Preview

Dante's Inferno vs. Milton's Paradise Lost

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
889 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dante's Inferno vs. Milton's Paradise Lost
Dante 's Inferno Vs. Milton 's Paradise Lost

The two stories, Inferno by Dante and Paradise Lost by Milton, were written about the biblical hell and its keeper: Satan. Both of these authors had different views about the hell and Satan.

In Paradis Lost, Milton wrote that Satan used to be an angel of God. The devil believed that he was equal to the Lord and he wanted to be greater than him. For this, God banished him to hell. Milton 's physical description of Satan is interesting. Since he used to be an angel, he still had wings, his eyes were blazed and he had a scaly skin. Satan was also an immense creature; the usual giant, 21 feet tall. It is noted that Satan had only one head, but Milton 's depiction of him was this basic structure.

The contrasting view of Satan was written in Dante 's Inferno.

Satan was a very slimmy, puss filled demon. He had three heads, which were attached to his body.
Inside each of the three mouths were the souls of people. One of the mouths contained Brutus, he was sent to Hell for betraying Caesar. Dante viewed being traitor as a reason for being sent to hell. This was the Satan that Dante envisioned.

There cannot be a Devil without hell. Milton 's view of hell neede many things. Hell was a desolate place in which the banished Satan ruled. He chooses to stay because he wanted to be hos own sovereign. He said,

' ' We can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. Here at least we shall be free, here we may reign secure, and, in my choice, to reign is ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. ' '

Hell to Milton was a terrain of burning flames. What he also believed was that it was eternally dark despite the flames. It was the worst place imaginable. This was Milton 's view of Hell.

Hell in the Inferno was much different. Though Dante also thought that hell was the land where the devil was sent, he believed that it was an endless environment of bitter, frosty cold. Hell in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Inferno follows the wanderings of the poet Dante Alighieri's poem, the Divine Comedy, which chronicles Dante's journey to God, and is made up of the Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise).…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    During his sermon Jonathan Edwards used vivid imagery and descriptions to make his congregation see that hell was a real place. To make the congregation see just how close to hell they truly were Edwards stated, “That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone is extended aboard under you (Cox).” He also wanted them to realize that the longer they went without Christ, the heavier they would become. “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downward with great weight and pressure toward hell (Westerfield).” The ground beneath them would give way under the weight of their wickedness and they would plunge into hell where the Devil would be ready for them. “The Devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping, for them, the flames gather and flash about them and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up (Smolinski 11).”…

    • 1132 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Inferno is Dante’s first poem in his The Divine Comedy. The poem starts with Dante traveling in dark where he loses his way. He is trying to get to his beloved Beatrice who is waiting for him. She sends ghost of Virgil to bring Dante to her. In order to get to Heaven, Dante will have to go through heaven, something that almost everyone did in Christian world. At the beginning, they enter the gate of hell. The First Circle of the Hell is for those people who never done anything good or bad in their life, here they run all day long with hornets biting them. In the Second Circle of the Hell, Dante sees that the some souls are stuck in a devastating storm. In the Third Circle of Hell, Dante sees that Gluttonous…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dante’s Inferno Critique

    • 2263 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Dante’s Inferno is a story about how two men and their travels through hell, the different levels of hell, who was in them, and what they did during their time on Earth. There were nine circles and some of them had different levels inside the circles for example the seventh circle of hell is divided between three smaller circles. Then they eventually emerge back out onto the earth but on the opposite side of the earth from where they had started.…

    • 2263 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    While Satan’s humane emotions were demonstrated earlier in the narrative, his soliloquy further explicates the complexity of his thoughts. Throughout the first few books, Satan does not demonstrate any vulnerabilities. He is glorified as an obstinate and prideful Spirit who surpasses all others in Hell and who knows exactly what he yearns. Though Satan’s abilities are of no question, this one-sided view of Satan – that he is a competent and powerful devil – appears lacking; therefore, the demonstration of Satan’s vulnerability in his soliloquy is a progression in his character development. Satan finally senses “horror and doubt,” and is drenched in grief by his “remembrance from what state [he] fell” (4:17, 38-39). This is the first time Satan is described to have self-doubt, and specifically, in…

    • 326 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bowers argues that the Hell in Heart Of Darkness is a “monstrous inversion of the moral principle governing Dante’s Hell” (Bowers). Hell in Heart Of Darkness and Inferno…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hell is a location where its inmates will be punished without any hope of relief, for eternity. Among those punished will be Satan,…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The very structure of Hell – a series of concentric circles – gives an sense of inescapability, since circles are boundless or have no edges, an individual can only continue tracing their arcs in a futile attempt to find a way out. He describes the entrance to hell like so: “Midway along the journey of our life I woke to find myself in a dark wood for I had wandered off from the straight path” (1.1). The very imagery portrayed introduces the allegory that Hell is dark, succulent mass astray from the “straight path.” This journey is reciprocated of his exile from Italy. In his journey, he must learn to reject the deceptive promises of the temporal world. These promises are what he deems to be the problems of Italy’s social structure derived from the renaissance era. Promises that justice shall be executed at the expense of the Church, promises that obedience to the Church will ensure one’s reservation in Heaven, promises heeding to allow a state to monopolize the violence within its asserted territory. The use of the allegory explains the means by which he came to cope with his personal calamity of exile and to offer suggestions for the resolution of Italy’s troubles as well. Thus, the exile of an individual becomes a microcosm of the problems of a country, and it also becomes representative of the fall of man. Thus, each sinner in the Inferno embodies his sin just as Dante’s…

    • 1633 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The word Hell, or in Italian, Inferno means the abode of Satan and the forces of evil. It is where sinners suffer eternal punishment. Dante was exiled by Pope Boniface, which led him to write this poem, Dante’s Inferno. He wrote the poem because he was exiled and he had nothing left in his life, so he just wrote to express that he was betrayed by his own country, not him betraying his country. Since he was betrayed by his own country, he became a nomad and has been a beggar ever since.…

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Inferno, written by Dante in the early fourteenth century, is a poem about Dante’s, the main characters, journey through Hell and signifies the nature of sin on Earth and punishment in Hell (Gardner et al online). Those who sinned while on Earth are justly condemned to different levels of punishments in Hell, relative to their sins on Earth. Each of the nine circles of Hell represents a worse sin, and therefore, a crueler punishment. The categorized punishments in Hell that Dante Alighieri assigns are symbolically fair and representative of the sins committed on Earth, given the time period and Christian values context from which this poem was written.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dante’s Inferno is his allegorical depiction of hell that depicts hell as a set of nine levels (or circles) closely aligned to the seven deadly sins and a that once we die, we descend into a level consistent with the type of sins committed and in which we stay for eternity. Dante wrote, “S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse, A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, Questa fiamma…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dante's Inferno Justice

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There are many themes that show throughout their adventure through hell. One of the major themes that portray throughout this poem is God's justice. Firstly, If an individual did not commit a sin when they were alive, they will still be put in hell if they are not christian or if they were born before Christ. Lastly, Punishments are based off of the sin that the sinners commit when they were alive, even if their punishment is the complete opposite of what they did in the real world. The role of “The Inferno” in Dante’s own society is God’s Justice towards the sinners who went against God’s way and so the Inferno is a reminder to follow God’s…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dante's Inferno

    • 272 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Dante's Inferno, Hell is described in vivid detail in the eyes of Dante, the main character and author. Sinners are eternally punished with tortures that fit their sins. This idea of retributive justice and the role of human reason in the form of Virgil are the two main themes in the poem. Canto VIII contains Dis, the capital of Hell and is most representative of these themes.…

    • 272 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dante, the pilgrim, experienced Hell and as he reached the bottom of Hell, he experienced something completely different opposed to what readers would have expected. Dante Alighiere’s depiction of Satan once he reaches the bottom of Hell reveals the theme, that in Hell the punishment is always befitting of the sin. As Dante and his tour guide, Virgil, arrive at the last circle, Satan is described to have, “three faces on his head...underneath each came forth two mighty wings...at every mouth he with his teeth was crunching at sinner,” (Canto 34). The illustration of Satan does not satisfy the typical reader; the reader expects to be able to visualize Satan in a more depth illusion, showing how furious he must be after the punishment he has received, of having to be placed in Hell, being frozen; the irony of the Hell described by Dante is that the reader would have expected for Satan to be located where it would be extremely hot, and for there to be uncontrollable fire, not for it to be frozen. At the bottom of the slope, Satan is placed from his mid-breast forth issued from the ice, and as night approaches everything is opposite which is why they must climb down Satan’s leg. Dante was surprised as he reached Satan to see how frozen and powerless he became in circle 9. The ultimate evil is represented in this way by Dante, because Dante wants to show the reader how Satan, and…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Paradise Lost, the character of Satan is the outright protagonist and epic hero of the story. He is well aware of his situation in Hell and also of the consequences of his revolt against God. Having a keen understanding of the powers of perception and of personal reaction to one's environment he comments to his fellowmen:…

    • 1684 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays