Inferno." It describes the concept of Divine justice within the work and discusses how the work can be seen as a journey to one man's acceptance of Divine judgment, as part of the objective will of God. The paper discusses the journey that Dante goes through and how it affects him.

From the Paper
"Even to the very monsters of hell does Dante Alighieri extend his belief in divine justice, as is seen in the wood of the suicides. He describes the woods as "the nesting place of the foul Harpies." (Dante, Cant. 13), who, according to ancient Greek lore, were "fierce, filthy, winged monsters, with the faces of women, bodies of vultures, and sharp claws who served as ministers of divine vengeance, and punished criminals." (Harpies, Par. 3). Undoubtedly, the Harpies are most appropriate guardians of the wood of the suicides, as they are ministers of divine justice, and, in addition, there exists a strong contrast between the Harpies who are prophetic, and the suicides who believed themselves to be prophetical in assuming that there was nothing left to live for in their futures, furthering the idea of contrapasso in The Inferno, and providing a delicate and profound example of divine justice."

Tags:god, sin, soul, hell

Abstract
The paper examines the primary influence of Dante Alighieri on art and religion in the modern world. The paper discusses the effect that education and the separation of church and state have had on modern American life, and shows how Dante had a great influence on how religious doctrine was affected through the historical rise of the Protestant faith.

Tags:biography, poet, philosophy

Abstract
This paper examines the scholars and the de-contextualization of Dante's "Inferno" - with special emphasis upon canto III. The paper summarizes the scene when a fearful Dante first enters Hell and discusses its significance in terms of understanding Dante and his world. The paper also looks at how intellectuals view Dante's "Inferno". The writer believes that the work stands out as a classic example of the medieval allegory play taken to new rhetorical heights. The writer concludes that it is also an example of how even the simplest works, if powerfully wrought, can spark wide discussion among academics who seek out meanings unimagined by the author.

From the Paper
"Ultimately, the canto, like the rest of the cantica, is a potential mirror into the world in which Dante Alighieri lived as well as a mirror into his own inner turmoil as a devout Christian seeking a purpose to his life as well as answers to questions that presumably many devout Christians were asking in the fourteenth century. To start with, the canto (in the original Italian, anyway) was written in the demanding terza rima rhyme pattern (Scott para.2) and, even in English translations, the text can be difficult to follow as Dante tries to bend the language into shapes and forms to which it does not adhere willingly."

Tags:Christian, medieval, allegory, Italian, hell, bible, devout

Abstract
This paper suggests that, while the notion of Heaven and Hell perhaps has its origins in Dante's "Inferno", there is, in actuality, a far more intimate duality to be examined: the paternal relationship between a father and son. The paper relates that Dante establishes Virgil the guide as a father figure to the pilgrim Dante. Yet, as in all father-son relationships, there is a metamorphosis. Virgil progresses from a strict father to becoming tempered by love and maternal instincts, while his son Dante, progresses from a helpless child to a rebellious teenager. The paper discusses this metamorphosis and concludes that the tender and affectionate relationship the two characters share is a counter-point to the nightmarish discourse of heaven and hell.

From the Paper
"However, as in most parenting relationships, children grow to the rebellious stage of adolescence. Dante begins to experience great fear and doubt concerning Virgil's power. In the beginning of Canto IX, Virgil is unable to open the gate of Dis. The all-knowing Virgil has failed. Dante thinks to himself, "the colored cowardness displayed in me when I saw that my guide was driven back..."(9.1-2), "Nevertheless, his speech made me afraid, because I drew out from his broken phrase a meaning worth- perhaps-then he'd intended" (9.13-15)."

Tags:evolution, guiding light, maternal instincts, teenager counter-point

Abstract
This essay examines the significance and portrayal of the seven deadly sins in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, with an emphasis to the use of the concept of these sins in the Purgatorio, the second of the canticles of the epic. It shows how Dante used these sins as a basis for discussing the purging of sins from the souls of the penitent. It notes also that the seven deadly sins are actually not biblically based, and that the concept was not fixed in Dante's time.

From the Paper
"In 'The Divine Comedy', particularly in The Purgatorio, Dante Alighieri uses the concept of the seven deadly or cardinal sins as a device for differentiating among the various souls and showing the divine order of the universe. As the title of this canticle suggests, the Purgatorio tells of Dante's passage through Purgatory. Purgatory is the place of purgation, where souls are cleansed of sins in preparation for entry into a life of eternal blessedness. In Dante's conception, Purgatory consists of an ..."

Tags:dante, purgatory, sins

Abstract
The paper compares the works of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio. The writer describes how they both derived much of their view of the world and its relation to the next world from their Catholic faith. The writer further examines how the two writers look at the world in different ways, though both are Italian, both Catholic, and both medieval in world view for the most part. The writer concludes that Boccaccio tends to be more humorous, more expansive, more varied, and more secular in his stories, while Dante is more spiritual and more focused on the darker aspects of the human spirit.

From the Paper
"This is one reason why Boccaccio is more often compared to Chaucer than to Dante. Of course, Chaucer derived a number of plots from stories in The Decameron and also used many of the same story forms, notably the fabliau derived from the French. The love triangle is the most common plot for both Chaucer and Boccaccio, with numerous variations, while Dante's unrequited love for Beatrice never involves a third party but only shows that distance is maintained between the man and the woman he loves from afar."

Tags:Chaucer, pagan

Abstract
This paper discusses how goodness is viewed in two distinctly different historical and cultural contexts, namely, Dante's "Inferno" and Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics." The writer explains that Aristotle is primarily concerned with the practical dynamic of relationships between behavior and human interaction, while the "Inferno," an intellectual descendant of the rationality of "Nicomachean Ethics," reflects equally the influence of medieval Christian ideas of justice and goodness. The writer shows where Dante concurs with Aristotle and where the 'good of intellect' in Dante does not refer to a core morality but to goodness as part of Christian morality. The paper concludes that although Dante's Christian ideology provides a stark contrast in perspective, the works remain equally committed to the idea of goodness as a function of human interaction.

From the Paper
"Indeed, morality is the underlying matter of consideration in Dante's Inferno, with the human interaction being an extension of Christian justice. Any divergence therefrom represented an idea that, while not necessarily erroneous in its nature, was presented to be an emanation from error. The unwavering and mathematically unbiased law of God as in Dante's work is the body to which human beings are the nearly vestigial extremities. As Socrates' and Plato's presence in Hell illustrates, such extremities could often even be counter-intuitive to the necessary functions of this body."

Tags:Christianity, hegemonic, God, Socrates, happiness, concurrence, philosophy, self-love, virtue

Abstract
This paper explores how the work combines and expresses Dante's knowledge of the classic writer Virgil, Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, and the Medieval Christian Theory, predominantly Catholicism and the Bible. The author also demonstrates how Dante addresses the subject of love.

From the Paper
"Dante draws on Aristotle for his conception of love in the case with Beatrice, who later escorts him into Paradise. Aristotle pictures the source of the universe not as love itself, but as the simple first cause, toward which all things aspire through love. In the same way that a moth is drawn toward a flame, the planets and celestial spheres are pulled toward the perfection of the first cause, and through this desire they are moved to participate in a circular dance. When Dante speaks of "The Love which moves the sun and the other stars" in the final line of The Divine Comedy, he is referring to Aristotle's idea that cosmic desire for the first cause energizes the motion of the entire universe."

Tags:philosophy, literature, themes, religion

Abstract
This paper illustrates how all three works have used journeys as symbolic representations through which each story's protagonist has learned that suffering is inevitable when surrounded by evil. In the "Aeneid," Aeneas is characterized as a mortal who has witnessed, discovered and explored the life of other mortals in what was later identified as hell. A similar scene is depicted Dante's tale, wherein the title character must witness the suffering in the City of Dis. In the Bible, the reader understands that Jonah's journey is in the form of repentance and humility. Suffering was illustrated through Jonah's ordeal when he was swallowed by the whale. The writer contends that despite the differences in the cultural contexts of the three journeys, each had similar themes that entailed suffering in either hell or the underworld, which was the result of man's moral decline.

From the Paper
"Thus, Aeneas' journey in the underworld is but a manifestation of the state of mind when evil acts dominate one's soul or self, which is full of suffering. Apart from suffering, Virgil also identified Revenge, Diseases, Want, Fear, Famine, Toils, Death, Sleep, Pleasures, Frauds, Force, Furies, and Strife as other elements that, when committed excessively by the individual, leads ultimately to the descent of the soul in the underworld. A similar scenario was presented in Dante's "Inferno," wherein he portrayed Limbo as a place wherein suffering also prevails."

Tags:literature, comparative, analysis, moral, ethics

Abstract
This essay compares and contrasts the classic poets, Dante Alighieri and John Milton. It first details the time periods during which each lived, Dante in the medieval era and Milton in the Renaissance. The writer looks at the similarities and differences in their lives. Then the essay takes a short look at Dante's 'Inferno' and Milton's 'Paradise Lost' to further see issues on which they thought alike, despite the time and geographic differences between them.

From the Paper
"In these modern times, this modern era of literature and thought, it is easy to lump all ancient writing together. Chaucer, Milton, Dante, even Shakespeare, are so long dead that they all seem to have come from the same distant, canonized, unreachable time. Yet, each of these old writers lived in his own time and wrote for his own reasons about specific and relevant themes. This essay looks at Dante Alighieri and John Milton, two famous writers from differing time periods and differing circumstances. A work from each writer, Dante's 'Inferno' and Milton's 'Paradise Lost', each similar in theme, will be studied in order to better compare and contrast these two heroes of Western literature. Dante Alighieri came from medieval Florence, Italy. Born in 1265 to a family of money, Dante was raised within Florence's intricate political network."

Tags:dante, milton, literature