The Frozen Sinners
In Dante’s Inferno, the poet devised tortures for his collection of sinnersthat in some way fit the crimes they committed in life. But Dante’s tortures alsoreflect a vision of Hell that is very different from that which we imagine throughpopular culture. His hell is not a lake of fire, but rather a series of concentricrings winding into the earth; and the very deepest part is not burning hot, butfreezing cold. In this ice, a group of sinners, who have betrayed their family, istrapped for ever. For Dante, being frozen in ice clearly symbolizes being In Canto XXXII, Dante comes across a lake of sinners locked in ice up totheir waists or, as Dante says, “the place / where shame can show itself” (Dante,XXXII, 34-35). This is the ring of Hell for those who have done violence to theirrelatives, hence that rung’s name, Caina, so called after the man in the Biblicalbook of Genesis who killed his brother in cold blood. The symbolism of the icethen becomes clear. Just as in the upper rungs of Hell, two lovers buffeted bytheir passions are forever buffeted by wind, and the wrathful fight in the mud oftheir own accusations, we find that these individuals encased in
Works Cited:Alighieri, Dante. I think that by showing usthese figures trapped in ice forever, Dante hopes to discourage the reader fromcommitting acts in life that might put them in a similar situation. Yet the frogs inhabit lakes,Dante tells us, during the season when peasant women dream of gleaning. The "croaking frog" image brings to mind a frog, poking up out ofthe water, with only his head protruding above the surface. ice are peoplewho during life have rejected the warmth of human love. It isclear Virgil feels that the agony these people must endure for eternity isexcessive punishment for what may have been an unpremeditated sin, and onein which they received their punishment on earth. People encased in this ice, Dante implies, willnever be moving anywhere again. " He implies that thesinners were uttering little gasps as their teeth chattered, trying to breathe in thefrozen air. In this passage within Canto XXXII, Dante presents a truly heartbreakingpicture. He writes that "And as the croaking frog sitswith its muzzle / above the water, in the season when / the peasant woman oftendreams of gleaning / so, livid in the ice / . Most cannot help feelingthat any God who would condemn his fallen creatures to such a fate cannot haveany sense of justice or mercy. Water that is only lightlyfrozen, or which freezes, thaws slightly, and re-freezes, retains a frosty look. This may haveworked for people of Dante’s time period, however, another thing happens whenwe read it. Dante then employs a number of poetic images to further describe thetrapped condition of the ice-people.
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