What is hell like? This is a question that people will have answered in Dante's Inferno. This story takes the reader to a whole new place where the living cannot go. With the different levels of hell for different sins, Dante describes a sinner's punishment in full detail. Many of Dante's ideas about the inferno make the reader think about their everyday actions. One of the best writings of The Divine Comedy is Canto XXXIV.
In Canto XXXIV, many questions are answered about the afterworld. Many religions around the world believe in the idea of hell. People have many questions about hell. Usually questions like, what is hell? Where is it? What is hell like? Is there a devil? What does the devil look like?.
Dante through his writing puts these questions in the readers' minds by having the idea of different levels of hell. In Canto XXXIV, the reader finally enters the worst level of hell, the ninth circle, fourth ring. This ring is called Judecca. The name Judecca is part of the name of Judas Iscariot because he is the prime example of the sinners of the level. The sinners that are punished in this ring of hell are those who were traitors against their benefactors.
The first creative idea of hell in Canto XXXIV is when we find out the answer to the question, "Is there a devil?- This question is answered when Dante finally saw Lucifer or the devil. Dante speaks to the reader to describe Lucifer:.
all words would fall short of what is was.
I did not die, and I was not alive;.
think for yourself, if you have any wit,.
what I became, deprived of life and death.
The emperor of the despondent kingdom.
so towered "from midchest "above the ice, (XXXIV, 24-29).
The reader can tell by what Dante said that the devil, Lucifer, is a shocking sight, so shocking in fact that it left Dante speechless. Dante then describes how big Lucifer is, answering the question, "What does the devil look like?- He compares Lucifer's size to giants instead of using standard height measurements.
