Nicole Kiley

Miss Skirtich

English 10

12/5/2018

Inferno Writing Prompt #1

Dante shows humanity in many ways throughout the story. The first act of humanity is

when Dante passes out while talking to Francesca, “I felt my senses reel and faint away with

anguish, I was swept by such a swoon as death is, and I fell as a corpse might fall, to the dead

floor of Hell” (Alighieri 40). He feels upset and depressed with what has happened to her. But he

doesn’t know that she is lying. Another act of humanity would have been when Dante felt bad

for the sinners in circle four. He feels bad for them because they must push the boulders and can

never stop. Money leaves people with a lot of stress in other words it can leave a big weight on

your shoulders. So, all the weight that they push around from the boulders resembles the weight

of money, “And I watching, felt my heart contract with pain” (Alighieri 53). Dante is saying that

the pain those sinners were in made his heart hurt. This shows that he has emotions toward this.

Dante is upset and is crying in canto three. He’s crying because he feels sorry for the pain they

must go through. He feels so sad and sorry for the lustful sinners that he cries. He says to Virgil,

“Spilling my soul to tears” (Alighieri 22). The last act of humanity is he feels bad for Ciaccio

and feels deeply saddened by what has happened to him. Ciaccio was a gluten because he had

eaten too much. He was called the hog because of how much he ate and how big he was. This

upset Dante seeing Ciaccio, “I answered him:” Ciaccio, your agony weighs on my heart and calls
my soul to tears” (Alighieri 55). As seen, Dante feels very saddened by what has happened to all

the people. He feels sorry for them and he even is upset about how they are punished.