Blog Post 3: Prompt 1

The Divine Comedy, "The Inferno", enhances the different aspects of modern societies violence and corruption in sixteenth century Florence. Dante writes on his views of the sins of society and creates this metaphorical Hell in Inferno. News from today can also relate back to The Inferno. the modern news portrays some of the themes in the different circles of Dante's work. One particular article entitled "Murder suspect's dad: Help sell cars, get an interview" portrayed a two sins within Inferno. One being in Circle eight, Bolgia five where he writes of the sin of the "Grafters". Another being in circle seven, round one on the sin of the "violent against neighbors". With modern society we can relate some of the themes Dante writes that were occurring in Florence during the seventeenth century and come to the conclusion that humans have not changed. Sin is sinand the same ones have been occurring for years and years. The article can also categorize the people into a circle in sin as what I believe Dante would have put them in when writing Inferno.

This following article is about the producer Bruce Beresford-Redman who is accused for the murder of his wife and his father David Beresford-Redman's response to reporters on the issue. Bruce Beresford-Redman issued a dismissal of the murder arrest warrant in court last month. Following the court appearance his father David Bereford-Redman, who previously refused to talk about the arrest or suspicion, decided to speak on the arrest of his son. Rather than a normal answer that would give the impression that his son did not murder the sister David only talked about cars. As a result of the arrest of his son and death of daughter-in-law, David and Bruce's mother have the control over his property so anything that they owned now is belonging to the parents. When David was interviewed by the reporters he only talked of the cars that belonged to his son and stated that the only way he would talk about the arrest would be ifsomeone would buy one of the three cars the son owned and the sale of the cars would go to Bruce Bereford-Redman's children. This was bizzare! What father would not speak on the arrest of his son but rather on speak if he was to be paid; especially for cars.

Dante would see the idea of David Beresford-Redman's desire to sell the cars or reporters having to get information out of him, as part of circle 8, boglia 5; the Grafters. The Grafters was another name for extortionists or blackmailers. This is clearly an example of blackmail. He [David] wouldn't release information about his son for the simple reason that he would not be getting anything in return. Now with the knowledge of a great deal of information on his sons arrest he would could gain money for himself and grandchildren by selling the cars. This was a striking article to me in the sense that who would sell cars in return for information to the world on someone so personal as his son. If this were to happen during the time of Dante writing Inferno he would have categorized David in the circle with the Grafter as a person who wanted to give out information on his son in return for money.

Another aspect of the inferno that is portrayed in the article would be circle 7 round 1; "violent against neighbors". The producer Bruce Beresford-Redman was accused as a murderer of his own wife. Dante would see this as being violent of people that he lives with or is within his country, his neighbor; or better yet someone so close as of his wife. Dante would look at Bruce with great disbelief in Florence society. This was probably something that rarely occurred, if even occurred. It was a unique example to our society. There was nothing heard of in Florence society with the murdering of a mans own wife so Dante would put Bruce in circle 7 round 1 of the Inferno as a person who acted violently towards their neighbor, (wife).

-Duke,Alan. "Murder Suspect's Dad: Help Sell Cars, Get an Interview." CNN.com. Web.

Blog Post 2: Prompt 3

In Circle 7, round 1 the Violent are punished based on the nature of their violence in sin. Like many other works of literature the use of archetypes are widely used to better explain and relate to the reader along with bringing a new dimension to the work. Dante uses archetypal symbols throughout Circle 7 to help better explain the contrapasso of the sin; such as the use of a minotaur, river of blood, or desert and fire. In round 1 in particular Dante uses the river of blood to explore the sin of the Violent and better explain the contrapasso of this part of Circle 7 in Hell.

Dante describes the river of blood being, "the river of boiling blood in which are steeped all who struck down their fellow men...I saw an arching fosse that was the bed of a winding river circling through the plain exactly as my Guide and Lord had said." (Inferno 94) The use of the archetypal symbol, river, is significant. A river is a use of "water" or flowing that is non ending. When a river is though of it flows and goes on constantly flowing and recycling or adding to itself. The river of blood is symbolic of a never ending flow of blood continuing to travel through this round of Circle 7. The sin of the Violent against their neighbors were people who murdered the the blood of their fellow men. They were war-makers, cruel tyrants, and highwaymen. Because of the blood they shed of their neighbors, they forever are drowned under the blood. The river symbols that is forever continuing and non ending. The blood that was shed was never ended. There was so much blood that they shed that it could flow through a river. A river is usually something that symbolizes a flow of never ending supply of something; continuing and going through many places.

The river of blood symbolizes Dante's belief of the amount of blood that these people have shed. He sees them as warmakers were many people are killed whom are of each other. A reader can see Dante as portraying this as a serious sin and that he believes the blood that is caused by war is continuously flowing; never ending, because of the proceeding wars in the world. The submerge of the "Violent" people shows that they are the cause of the turmoil of the world and should be punished for all the murders they have caused. The river can relate back to the river of blood in biblical sense of punishment for the sins the Israelites had done towards good. The Violent people may not have murdered physically but causing wars and situations that murder the people of their kind or in other words "neighbors".

This video portrays the violence of wars and is titled River of Blood from a song by a [I think] groupd named Battle Beast. It is a good visual image for the archetypal symbol a river of blood. Enjoy. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSCkK48l4cw&feature=player_detailpage

Blog Post 1: Prompt 3

Circle three of Dante's visit in Upper Hell is one that stood out for me when relating the sinners punishment to the law of contrapasso. Contrapasso, in a sense, is the idea of a punishment being the same as a sin or similar because they are one of the same. Circle three is the sin of gluttony. Gluttony being the indulgence of food in a negative and greedy way is a sin. Food is portrayed as something that makes you happy or satisfied. It is usually a way for people to forget their problemsor brings temporary happiness and warmth to a person. It brings comfort and a feeling of peace or completion. When food is used for any reason of more than hunger it is considered gluttony. Dante describes circle three as a filthy and dirty place. It has stinky snow, freezing rain, and is a slush place. He writes how Dante sees it as a 'gigantic garbage dump' and makes it seem as if the filthy is almost unbearable. Circle three is a dark place with no new life. Everything there is rotten and spoiled. As a contrapasso the punishment of gluttony is exactly what it is; gluttony or greed. With food causes spoiling and obesity. The food spoils and becomes rotten. Gluttony is a nasty thing to be and is a sign of being dirty and filthy; or spoiled.

Dante uses Cerberus along with language and imagery to utilize this circle and help the reader get a better idea of what circle three may have been see as. He uses words such as dirty, swollen, cold, hungry, black, sodden, or spoiled and drowned. As Dante walks through Circle three with Virgil he discovers that this is a bottomless pit of spoiled mess and foul mess. He explains how the Gluttons were just souls in pain and there was grief all around. The Glutton sin of gluttony was the exact same as their punishment. They had an overindulgence of food with symbolized a filthiness and spoil of food so they were to suffer in that lust for food. Dante also uses the Cerberus as a use of imagery to compare to the environment of the circle and the ways of the people. He describes Cerberus as having red eyes, beard greased with phlegm, swollen belly, and claws. Cerberus could be a depiction of what the Gluttons were. They were all in lust for food and their physical appearance could see exactly that; which was what Cerberus was portrayed as.

Dante seems to be asserting that Gluttony was a sin less severe than others. It was worse than lust however but then again lust and gluttony can be considered one in the same because of the idea that lust for food is considered gluttony. The punishment that he chooses for gluttony is one of disgust rather than torment and torture. This suggests that, to him, gluttony was not necessarily a sin that was deserving of a torment or agony in punishment but rather one of disgust and foulness.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Olivia! I am a student at Cape Fear Academy and was assigned by my english 10 teacher Mrs. Holliday to create a blog. The purpose of my blog is to help other readers of Dante's Inferno understand my interpretation of this interesting book. I have prompts that I will be answering and be checking in daily to see who has been following. Thanks so much for visiting my blog and I hope you all enjoy! :)