The Portrayal of God in Dante’s Divine Comedy Essay Example

sorcerers by stating “Because he wished to see far before him, behind the looks and backward goes his way.” This can be explained as the future foreseer’s head being painfully tilted backward eternally.

Other levels described by Dante are; circle one representing all those people who were not baptized as well as the pagans who existed before Christ. Circle two, three, four, and five represent human flesh needs which are condemned in the Bible. These are lustfulness, adultery, greediness, and wrath respectively. Circle six contained the space for the violent, seven is the level for the blasphemers, and nine is the deepest of hell where all sinners are stuck which include those who mutilated horribly other people. Upon moving around all the circles, Dante and Virgil moved to the purgatory.

At the Purgatory, they witnessed the sinful souls undergoing punishment for the sins they committed for the purposes of cleansing themselves to get ready for heaven. The mood at this section has changed in that all the souls will be headed to heaven clean while those who did not confess remains in hell for eternal torture. Purgatory in a mountain shaped image consists of seven levels representing the human sins, and the souls move freely around the levels praising God amidst their punishment as they are being cleansed. At this point, Virgil does not continue to heaven, but Dante is joined by another guide - Beatrice.

In heaven, Dante describes it as a divine place comprising nine spheres representing the orbits. The joyful songs of praise and delight mark the heaven. Souls entering heaven basks in the glory of the Lord eternally. At this point, Dante and Beatrice

meet other Christian figures and Dante is taught more of God’s nature.

The general view of Dante is that there is life ahead for every human after death but according to Judaism, what is important is the current life and not after death. Still the Sadducees points out that there is no biblical evidence of the afterlife. My opinion is that Dante purposed to explain to the audience the importance of salvation through describing the suffering and eventually the reward at the end.