Dante's Inferno Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Dante's Inferno - Essay Example In his journey, he met three animals – leopard, lion and wolf. At a glance, it just seemed that these animals were plain predators that would cause harm to the narrator. However, these animals are symbols of the forms of sin. The leopard symbolizes sins of self-indulgence or lust. This form of sin is the easiest to commit. Naturally, humans seek pleasure, extravagant and sometimes greedy which are often sins of youth. The sin of bestial violence is represented by the lion. These are sins of adulthood, one of which is pride. The wolf represents malicious sins or the sins of age (Davis 2006). The poem illustrated the different levels of hell which corresponds to a particular sin. Beginning in Canto IV, the first circle is the Limbo where sighs were mostly heard is described as peaceful, yet sad. The souls in this were those people who are good but were not baptized. In the Catholic religion, one has yet to be baptized for the original sin (sin of Adam and Eve) to be forgiven. I am truly torn about this particular punishment because I also believe that if one is not baptized, one is not a part of the Christian world. In this case, since God has three entities – the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost- God is Christ and if you are not a Christian, there is no place for you in heaven or in paradise. On the other hand, logic tells me that there are non-Christians who are more deserving than Christians, and in this perspective it is not fair. The second circle is where the lustful are tortured; but the punishment is still considered as mild because lust is closely assoc iated with love and therefore is viewed with compassion. The third circle of hell was smaller, filled with cold and heavy with dirty rain. This circle is surrounded by new suffering with souls unhappily lain in the filthy mud, tormented by the three-headed doglike demon Cerberus. These were the