Monthly Archives: November 2016

Law, Justice, and Punishment: Justice and punishment are themes in both Antigone and Dante’s Inferno. In both works, one or more characters receive punishments for crimes or sins which they have committed. In each work, what determines law and punishment? … Continue reading →

Story-telling: In Dante’s Inferno and The Thousand and One Nights, it seems that story-telling functions for entirely different purposes. Explain the power and importance of story-telling within Dante’s Inferno and The Thousand and One Nights by analyzing the purpose/device of … Continue reading →

  Perspective in Poetry and Prose: When you read a story or poem, one of the first elements you picks up on is the perspective used by the author. This affects what you know and you don’t know, and how you experience … Continue reading →

1) A devaluation of our existence: Dante’s Infernal vision of the afterlife makes the implication that the human Will, when exposed to the knowledge of non-being (death), is the foundational principle of morality. Sophocles expresses the same principle in his Antigone. Both … Continue reading →

Suicide: Antigone committed suicide in prison. In Dante’s Inferno people who die by taking their own life are exiled to the ‘Wood of Suicides’ in circle 7. Analyze Antigone’s life and death through Dante’s eyes. Would he look upon her life (and … Continue reading →

All’s fair in Hell and Hades: Justice features prominently in Antigone and the Inferno. In the former, Olympus’ law justifies Antigone’s crime against the state; in the latter, Heaven’s law justifies the punishments within the nine circles of Hell. In … Continue reading →

In the second ring of the seventh circle of hell, those who have committed suicide when they were alive are punished in a very unique way. Upon their descent into hell, they lose their physical form as a result of … Continue reading →

In Canto XIII, Dante and Virgil enter into the Wood of Suicides, the second round of the seventh circle focusing on violence. The violence being punished in the second round is violence against the self. They hears wails and moans … Continue reading →

There is, in reality, a distinction between behavior which incites guilt and behavior which produces shame. Guilt is feeling badly about your behavior because of something external; you try to hide what you’ve done from the world around you. Shame, … Continue reading →

When Virgil and Dante reach the Third Circle of Hell, after Dante has regained consciousness, they encounter a three-headed beast/dog named Cerberus, the “guard” of the realm. This dog-beast is used as a symbol for which sin the Third Circle … Continue reading →