Dante Alghieri was a author in the 1300 ‘s, in Italy. The Christians of the clip believed that they got to Heaven non merely through believing in God but by making good plants or paying for indulgences. Each different wickedness was ranked otherwise to Dante, with some being worse than others. Where Dante lived in Italy there was a great war traveling on between the black party and the white party and Dante was forced to go forth Italy because of it. In the Inferno we see non merely Dante ‘s belief that sins rank otherwise but we see the derision he had for certain spiritual and political leaders of the clip ( non that there was a difference between the two ) . We see his contempt for certain people when he places them strategically throughout Hell.

Dante started his journey in the Gate of Hell, the Vestibule. Here reside the people that are in Hell but non truly in Hell. These are the people that did no existent good but no existent immorality in life. From among the cowardly fence-sitters, Dante singles out the shadiness that made “ the great refusal ” ( III.60 ) . He says that it was the sight of this one shadiness ( who he left nameless but was obviously good known ) that confirmed for him the nature of all the psyche in this part. The most likely campaigner for this figure is Pope Celestine V. His refusal to execute his responsibilities ( he abdicated five months after his election in July 1294 ) allowed Benedetto Caetani to go Pope Boniface VIII. Benedetto proved to be Dante ‘s most reviled theological, political, and personal enemy. Another campaigner for the shadow would be Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who refused to go through judgement on Jesus. Pilate was non evil, he wanted to assist Jesus but he did non. So he did non make existent evil but he did non assist. This was our first position of Dante ‘s personal disdain for the church. If it truly was Pope Celestine V who he was mentioning to in the text it would do since for Dante non to penalize him harshly but to still set him in Hell since this Pope did nil physically to him. On Dante ‘s hierarchy this group of people are the boundary line line people that could hold got into heaven but did non make plenty good to travel at that place. In his society this made sense since people had to make good plants to acquire into Heaven.

Then Dante moved onto the first circle of Hell called Limbo. Limbo is the topographic point of the unbaptised babes and the virtuous heathens. These are the people that were righteous in life but ne’er had the opportunity to hold Jesus as their Jesus. All the poets and people born before Jesus in the Bible that served God were here. Dante has no rough feelings for the people here. He feels bad for them non acquiring to be in Heaven. On his graduated table these people belong in Heaven but could non since God said they had to hold Jesus. Most of the people here likely went to Heaven when Jesus came to Hell.

Dante eventually gets to the existent evildoers in Hell. He moved to the 2nd circle of Hell where the lustful resided. In this circle, Dante sees Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Achilles, Paris, Tristan, and many others who were overcome by animal love during their life. Dante is told by Francesca district attorney Rimini how she and her hubby ‘s brother Paolo Malatesta committed criminal conversation, but so died a violent decease, at the custodies of her hubby Giovanni ( Gianciotto ) . Francesca studies that their act of criminal conversation was triggered by reading the extramarital narrative of Lancelot and Guinevere ( Canto V ) . She can non take duty for her wickedness stating “ love brought us to one decease ” so that is why she is in Hell ( V, 103 ) . So the people in his Italian society that were lubricious fornicators ranked low on his wickedness hierarchy. These people deserved the penalty of being blown approximately in a violent storm without remainder like lecherousness blew them around aimlessly and needlessly. This is the first clip we see Dante truly penalize a wickedness.

Dante so moved to the 3rd circle which was where the gourmands resided. The gourmands are the people who in life over indulged. These evildoers are forced to lie sightless and heedless sense they were cold and selfish to their neighbours. Here Dante speaks to Ciacco who in Canto VI 64-72 provides the first of several of import prognostications in the verse form of the battle between the black and white parties that will ensue in Dante ‘s lasting expatriate from Florence. The white party was in charge in May 1300, when violent brushs broke out between the two parties. Although ring-leaders from both parties were punished by ostracism ( Dante, a white Guelph, was one of the people responsible ) , by spring of the undermentioned twelvemonth ( 1301 ) most of the white Guelph ‘s had returned while taking black Guelphs were forced to stay in expatriate. However the power was taken by the black party in 1302. Six hundred taking white guelphs ( Dante among them ) were forced into expatriate. The black guelphs won because they were supported and lead by Charles of Valois, a Gallic prince sent by Pope Boniface VIII ( Dante ‘s enemy ) purportedly to convey peace to Florence but really instigated the violent overthrow of the white Guelph leading. Knowing this background lets us cognize why Ciacco “ the pig ” is one of the of import characters Dante placed in the Inferno ‘s wickedness hierarchy since he is the 1 that had the vision.

Following Dante ‘s journey took him to the 4th circle where the greedy reside. These are the hoarders and the wastrels. The hoarders kept everything and the wastrels wasted everything in life. Their eyes were on money and ownerships and non God. Dante says “ I saw battalions

to every side of me ; their ululations were loud while, wheeling weights, they used their thoraxs to force. They struck against each other ; at that point, each turned around and, wheeling back those weights, cried out: Why do you stash? Why do you waste? ” Here Dante put cardinals, Catholic Popes, and clergy who were the hoarders of ownerships and spend-alls who wasted money. He puts the clergy here as a statement of their corruptness to take soiled money for people ‘s redemption. As Dante takes us farther into snake pit the penalties are acquiring worse and worse because the wickednesss are acquiring worse and worse in his eyes. This is the first circle where we see physical force and from here the circles merely acquire more violent and more painful.

He traveled following to the river Styx of circle five where the wrathful and dark live. The wrathful are full of fury towards the universe and the sullen are full of depression and ego commiseration. The wroth battle each other and tare each other to pieces while the dark ballad rippling beneath the Styx. Here he meets Filippo Argenti, a Black Guelph from a outstanding household. Dante responds “ In crying and in grieving, accursed spirit, may you long remain. ” In a actual since this reflects the fact that souls in Hell are everlastingly fixed in the province they have chosen, but allegorically, it reflects Dante ‘s get downing consciousness of his ain wickedness ( Cantos VII and VIII ) . On his hierarchy this wickedness ranks in the center so the people here are the in-between evildoers.

Dante moves right along to the Heretics in circle six. These are the people that deny that the psyche exists and lives on. Their penalty is to fire in firey graves. Dante negotiations with a brace of Epicurian Florentines in one of the grave: Farinata degli Uberti, a Ghibelline ( condemned for unorthodoxy in 1283 ) ; and Cavalcante de ‘ Cavalcanti, a Guelph, who was the male parent of Dante ‘s friend and fellow poet Guido Cavalcanti. The political association of these two work forces shows more cogent evidence of Dante seting political relations in this book. Farinata was an baronial figure who rose out of his combustion grave “ from the waist up ” and seemed to “ hold great disdain for snake pit ” when Dante turns to turn to him in the circle of the misbelievers ( 10.31-6 ) . His first inquiry to Dante “ Who were your ascendants? ” ( 10.42 ) reveals the tight relationship between household and political relations in thirteenth-century Italy. As a Florentine leader of the ghibellines, Farinata was an enemy to the party of Dante ‘s household. Although Farinata ‘s group twice defeated the guelphs ( in 1248 and 1260 ) , the guelphs both times succeeded in returning to power — unlike the ghibellines following their licking in 1266. Farinata ‘s household ( the Uberti ) was explicitly excluded from later amnesties ( he had died in 1264 ) , and in 1283 he and his married woman ( both posthumously charged with unorthodoxy ) were excommunicated. Their organic structures were disinterred and burned, and the ownerships of their inheritors confiscated. Knowing the back land of one of the people mentioned in this narrative lets us see how Dante saw him. He saw him as an enemy of an opposing party and a heretic and there for should fire in this circle. Knowing that Farinata was on an opponent side lets us see that by Dante seting him by name in the book he is one time once more conveying political relations into the book. This circle and wickedness merely convey us higher on Dante ‘s moral hierarchy of wickedness.

Dante comes following to the 7th circle where we have three rings of force and three different penalties. The outer ring houses the violent against people and belongings, who are immersed in Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood and fire, to a degree commensurate with their wickednesss. Alexander the Great is immersed up to his superciliums, Dionysius I of Syracuse, Azzolino da Romano, Guy de Montfort, Obizzo d’Este, Rinier da Corneto, and Rinier Pazzo are besides seen in the Phlegethon every bit good as mentions to Atilla the Hun. Dante takes this wickedness earnestly and at that place for punishes earnestly. In the in-between ring are the self-destructions ( the violent against ego ) , who are transformed into gnarly thorny shrubs and trees, which are fed on by the Harpies. Since they did non esteem their organic structures they get no organic structure in snake pit. Dante feels that self-destruction is one of the greatest grudges against God. Dante breaks a branchlet off one of the shrubs and from the broken, hemorrhage, subdivision hears the narrative of Pier delle Vigne, who committed self-destruction after falling out of favour with Emperor Frederick II. Dante feels for the adult male and keeps him out of circle nine. In the interior ring we see the violent against God ( blasphemers ) and the violent against nature ( sodomists and loan sharks ) all live in a desert of flaring sand with ardent flakes raining from the sky. The blasphemers lie on the sand, the loan sharks sit, and the sodomists wander about in groups. Dante sees the classical warrior Capaneus at that place, who spoke against Zeus and was struck down with a bolt of lightning during the Siege of Thebes.

As we get farther and further into snake pit we see what Dante sees as the worse wickednesss.

In the 9th circle there is fraud with 10 different bolgias. There are the procurers, the flatters, those that committed barratry, the magicians and false Prophetss, the barrators, the dissemblers, stealers, evil counsellors, those that cause strifes, and eventually the falsifiers. All of these people commit fraud against people, God, and nature and so on. Dante punishes them consequently and sees these people as about the worst evildoers. On his moral hierarchy these people would be scum to him that went against God and the church. The procurers he saw were the Venedico Caccianemico, who sold his ain sister to the Marchese d’Este. In the group of seducers, Virgil points out Jason, who gained the aid of Medea by scoring and get marrieding her, merely to subsequently go forth her for Creusa. Jason besides seduced Hypsipyle, but “ abandoned her, entirely and pregnant ” ( Canto XVIII ) . Alessio Interminei of Lucca and ThaA?s are the flatters seen here. One of the simoniacs was Pope Nicholas III who denounces two of his replacements, Pope Boniface VIII and Pope Clement V, for the same offense. This is Dante taking a pang at two of his enemies. Simon Magus and Saint Matthias are besides seen here. The simoniacs penalty is possibly the most personal to Dante. It is the evildoers being dipped in a baptismal fount and this simile gives Dante an chance to unclutter his name of an accusal of malicious harm to the fount in the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini where he saved a babe from submerging. Dante sees Amphiaraus, Tiresias, Aruns, Michael Scot, Alberto de Casalodi, and Guido Bonatti, among others among the magicians and false Prophetss. Ciampolo is the lone corrupt politician he mentioned in this bolgia. Amoung the hyopcrites Dante speaks with Catalano and Loderingo, two members of the Jovial Friars, an order which had acquired a repute for non populating up to its vows, and which was finally suppressed by Pope Sixtus V. Caiaphas, the high priest responsible for telling Jesus crucified, is besides seen here, crucified to the land and trampled. Again here we see more of Dante ‘s believe that corrupt clergy should be punished harshly in Hell with these work forces holding to walk in leaded cloaks and with Caiaphas holding to digest what he put Jesus through. In the stealers bolgia they are excessively busy being turned into animate beings to truly speak. The evil councilors are Ulysses and Diomedes who are condemned here for the misrepresentation of the Trojan Horse which shows which side of the war Dante was on. Besides here is Guido district attorney Montefeltro who recounts how he advised Pope Boniface VIII to capture the fortress of Palestrina, by offering the Colonna household inside it a false amnesty, and so leveling it to the land after they surrendered. Here once more we see an illustration of Dante doing a point that he hated all things holding to make with Boniface since this is another individual in Hell that associated with him. Dante encounters Muhammad among those that caused strife and sees him as a schismatic for making Islam and taking off Christians. Dante besides condemns Ali for split between Sunni and Shiite. Dante besides encounters Bertran de Born who carries around his cut off caput like a lantern as a penalty for agitating the rebellion of Henry the Young King against his male parent Henry II. These evildoers are merely more illustrations of what Dante sees incorrect in life and in another faith. In the concluding bolgia we saw the Potiphar ‘s married woman briefly mentioned for her false accusal of Joseph. As is Sinon, the Greek undercover agent who tricked the Trojans into taking the Trojan Horse into their metropolis. Again we see which side of the war Dante favored. Among all these evildoers we see the disdain Dante has for different facets of the church and for people in the universe. We see his personal believes shown boldly with each individual mentioned.

Dante ‘s concluding circle has four unit of ammunitions. This is where the Devil resides and the worst of the worst of evildoers to Dante. Round one is named CaA?na, after Cain, who killed his brother. Traitors to household are here immersed in the ice up to their faces “ the topographic point / where shame can demo itself ” One of the treasonists her is Mordred who attacked his uncle King Aurthur. Dante says “ him who, at one blow, had chest and shadow / shattered by Arthur ‘s manus ; ” ( Canto XXXII ) . Round two is named Antenora, after Antenor of Troy, who harmonizing to mediaeval tradition, betrayed his metropolis to the Greeks. Traitors to political parties, their metropolis, or their state, are located here. Count Ugolino pauses from gnawing on the caput of his challenger Archbishop Ruggieri to depict how Ruggieri imprisoned him along with his kids, reprobating them to decease by famishment. ( Cantos XXXII and XXXIII ) . Round three is named Ptolomaea after Ptolemy, boy of Abubus, who invited Simon Maccabaeus and his boies to a feast and so killed them. Traitors to their invitees are punished here by being frozen in ice up to their faces. They are punished more badly than the old treasonists, since killing a invitee was considered the biggest treachery and a major immorality to the Italians. Round four is named Judecca, after Judas Iscariot, Biblical informer of Christ. Here are the treasonists to their Godheads and helpers. All of the evildoers punished within are wholly encapsulated in ice, distorted in all imaginable places with no 1 to speak to here ( Canto XXXIV ) .

Dante ends his journey and leaves Hell after this circle. With treasonists being worse than slayings we see that Dante has his ain manner of seeing things. Every circle is placed with a intent and to Dante this is the order of the least wickedness to the worse. He placed people he knew and knew of along the manner to demo his political distain for certain political leaders and to demo his disdain for the church and for certain people throughout history. This whole book was non merely a manner to demo his moral believes but besides to demo people what he thought of the Italian society of the early 1300 ‘s.