Daily Archives: April 1, 2019

Elements of the Inferno in As Above So Below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8xPTba541s&t=605s

^youtube video analyzing the movie in relation to Dante’s Inferno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLq3zSm5SkQ

^clip from the final scene of the the movie, emerging from the catacombs/Hell

Part of what makes Dante’s Inferno such an important text is that it is still very relevant today.  One example of this is the movie As Above So Below, which adapts some important concepts from the Inferno into its structure.  Throughout reading the Inferno, various references the movie had made became clear and the youtube video provided highlights many of those examples as well as a more in depth look at how the entire movie follows some of the themes from the Inferno.  Rather than repeating the things mentioned in the video, there are some very important ideas in the movie that have clearly been taken from Dante’s work which were not mentioned or not adequately discussed in the video.

One of the most unmistakeable references to the Inferno comes at the end of the movie, where they exit “Hell” or the catacombs.  This scene directly correlates to the scene in the Inferno where Dante and Virgil leave Hell.  Throughout their journey through the catacombs, the characters were told that the only way out is down–just like Dante and Virgil, they must travel through all of Hell before they can leave.  The most striking similarity comes when the group jumps down a deep well with a sewer grate at the bottom; believing in gravity and the downward direction they have been headed in this whole time, they try to lift up the grate but find that to get out they must push it down.  This is the same as the Pilgrim’s realization that he is climbing down Lucifer and not up as he had thought: “I raised my eyes, thinking to see Lucifer as I had left him, and I saw that his legs were extended upward” (canto 34, lines88-89).  This similarity continues after the emergence from Hell.  Dante describes the Pilgrim’s emergence out of Hell as the moment “I saw the beautiful things the heavens carry, through a round opening” (canto 34, lines136-138).  Dante is describing the stars and showing the reader that he comes out of Hell back to earth, not directly to purgatory.  This image Dante gives us is almost exactly the same as the image in As Above So Below, since the group is upside down, when they push the sewer grate they are looking up at the earth–through a round opening–and see nothing but the night sky, a tree, and a street light.  This image is taken directly out of Dante’s writing.

One other similarity between the movie and the Inferno that is not discussed much in the video is the saying “as above so below” itself.  This saying comes from alchemy and is explained in the movie with an image on the wall in the catacombs, shown in the youtube video at 9:08, this part in the movie explains that it is a symbol meant to show the connection between heaven and earth in alchemy–“as it is on earth so it will be in heaven”.  However, this movie has nothing to do with heaven, since the catacombs are a metaphor for Hell, so it is clear that this image (which is upside down) is inverted to mean “as it is on earth so it will be in hell” in relation to the characters in the movie.  This theory (although here cited as from alchemy–a practice damnable in Hell by Dante’s standards) bears a striking similarity to the theory of the contrapasso in the Inferno.  The contrapasso is essentially a punishment which fits the crime and the word itself is specifically associated with the Inferno.  Using the structure of the words in the movie, one could use “as one was on earth, so they will be in hell” or “as one is in life, so they will be in death” as a synonym or explanation of Dante’s contrapasso.  Dante’s use of the contrapasso creates some of the most striking images in the Inferno.  For example, Ugolino and Ruggieri in canto 33: as Ugonlino was starved to death by Ruggieri in life, so Ruggieri is eaten by the one he starved in death.

The final encounter – the most terrifying or the most puzzling?

 

 

Suloni Robertson

Lucifer (with Brutus, Judas, & Cassius)

I found this photo in a Circle 9 Gallery , The University of Texas at Austin, http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/gallery12.html

 

 Dante’s journey through hell is slowly coming to an end. As he walks on sinners (literally) completely submerged in thick ice, he can barely see, through dense fog, an enormous shape slowly appearing on the horizon (similar situation to when he saw the giants). Both the pilgrim and the readers anticipate to finally see not only the greatest sinner of them all but also the most terrifying and ultimate punishment that takes place at the very bottom of hell. Dante builds the suspense with the pilgrim’s words: “How do I became frozen and feeble, do not ask, reader, for I do not write it, and all speech would be insufficient.” (Divine Comedy, Canto XXXIV v. 22-24). Will this encounter with “the emperor of the dolorous kingdom” (Divine Comedy, Canto XXXIV v. 27) go beyond sadness, anguish, despair and growing cruelty that we saw through the pilgrim’s eyes in previous cantos? Or are we, the readers, up for a big disappointment?

First of all, although the physical appearance of the fallen angel might look horrifying end extremely bestial at first glance, it doesn’t seem so scary after more thorough observation. Lucifer is completely isolated, trapped in a frozen lake from the waist down. He has three faces with three different colors (yellow – impotence, red – ignorance, black – hate), which mirror the Trinity. As Barollini described it: “In spiritual terms, Lucifer is the antithesis of the Divine Trinity: Lucifer spirates death where the Trinity spirates love.” He moves his gigantic bat wings bringing about freezing wind that keeps the ice from melting.

Besides, the king of hell, although repulsive and frightful, is completely immobile. He performs several functions, in a very mechanical and repetitive way, that make him look like a robot. He mechanically bats his wings and continuously munches on three damned souls (Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius). The bloody tears that come out of his monstrous eyes also seem robotic because there is no emotion to be seen in his face (or faces in this case) The repetitive and ongoing movement makes Lucifer extremely predictable, monotonous but also powerless. It is obvious that he is nothing but an instrument operated by God’s hands.

Moreover, Lucifer is completely mute, unable to express himself in any way. He is deprived of any voice, emotion or reaction. There is no communication between him and the pilgrim, no involvement or any part, no interest. This is completely different from what was presented in previous Cantos. Dante was able to communicate with the damned souls who expressed their reaction to the situation they found themselves in. Some of them asked the pilgrim to remember them when he gets back to the living. The sinners in previous cantos have a voice, some show emotions, some tell their stories and some just choose to stay silent and be eternally forgotten.

To sum up, the last encounter between the pilgrim and the king of hell seems a little puzzling and powerless, although expected to be powerful and dramatic. The characters do not have any kind of relationship or communication due to the fact that Lucifer is only a mechanical beast performing robotic functions. It comes as a surprise that he is in fact utterly insignificant, immobile, sterile and mute. Who I believed to be the biggest sinner at the bottom of hell is not in fact one of those being endlessly tormented. He is nothing but a tool in God’s hands, like other devils in hell. He doesn’t participate whatsoever in Dante’s moral growth, which will eventually bring him closer to God, but he does provide a passage for the pilgrim and his guide to Purgatorio.