Hi all! Sorry this is posted later than hoped...please respond by Tuesday at class time! I would like you to comment on whether or not you think Dante is accurate in his placement of souls in hell. Should anyone be moved or not be there? Let everyone know what you think! Use all cantos you have read through for this!
ALSO, vocab mastery test 10-12 TOMORROW (Monday the 23)
I do think that Dante's placement of souls in hell is accurate. The symbolic retribution is very fitting for the crimes committed on earth. I do think that a few punishments are not fitting for the crime. For example, in circle one (the limbo) the people who were not baptized or born before Christ are punished by not having the hope of seeing God. Their souls should not be punished since it is not their fault they weren't born in the Christian Era. Also, if they dont believe in the Chrisitian God, i dont think they would mind nothaving the hope of seeing the light of him. I do agree with the symbolic retribution of circle three ( gluttony). It is a perfect punishment for the people who lived in excess all their lives to have to live in filth and garbage. I also agree with circle 7 and the symbolic retribution which is people that have killed themselves. Their punishment is they are trees for enternity. One of my favorite punishments is circle 2, the lustful, who have commited adultry and in hell they are constantly being blown around and are constantly reminded of the sins they have commited. I do not believe that anyone is wrongfully punished and everyone deserves thepunishment for their crime!
ReplyDeleteI believe that Dante is accurate of his placement of souls in hell. For every crime that is committed by a human, there is symbolic retribution that their souls have to suffer through in hell. In my opinion, the symbolic retribution is deserving. For example, those were lustful and cheated on their spouses must be blown together so that they can never escape their sin. The two lovers wanted to be together so badly, now they finally get to be together but they aren't actually together since they are being blown around so they must live through that pain. Therefore, the symbolic retribution for their punishment is very fitting. Although I do agree with Dante's placement, I also believe that there are some people who should not be in hell. I disagree with the placement of souls in circle one. This is because there is nothing that the sinners can do about the fact that they weren't born in the period of Christ, and now are unable to see the light. These people had nothing to do with that and now they must suffer by being hopeless. Another circle that i disagree with is circle 6. This is because although most people do, not everybody has to believe in god. I don't believe that people who have a different opinion than what is normal should have to suffer in fiery tombs. Other than circles 1 and 6, I believe that every sinner deserved the symbolic retribution that they received for their punishment.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, I do agree with Dante’s placement of souls in Hell. Although I do think that not everyone that is in Hell truly deserves to be there. As for those who I believe should be in Hell, their placement is correct. In my opinion, the punishments for the sins are very fitting. I do not think that the people in circle one and circle six should be in Hell. They have done absolutely nothing wrong. Those in circle one are just people who were born before Christ. It’s not their fault and just because even though they don’t share the same belief as others, they do not deserve to go to Hell. The same with circle six, they don’t believe in God and are sentenced to an “eternal grave in the fiery morgue of God’s wrath.” They shouldn’t be punished for doing no wrong. A good example of symbolic retribution can be found in circle five. The wrathful and the sullen are the members of this circle. They are placed in Hell because of their excessive greed for material things. These are the people in life that buy just to buy. They spend money like it grows on trees and they purchase things that they don’t really need. The wrathful expressed their anger in life, whereas the sullen repressed it. In Hell, the wrathful barbarically attack one another and the sullen are trapped just below the surface of the icky, muddy swamp. I feel as though Dante has done a good job with the symbolic retribution.
ReplyDeleteI think that Dante is accurate in his placing of souls in Hell. I believe that the symbolic retribution is very fitting for every circle that we've read so far. I really like the wood of suicides because I think the punishment is extremely fitting here. In life, they were blessed with human form, but they chose not to accept this by killing themselves. Thus, in death they aren't given human form. Also, they can only speak when getting hurt because, just as the supreme expression of their lives was self-destruction, so they are permitted to speak only through that which tears and destroys them. Only through their own blood can they find voice. While I don't disagree with the placements of people in Hell that Dante has made, if I were creating all this I probably would have done it differently. I believe that people shouldn't be judged by the bad they've done, but what good they've done. I think that pretty much every person in Hell thus far has to have done at least one good deed in their life. If I had it my way, I would just make certain levels of Heaven. Therefore, people who did a little good would be on the bottom and the people who did the most good would be at the top. The way I envision it would be sort of like a social hierarchy. The more good you did in your life, the more privileged you would be in the afterlife. The people who did the most good in their life would be the upper class and live in complete luxury while the people who did the least good would be less privileged and live in the "bad part of town" in Heaven. However, no one would be punished because they all did SOME good. The only people I would really have in Hell or maybe like a jail or something in Heaven would be Satan and maybe a few others.
ReplyDeleteBased on Dante's criteria of the levels of Hell, his placing of the souls are pretty accurate. In my opinion, I don't like the idea that people who made a bad or not so bad mistake should go to hell (based on if the people fit in one of the circles). If it was my decision on what would happen to the people's souls in the afterlife, I would say that they should all go to heaven. But all of these souls would be good because I believe that there is good in everyone including the people who have sinned. Based on Dante's way of putting people in Hell, it is accurate. There aren't any specific people that should've been changed, but I think that it was wrong to put circle 1 in Hell. Hell is defined as the place or state of punishment of the wicked after death. In circle 1, the souls are there because they didn't do anything with their lives. The people who didn't do anything with their lives are not wicked or evil. They just decided to do nothing with their lives and I strongly believe that they shouldn't be punished for that. Besides that, the placement of the other souls and the symbolic retribution are accurate.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't think Dante is accurate in his placement of souls in hell. Starting with the first circle; the Virtuous Pagans. It is not their fault if they were born without the light of god. Yet they are punished and put into hell because they were unbaptized. Beliefs shouldn't be a punishment and people/souls shouldn't be punished on whether they do or don't believe in something. In other words the Virtuous Pagans and unbaptized babies shouldn't be placed in hell at all. Moving to the next circle, The Carnal. This circle and the placement of these souls i agree on because they did do wrong. They shouldn't have loved whoever they loved and they shouldn't have done what they did. In circle 3, the gluttons, i think they should be punished but not to that extent. Just because they overate didn't mean they weren't good people. I understand they should get a "taste of their own medicine" but their punishment is a little harsh. In circles 4: The Hoarders and the Wasters and 5: The Wrathful and the Sullen they did do wrong. Living life in total selfishness is a bad sin that deserved their souls harsh punishment. In the 6th circle is the Heretics and the Fallen Angels. Once again, I don't think souls should be punished for their beliefs because it is their personal opinion. So if fallen angels and the Heretics rebelled against god, that is their problem they shouldn't be punished for it. That's what they believe. It didn't affect any one else. I also think that the many levels of the Heretics are not necessary. I feel like Dante emphasizes too much on the rebellion of god. Obviously religion was extremely important to him but just because not everyone believed the same things about god, they shouldn't be punished for thinking differently. For circle 7, those violent against themselves, violent against neighbors, and those violent against god, nature and art. I actually agree with the punishment of all of these categories. I know they are harsh but there is absolutely no reason to be violent and/or harm anything. If someone doesnt like something, they are entitled, but it is not necessary to destroy or kill yourself, someone else, or something of importance to someone else. I also agree with the punishments for circle 8 as well. All of the souls in circles 7 and 8 deserve to be punished the way they were. They did wrong and they should have consequences for their wrong doings. Just as other people suffered from the damage they caused.they should suffer like they caused other people to suffer. It is only fair and they need to get what they deserved.
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ReplyDeleteI do believe that Dante is accurate in his placement of the souls in hell. I like the way he organized hell with the worst of the sins at the bottom and the less severe sins at the top. The symbolic retribution that Dante used for each level of hell helped to make Dantes placement of the souls more accurate. The first circle of hell was for the people that werent baptized or were born before Christ. The punishment for these people was they didnt have any hope of seeing god. This is a good example of symbolic retribution because these people didnt get hope from god during their lives so in death they dont have hope either. I also agree with this circle being circle one because it isnt a severe sin and it wasnt necessarily their fault that they didnt get baptized. All the rest of the circles of hell are different sins that the people in the circles committed during their lives, therefore Dante is justified on his placement of the souls in hell.
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ReplyDeleteI think that Dante's placement of the souls in Hell are accurate for the most part. I think a lot of the punishments are extremely creative in a twisted way. For example, in life the Gluttons made no higher use of the gifts of God than to wallow in food and drink, producing nothing but garbage and offal. Therefore, their punishment is to lie through all eternity, themselves like garbage, half-buried in fetid slush, while Cerberus slavers over them as they in life slavered over their food. I find this really funny and amusing. It's like they get a taste of their own medicine. It's the perfect revenge. Cerberus represents them in life, and they represent the food.
ReplyDeleteAnd although I agree with everyone else that the Virtuous Pagans didn't do anything wrong, I still think it's accurate because their punishment is not bad at all compared to the others and the symbolic retribution makes sense. Since they were born without the light of God, in death they do not have God's "light", or hope.
Then again, I also don't like the fact that only "perfect" people can make it to Heaven because I don't believe anyone is perfect. Everyone has sinned once in their life or is atleast going to and although they shouldn't be punished for all eternity for one little sin, they shouldn't not be aloud in heaven just because they aren't "perfect".
I believe that in the time period that Dante had written the Inferno, his placement of the circles of Hell were correct. Back in the 1300's, religion, especially Christianity was extremely important. Therefore, heresy was placed in the correct circle. However, today, heresy might be moved up a bit. This is because more and more people are starting to believe in different religions, or have no religion at all. The belief in a God is slowly declining which is a sad, but true statement. One group that I think should not have been in hell at all were the Virtuous Pagans. I noticed that this is one that most people disagree with as well. The Virtuous Pagans did absolutely nothing in life to deserve them a place in hell. They don't deserve eternal sadness and no hope. Religion is a choice, and the people that belong to the group of the virtuous pagans should not be punished for a choice. Or even worse, some of the people were born before Christ. Those people especially, should not be punished for something they had entirely no control over, their birth.
ReplyDeleteAnother group of people that I do not think should be punished in hell are the homosexuals, place in the violent against nature. Homosexuality is not a choice. I understand that Dante placed them there because of the time period he was in, which is totally acceptable. Homosexuality was against the church and was not accepted. However, today, if I was Dante, I would not have placed the virtuous pagans, or the homosexuals in Hell. Destiny is not a choice and therefore is not a fault, so I do not believe those people should be punished.
I think that Dante's placement of the souls in hell are very fitting and accurate for the most part. I think that all the punishments so far have been a good symbolic retribution for the sin committed on earth. The only problem that I have with his placement is the virtuous pagans, because they had no ability to not be born before Christ. I think that Dante should have at least let them go to purgatory to work off being born when they were, or not being baptized as a baby. These people had no choice in their "sin", whereas all the others were freely choosing to do their sin, whether it to be nothing, or something bad.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part I agree with Dante’s placement of souls in hell. I like the placement of souls in upper hell because I feel that most of their sins were based on a lack of control. I think that their sins were based upon their emotions or forces greater than themselves. I do though disagree with the punishment of souls in the vestibule “lobby of hell”. I understand and agree with the symbolic retribution bur I disagree with the severity of it. I like the placement of groupings in lower hell but I feel that some of the people in circle eight didn’t commit that bad of crimes. Like, I think thieves should have been closer to circle 6. The last thing I disagree with is the placement of heretics, false teachers. I think that heretics influence people to do the wrong thing with their false teaching and I think they really are going against God therefore I think they should be closer to circle 7 or 8.
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