Dante's Divine Comedy
In The Divine Comedy, Dante organizes both Heaven and Hell into several different divisions. Hell is broken down into nine levels, some with sublevels. Heaven, or Paradise, is separated into ten kingdoms. Each of these sections represents a lifestyle on Earth. The lifestyle in the afterlife is indirectly chosen in the mortal existence. In general, Paradise represents the ideal society functioning completely and pleasantly. In contrast, Hell corresponds to a society in which all its members act for their own benefits and against the common good. It is on this principle that Dante bases his separation of the levels of both Heaven and Hell. Dante places great emphasis on the selfishness of those in Hell. All the citizens of this society have failed to satisfy their responsibilities to either God or their own communities. They have even abused these responsibilities for their own purposes. For Dante, the worst kind of sin is that which is detrimental to society. This type of sin causes social disorder, which paves the way for many kinds of injustices. This injustice, based upon self-interest and disregard for society, generally characterizes Dante's Hell. In the first area of Hell that Dante visits, he learns th
Gluttony is another form of self-indulgence, for there is no noble cause behind it. The area of lust is filled with souls who have abused positions of great importance to social order. It requires a giving into evil and harming society with direct purpose. All those who commit fraud abuse a gift of God in some form or another. Greed, on a close level to gluttony, is also harmful to society, for amassing large amounts of wealth for no apparent purpose can no way contribute to the good of other souls unless it is properly distributed. Each heavenly body is reward for a certain virtue: faith, hope, love, prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance, respectively. The remaining four realms of Heaven are the Fixed Stars, where earth is viewed in its entirety, viewed as insignificant and petty; the Empyrean, the sphere in which the purest forms of Faith, Hope, and Love dwell; the Primum Mobile, where God can be observed and conduct of all the other spheres take place; and finally, the kingdom of God. The punishment for these souls varies with the type of fraudulence. The sinners live out the pains they have caused themselves, but more importantly, those they have caused unto others. In essence, the betrayers are betrayed by one another, and therefore suffer the sins they have committed in life. Dido, abandoning her land and people, killed herself for love. This leads Dante into the city of Dis. They abuse God's gift of speech by using it directly against Him3. The next area that Dante travels to is one of incontinence.
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