Dante's Afterworld in the Divine Comedy Essay

Introduction

Dante's divine comedy represents a literary narrative which describes more about his life journey to heaven. (Charity, 1987) Before reaching heaven, Dante has to first pass through hell and purgatory, two places which are terrifying and have the very least of hospitality if any. Dante's Comedy has been described as a fantastic story which is characterized by very powerful and frightening images which can also be defined to be incredible by some who enjoy such a rather extraordinary piece of Italian poetry (Tompsett and Winchester, 2013). The story is fascinating when read. However, one's experience when reading the book is enhanced if he or she gets to appreciate the spiritual, theological and political factors on which the story is anchored (Charity, 1987). These factors also represent some of the significant themes which are prevalent in the narrative. Some of the standard literary devices used include allegory and symbolism.

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The comedy is also well designed to make more readers think about their moral standards and principles and revise them to be morally upright. Dante says "The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain" (Singleton, 1977) and hence people should only concentrate more on the right deeds. In that case, the poem is correctly used to guide the society and develop it into becoming a moral one. In simple terms, the poem also represents a guide through which people can use to learn more about how they can get to heaven and shun hell (Charity, 1987). The author focuses more on his afterworld life which represents some events that show what will happen when he fails to follow the moral standards that are supposed to get him to heaven. It is also important to note that the story is classified as a comedy not because it is funny but purely because it is an ultimate midlife crisis which finally gets to have a happy ending (Tompsett and Winchester, 2013).

Dante uses this poem also to make people know much about what they are not supposed to do if they would like to join heaven. For instance, this afterworld is set in hell whereby he faces many challenges which enables him to suffer for his sins. He also uses the biblical content to teach that people should engage more in good deeds so that they may go to heaven. His afterlife journey is shown explicitly in a way that discourages the readers from being evil (Moevs, 2005). He also says "Consider your origin. You were not created to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge" (Singleton, 1977). This statement encourages people only to follow the righteous path. In this case, he uses the instances to help the readers to live a Godlike life which in the end will yield positive results and enable them to go to heaven where there is eternal happiness and peace of mind. He also uses his imaginary self to bring into the open the perceptions people have about the afterlife, and through this, he ends up creating a realistic experience which is still imaginary.

The afterlife is primarily presented through a dark forest whereby the author claims to have woken up during his journey. He argues that the dark forest represents hell and he found himself in it because he had lost his straight path. In this case, the straightway symbolizes the fact that he had changed his good deeds into bad ones and hence he had to pay for them. It also represents the real situations of life nowadays when an individual finds themselves in the trap of sins. It happens regularly, and hence the author has ensured to bring in a reality aspect to the poem so that many people can finally relate to it (Cogan, 1999). The author is represented in a manner that shows his desires and what his behaviors look like. For example, in this instance, he claims to yearn for him to see the paradise where he believes that he will meet and get a chance to interact with God.

As the poem goes on, the author brings in an aspect of how he strayed away from his intense faith in God and therefore he believed that whatever he was going through was because of his sins. He also does not know how he joined his afterlife, but all he thinks it is that he has to go through hell for the crimes he committed out of lack of faith. The darkness in the forest is used to symbolize the evil that is present in society (Taylor, 1989). Dante advocates that individuals should always support morality and righteousness for as long as they live so that a better community may be raised without any problems. He also outlines that the consequences of the afterlife can be quite intense especially if an individual was more into the wrong actions than the good ones. Also, the author uses the dark forest to show that in every bright situation in life there is always a dark side of it and that is how life is portrayed. Hence, in this paper, I will discuss more about the afterworld of Dante as well as its physical structure which consists of the nine circles and moral structure concerning good and evil.

Main characteristics of the physical structure of Dante's afterworld

The physical structure of Dante's afterworld can be described to consist of several features which will be listed below. One of the significant physical characteristics as described in the poem is that Dante's hell is shaped more like a funnel which has its root at the center of the world. The author describes the funnel to be situated in Jerusalem city whereby the purgatory falls immediately opposite the same town. He also explains that the physical location of Lucifer is beneath hell whereby he experienced his defeat due to his rebellion against God (Charity, 1987). Dante further illustrates the physical structure of the funnel by arguing that it consists of nine circles and each has its own symbolized meaning.

The first circle is described to be the widest while the last ninth circle is the smallest. The author also illustrates that there is a physical location known as the ante-hell which holds all the souls that are brought in by the Charon (Lafferty, 2008). He explains that this ante-hell shows that some souls are entirely neutral in the sense of the actions they engage in and this shows that one can have a difficulty of judging them to be either right or wrong (Moevs, 2005). Another physical characteristic as described by Dante is the upper hell which consists of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth circles. Under the upper hell, the first circle is known as the limbo which is reserved for all people who did not know anything about God, and thereby they passed on without committing any sin (Lafferty, 2008). He gives names of some of the people who are destined to belong to this region of hell because they existed during the period where the Christ had not yet been born, and therefore they did not have a chance to know him. These people include; Plato, Homer, and Socrates (Lafferty, 2008). It means that they were innocent and therefore they could not be judged by any means. However, these people were in a state of hopelessness and sadness because they could not be allowed to enter heaven due to them dying before they were baptized. Dante describes their life as one which was filled with the desperate desire to see God (Lafferty, 2008).

The second circle is described as lustful. In the story, Dante uses Francesca da Rimini and Paolo to show the immoral acts which are evil within the society. He explains that Francesca and Paolo were famous lovers and they engaged in love activities even though they were not legally married. Paolo was murdered by his brother, who was the husband of Francesca after he caught him and his wife in the act. According to Dante both Francesca and Paolo should be judged in their afterworld for the sins of lust which they committed while alive (Lafferty, 2008).

The third circle is referred to as "The Circle of the Gluttons," and it is meant for people who led gluttonous lives while on earth (Lafferty, 2008). Dante used Gluttonous lives to refer to the kinds of sins people engage when they do not want good things to happen to their friends. Hailstorms and stinking rain characterize the circle. Cerebrus who is the beast guarding the entrance also is as gluttonous as the people who are serving their punishment here. For him to allow them to pass Virgil has to scoop up some muck and give him to feed. The penalty for people here is to continue eating and wallowing in the very unpleasant states to the eye and disgusting dirt which they reside in. An excellent example of the people in this circle is Ciacco who deserved to be judged because his life on earth was characterized by evil gossip (Cogan, 1999). The character would gossip about people and paint a bad picture of them because he was such an evil character.

The fourth circle is described to consist of the avaricious and the prodigals. The prodigals are portrayed as wasters while the avaricious are painted as hoarders. The two large groups of people who either identify as hoarders or wasters are struggling to push very huge and heavy stones. These massive stones which require a lot of energy to be rolled move towards one another and they finally collide. Once they crash, the group which is identified as wasters shouts to the other asking it why it hoards while the other that defines itself as hoarders yells back asking why it wastes (Lafferty, 2008). With immense struggle, the groups again roll the rolling weights back only for them to move them towards each other again. This work is very tiring and energy draining. It is the eternal punishment of these people. These souls as portrayed by Dante represent characters that are always known to act in opposite ways and therefore deserve to be judged because their actions in different directions still leads to creation of trouble to them and others. An excellent example of hoarders according to Dante is the group of bishops and priests who withheld money belonging to church activities for their selfish endeavors (Lafferty, 2008).

After the Fourth Circle, Dante and his guide Virgil proceed to the Fifth circle which is situated in a swampy area. This marshy area is around the river Styx which is associated with the underworld in classical mythologies. This circle is explicitly meant for the people who harbored bitterness within their hearts and also those who were filled with wrath. The punishment for people in this circle was to tear, mangle and fight with each other in the muddy and murky conditions of the swamp (Lafferty, 2008). The swamp is also full of bubbling spots which according to Virgil, they belong to the souls of the sullen individuals who are buried in an area located under the swamp. It is also interesting to note that Dante does not express any pity for the condemned like he used to do in the previous circles. It may be attributed to the fact that Dante gradually developed an understanding that this people were sentenced to their respective punishments by divine justice (Cogan, 1996).

The second physical structure is defined to consist of the lower hell which is characterized by fraud and violence. In his story, Dante uses the sixth, seventh, eighth and the ninth circle to describe the type of souls which are found in the lower hell (Taylor, 1989). In the sixth circle, Dante meets those who were condemned because of their heretic opinions and beliefs. During His time, Heresy was perceived as "the possession of contradictory beliefs to that of Catholic theology" (Celeste, n.d.). From the political point of view, heretics were seen as those who preached divisive politics. These two groups of people contributed greatly in creating tension and disagreements among members of the society. According to Dante's poem, the 6th circle is situa...