One Figurehead Against the Other
Along with being a personal narrative of a man's journey to overcome sin, the Inferno also is a cascading allegory of the Medieval interpretation of the relationship between good versus evil and the afterlife. It is on the allegorical level that one infers that hell is representative of sin, with Satan as definitive sin at Hell's center. This conjecture of Satan's allegorical meaning is supported in the Inferno as shown by, "Now see the face of Dis! This is the place where you must arm your soul against all dread"(Canto XXXIV, 20-21). Further analysis of this interpretation of the Dark Lord later in the text shows that there is a perversion of the Catholic Holy Trinity present within him. Dante's use of this perversion, rather than simply being a mockery God as many of the sinner's punishments mock their sins on earth, is allegorically representative of how sin, or the ultimate sin in the case of Satan, is a perversion of God's perfect image and grace.When the poets reach the last depth of Cocytus, Dante presents his image of Satan to the reader in a way that clearly perverts the Catholic Trinity and the image of the Christian God. Under Catholic Doctrine, Lucifer was originally an angel of God, who, like earthly men, was crea
This idea's doctrinal support says, "From the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the very root of the Church's living faithK ¥The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all'" (Catechism, 249). This is stated in the Inferno as, "If he was once as beautiful as now he is hideous, and still turned on his Maker, well may he be the source of every woe!" (Canto XXXIV, 34-36). This embodies the effect sin has on those of earth, because through sin one stops their own progression toward God, and his grace. First, it extends the motif of things in Hell being a mockery of those on Earth and Heaven, for Satan is the figurehead of Hell and he is presented as a direct mockery of the Father, the figurehead in heaven. These three winds are also said to "freeze all Cocytus" which is a caricature of the way God can be everywhere through use of the Trinity; particularly the Holy Spirit. This premise is presented early on in the Bible, "Then God said, ¥Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let him rule over all the earthKGod created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (NIV, Genesis. The fact that they join at the top of the skull is significant because it supports the position that there is still only one God even though he is presented in three different pieces. God's image is not one that is all-encompassing, for such an image would incorporate evil, but rather it is one that simply embodies perfection. Dante's diction in this instance aides the overall distortion through his use of the bat. Dante uses red to represent lust, and the carnal nature of sins associated with earthly love to mock the pure and divine love of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, this distortion also shows how earthly sin is the perversion of God's grace and the perfect image that he made man kind in; pulling the allegory of the recognition of sin and its effect on the afterlife together concisely as the poets journey on into the next part of trilogy. This symbolism is the opposite of the light symbol offered by the image of God and his Angels that were created in it, i. Dante takes this background and shows Satan, the representation of ultimate sin, as a grotesque, demonic figure with the same features of the angel that he was, though lacking the angelic form of those features. These instances include the classical reference to Cerberus with Christian symbolic ties, the three Usurers and others.
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Acceptance Essays
