Horror is an ancient genre, who's roots are lodged in ancient myth and folklore. Horror can be defined in many different ways. It is described as a feeling of intense fear, dislike, and pain. Dante's "The Divine Comedy", can be described as containing images and thoughts horror. The comedy fulfills the definition of horror by the images and scenes depicted throughout. The punishments of the sinners, the description of gruesome events, as well as the increasing levels of danger and evil, support the idea of "The Divine Comedy" being a horror.
It is fascinating to see how Dante's mind pictured the often bizarre scenes of his imagination to bring horror to his story. One is taken through scenes depicting souls hanging upside down as well as other grotesque and gruesome images. One of them being when he describes a man being split open from his chin to where we fart. The straightforwardness of the image depicts the horror of a unspeakable picture of a man being split apart. Dante puts the violence at grotesque level with examples of bloodshed which that can only justify the horror in Dante's "The Divine Comedy".
The splitting of the men fits into the pattern of the punishments in the inferno. The physical punishments literally express the horror in the story. The most interesting part was when he describes the image of the man using his hands to pull his wound apart which extremely vivid. As Dante watches the man who has just been split into two, the man looks back at Dante. This was a horrific punishment for men who reside in this pouch because of discord and schism. Schism means division. Thus, the physical punishments literally express the sin in a horrendous but acceptable form.
Dante also takes tremendous pride in describing each scene, which increasingly worsen as the story develops. When Dante and Virgil enter the gates of hell they come across the first circle where it was peaceful yet depressing.