Dante Alighieri of Florence, Italy. In the early 14th century,

while in exile, Dante wrote this epic poem which is broken down

into three books. In each book Dante recounts his travels through

Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven respectively. The first book of The

Divine Comedy, Inferno, is an remarkably brilliant narrative. He

narrates his descent into and observation of hell through its

numerous circles and rings. One extraordinary way Dante depicted

hell is in his descriptions of the various punishments that each

In a prior college course I took we learned about medieval

torture practices. This knowledge led me to see similarities in

the punishments given in Inferno. The diverse punishments that

Dante envisions all the sinners in hell receiving are broken down

into two types. The first he borrows from many gruesome and

severe forms of medieval torture. The second type is often less

physically agonizing. It is Dante's creative, very clever forms

of punishment. Although all sinners in hell are souls, Dante

gives each one a physical attribute so that the reader can

felt, they are deserving of their punishment, "Are you as foolish

metaphorical, Dante has clearly illustrated how horrible hell

He speaks of the sad, contorted figures surrounding him and feels

to describe the overall atmosphere in the inferno. Unbearable and

as the rest?/ Here only pity lives when it is dead:/ for who can

Diviners, Astrologers, and Magicians have been sent to suffer.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Astrologers Magicians, Comedy Inferno, Throughout Inferno, Prisoners Medieval, Florence Italy, Dante Inferno, XX Dante, Divine Comedy, Purgatory Heaven, Alighieri Dante, sinners hell, dante visitor, eighth circle, physical pain, medieval torture, divine comedy, physical pain sinners, anguish dante, physical torture, punishments dante, forms punishment,
Approximate Word count = 960
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)