Emil's Topic Three, Inferno Blog Post 12/8

The Use of Fire

      During Dante's journey through Hell, we see fire utilized as a symbol of " God's Wrath" among certain sinners. We see this first in Circle 6 with the Heretics, in which fire is used to symbolize the Wrath of God for their denial of a afterlife with their soul, so in death they are forced to live in tombs engulfed in flames. It is used again the Round 3 of Circle 7 as the punishment for those who were Blasphemers, Sodomites, and Usurers, which are all acts against the natural order of God's way of life, which evokes his wrath upon them in rain and in a burning desert. In Dante's Hell, we see re occurring punishments that involve fire and the sins that this punishment evolves around all have to do with those who's actions upset the natural order that God has set the world in and those who deny his ideas such as a afterlife. The purpose that Dante seems to be trying to use fire for is the symbolic use it has to describe the anger that God has towards these specific types of sinners, who's actions have intentionally offended God and the way of life that he wants people to live.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjjUp0YNZ8I

 I decided to post this song about fire because of it's lyrics " Can't put it out with water" and " burning my soul". I felt like both those lyrics had to do with souls who were punished with a everlasting fire from the anger of God that burns their souls.

The Use of Ice

      Like it's fire counterpart, the use of ice and a " freeze" like term is described as a symbol of not God's anger towards sinners, but his hatred for their sins. We see use of ice first in Circle 3 with the Gluttons, who are rained upon with ice hail as they live in the slush they created in life. As we remember, in life they didn't make use of God's gifts that he gave them, so for shunning God's gifts, they are hated by him and live in the painful hail and snow that rains upon them. We see this again in Circle 9, in all 3 rounds involving ice freezing the sinners in place and depending how badly they were treacherous to those who they were tied to, the more frozen they are. A symbolic use of ice is how in life these sinners denied God's warmth and his love, which brings about his hatred for them, having them trapped in the coldest punishment of Hell for denying his warmth. If they denied both his love and warmth, then they will have none of it in the afterlife and live in cold, shunned away in ice. Dante used ice to describe the actual hatred that God has for the sinners, rather then just the anger of fire. It seems that in Hell, if the sinners offended God, they bring about his flame, but deny him, the sinners suffer in the freezing torment that he brings them. 

Dante and Virgile come across the frozen lake of the treacherous in Circle 9.

Emil's Blog Post Number 2- Circle 7, Round 3

Plain of Burning Sand

         As Dante and the poets move to the third round of the seventh circle, they come to the burning plain. Here are the Blasphemers, Sodomites, and the Usurers, who all are spread out on the sand doing different things for punishment of their sins. The plain represents that of a desert, which in life we believe that to be a very barren, desolate, and sterile place. While in Dante's interpretation, he describes what he saw as " Most numerous were those that roamed the plain. Far fewer were the souls stretched on the sand, but moved to louder cries by greater pain "(111). The souls seem to be roaming the plain in agony and pain and in Dante's eyes, the way we think of a desert seems to be somewhat similar to what Dante see's as the desert in circle seven because of it representing a barren and empty place for the sinners to live in for eternity. The desert is a symbol of the sterility, which represents the sterility in the actions caused by the sinners and forces them to live in that sterility forever in Hell. 

Rain of Fire

           The second pain that is bestowed upon the violence against nature is the rain of fire that descends upon them from the sky. As Dante watches the sinners being bombarded by the rain, he describes it as " And over all that sand on which they lay or crouched or roamed, great flakes of flame fell slowly as snow falls in the Alps on a windless day "(111). To our knowledge, rain is a very fertile and refreshing thing in life, but from Dante's interpretation, it seems as it is the opposite as the rain is very and harmful to those beneath it. Dante also describes the rain to be moving slowly, which in life rain always falls fast so not only is the basic way of rain is the opposite, but the speed in which it falls from the sky. The entire  punishment of the rain in Dante's eyes is the exact opposite of the way we are accustomed to, which these sinners have forced to succumb to.