The journey of introspection can lead to unbound places and uninhibited realizations. During his travels through Hell, Dante Alighieri encounters the damned souls of the underworld and experiences their prodigious punishments. Undoubtedly one of the loftiest and most enigmatic poems ever written, an unpretentious reader can be virtually overwhelmed by all the multifaceted allegories that distinguish Inferno from all other works. Unrequited love that burns its desire in misery, desolate despair that disfigures itself in perpetual darkness, and falsified deceivers that increasingly flaunt their shame, all become personified in every sinner Dante approaches. Hell invents a complex and elaborate system of hell with each sinner's hell fitting appropriately for the crime committed; as Professor Braden of the University of Virginia states, "the sinner ultimately, and often grotesquely, becomes what he has made of himself." Three sinners in particular (Francesca da' Rimini, Pier della Vigna, and Ulysses), although each having committed distinctly different misdeeds, all engage in meaningful conversation with Dante, who desperately seeks the attention of all three individuals. Both leave him moved and more cultured, with the deep, chilling awareness that, although the sinner may be a virtuous person, at times, the austere consequences of his actions are inevitable. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Inferno creates two interconnected explanations for allegory, both of politics and religion. Dante, as he writes this poem in exile from his hometown of Florence, cunningly permeates his own evident political propaganda in the environments in which he places his enemies. Through his unique placement, punishment, and depiction of each sinner, Dante sculpts the reader's perception of those he pities and also those he despises with little more than ruthless contempt, as with Pope Nicholas III. Clearly shown by sensitive gestures and words, Dante empathizes with Francesca da' Rimini in canto V. A famous and well-known fate in the contemporary 14th century, she had married Gianciotto Malatesta of Rimini, but had fallen in love with his younger brother, Paolo, as he explains "love, which is born early in kind hearts, seized him by [his] beautiful body" (41). As the story unfolds, her husband learned of the illustrious affair and had them both executed. Francesca was placed in the 2nd circle among the incontinent sins, and at first she describes "love gave [them] both a death", (41) it is evident that her crimes are of passion and desire. However, she quickly contradicts herself in altering the impulse she and her lover suffered from when she clarifies that "A Galeotto, that book!" (42) was the real reason their passion blossomed. Comparing themselves to Lancelot and Guinevere, Fransceca tells Dante that just as she and Paolo were reading the tale they gave in to the impulse of desire. Her infinite destiny is to rage in the stormy wind, blowing into the 2nd circle of Hell as her emotions had flowed from her with Paolo. The poet Dante responded overwhelmingly by proclaiming, "My pity overwhelmed me and I felt weak: fainting in death, I fell like a dying body," (42) and I fainted out of sympathy, apparently understanding the energy and influence that written word can provoke. Descending further beyond the sins of incontinence, Virgil leads Dante to the sins of violence and, notable in Canto XIII, to the sins of violence against oneself. Here surrounded by treesdecomposed and disfigured that guarded the souls of those who committed suicide. Dante describes them with "leaves not green, earth-colored; their branches not smooth? not fruits but poisoned thorns"; (101) every piece of wood is continuously clawed by birds similar to those demons. Among the twisted woods lay Pier della Vigna, one of Frederick II's chief advisors, who had been falsely accused of disloyalty to the emperor and, desperate to be denied his love of service, committed suicide. He claims his innocence to Dante: "Did I remain so faithful that I lost sleep and life? I never betrayed my lord who was so worthy of honor" (103-105) defending how loyal and diligent he was. Dante discovers that it was the "common fatal vice of the courts" (103) as Pier defines envy as the sin that forced one's violence towards oneself. He begs Dante to "console his memory" (105) upon his return to the living, which presented the poet with a sympathy not often found; so intense was his compassion for Pier, that he had to ask Virgil, his guide, to continue conversing with the doomed shadow because he "cannot because of the pity that fills [his] heart." (105). This example represents the second time Dante is overwhelmed by a single encounter with a punished soul. Dante takes pity on both Francesca and Pier, fainted by Francesca and touched so deeply by Pier that it leaves him speechless. Both committed the "lesser of sins", different from those held in Malebolge who committed sins of fraud, like the soon to be introduced Ulysses. Dante classified them in such a way that the most conscious and deliberate sins are morally worse than those committed on impulse such as Francesca, motivated by desire, and Pier, whose suicide is punished more severely, but is still classified among the sins of the incontinent and violence. . These two souls also demonstrate to Dante that the sinner can often still be a virtuous person, despite there being irrefutable consequences to their actions. The two souls differ in that Pier's suicide is placed in the seventh circle deeper than Francesca's second circle, and is punished accordingly. Francesca's sin stemmed from love in its lowest form, physical desire. Pier was motivated by madness, anger and depression, none of which emotions imply love. Since love is a predominant theme throughout the Divine Comedy, Dante appropriately punishes sins due to love being less torturous than violence, and especially suicide. Gradually becoming more confident as Hell becomes more shocking, Dante's growing confidence becomes a treasured virtue. When he enters the eighth circle of the Malebolge, in canto XVI he is introduced to one of the greatest heroes of classical literature, Ulysses, who is placed disconcertingly among the false counselors. Odysseus, warrior of the Trojan War and trickster of the Trojan Horse, with Diomedes "grieve over their stratagem, the horse that opened the door from which came the noblest seed of the Romans." (219). The two schemers were condemned to swirl in a fog of flame, circling over the cliffs like "fireflies a farmer saw (resting on a hill)" (217). Virgil must speak to this soul again, as he spoke secondly to Pier della Vigna, insisting to Dante that he "leave the word to me: being Greeks, they might treat your words with a certain contempt", (221) which Robert Pinsky explains how Dante's method of recognizing that he doesn't speak Greek. Odysseus is punished, in addition to being a deceitful strategist, for not recognizing that he had deceived his own companions who "were so eager to travel, impelled by the little speech [he] made" to join his "mad flight" (223) . He tells Dante that.: 1994.