Literary Analysis Essay on Canto XII

Introduction

In Canto XII, Dante uses the principle of "contrapasso" or counter-penalty, whereby the human souls get punished in Hell for their inquities. This form of punishment is a replica of the sins committed by human beings while still alive, and for the time-frame, they are living on earth. Several characters such as Minotaur, Virgil, and others play a critical role throughout the poem, as a demonstration of how souls get punished for sins committed in one's lifetime. All the souls get punished in boiling blood. This paper shall major its emphasis on the analytical theme of contrapasso, as demonstrated in the poem Canto XII, by Dante Inferno.

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A Brief Summary of Canto XII

The poets are seen to enter the first round of Circle VII by having navigated a steep passage of broken rocks. Eventually, they come upon Minotaur, whereby Virgil ends up taunting the entire situation into a fury, to enable the two pass through unharmed. Virgil alerts Dante to have eyes turned to the valley, the place he would see souls boiling terribly in blood. Eventually, Dante gets to see a crowd of armed Centaurs galloping directly towards them. Virgil takes the chance to name them, thereby telling bits of their past and histories. It could be noted that one of the Centaurs, named Chiron, was alive since he could move the things he touched, such as rocks while walking. Virgil is seen to give Chiron an explanation based on the journey and requests one of the Centaurs to have them guided towards a shallow place within the rive of blood, a situation whereby Dante can be able to cross while riding on the Centaurs back. As a response, Chiron volunteers a character called Nessus. Nessus gave a brief and vivid explanation behind the souls that were boiling in the blood of water, that they were people of bloodshed and despoilment. Nessus points out several names of the souls boiling in the river of blood as a punishment, whereby he ends up leaving the poets on the other side of the bank and goes back to the other side.

In line with Dante's theme of contrapasso, the sinners within the first round of the seventh circle appear too violent against others. Consequently, these sinners end up spending their entire time boiling in the river of blood, which is a replica of how they used to get steeped in blood while they were alive. The stream of blood is referred to as Phlegethon. In the river, each soul is punished according to the weight of transgressions committed whereby the more substantial the sin, the deeper the positioning in the river of blood. In the attempt to escape from the river of blood, a soul ends up being shot using an arrow by one of the thousands of Centaurs, purposely to drive it back to its desired position of depth in the river. Such an act would serve as control measure towards the right punishment that a soul is supposed to receive and not at any given moment it would manage to serve a lesser sentence than it deserves.

For the punishment to be appropriate enough, Dante creates one of the most active characters called Minotaur to serve as a perfect guardian against the sinners in circle VII. Dante finds Minotaur best fitted for the task as a result of his cruel and violent nature. Within this circle, Dante finds both the mythological Minotaur and Centaurs in inferno more appropriate and thus does not distort them either.

The use of mythological symbolism is highly evident in the poem. The author uses a bull to clearly demonstrate a state of desperation that a strong and powerful person may face at the time when their evil plans hit on a strong wall. "Just as the bull that breaks loose from its halter the moment it receives the fatal stoke, and cannot run but plunges back and forth." These lines clearly demonstrate how punishment comes at the very end and that however sharp and powerful a person can be on earth, they cannot escape hell like it is the case on earth whereby they can perform all forms of transgression and go free. Upon reaching hell, the evil-doors come across bitter words as their welcoming note. "Be off you beast: this man who comes has not been tortured by your sister, all he wants in coming here is to observe your torments." The above lines are a replica of how punishment begins immediately someone enters into hell, and that those who suffered under them can get a chance to observe as they undergo torture.

Dante borrows intensely from the holy books, which depicts the reality as prophesied in the context. For example, the power with which Jesus made hell shake is found as far as the perfect love that is the reason for the whole universe. The juxtaposition of this thought of affection with the convoluted symbolism of the Phlegethon may appear to be jolting, yet some portion of Dante's point is that even the terrible sufferings of damnation are (as dumbfounding as it might appear) eventually the aftereffect of God's adoration. Being inundated in bubbling blood to the extent that coordinates with the measure of brutality one submitted in life appears to be appropriate discipline, for sure.

Virgil and Dante slip down the lofty precipice and experience the Minotaur, a legendary animal, half man half bull, recently detained in the Labyrinth of Crete. Virgil tends to the Minotaur cruelly, and they surge by him as he whips and bucks severely. The plummet is secured with free shakes, and Virgil noticed that a torrential slide of sorts more likely than not happened since he last came along these lines. He proposes that when Christ visited Hell, the tremor that went with his demise likewise shook Hell. They see a stream of blood in the valley. Each one of the individuals who submit viciousness against their fellowman is rebuffed in it. Centaurs kept running along the banks outfitted with bolts to keep the miscreants at various profundities in the bubbling purple stream as per the heaviness of their wrongdoings. They approach Chiron, the pioneer of the centaurs, and an insightful educator in Greek folklore. He selects another centaur, Nessus, to take them to the passage of the stream all together that they may cross. As they cross the passage, Nessus brings up despots who stand temples somewhere down in the fuming blood. They incorporate Alexander the Great, just as scandalous Ghibellines and Guelfs.

However, considerably more profound into hell, the wrongdoings deteriorate, as do the disciplines. There are things that individuals shouldn't see during their lives on earth. What's to come is one of these things. The principal heathens found in the eighth hover of hellfire endeavored to know the future utilizing taboo methods, for example, dark enchantment. The discipline that these psychics are compelled to suffer is they stroll around perpetually with their heads turned to confront in reverse, just ready to look behind them.

Their eyes are loaded up with tears, so whatever they could see is totally obscured. "You perceive how he has made his back his chest: since he wished to see excessively a long way ahead, he sees behind and strolls a regressive track." (XX, 37) These disciplines are superbly fitting to the transgressions they have submitted. These supposed magicians spent their lives in the curved universe of enchantment, so it just provides that they have wound themselves in damnation. This is the torment that anticipates them in heck, and they've earned all of it. More profound into a curse, there are miscreants who wound reality; this is the place the deceivers are found. They bamboozled individuals during their lives by professing to have convictions or ideals that spoke to other people. Presently they gradually trod around wearing shrouds that look delightful outwardly, yet within they are fixed with a substantial lead that burdens the heathens.

Reference

Psaki, R. (1993). Purgatorio XII. Lectura Dantis, (12), 169-182.