Imperfect Punishments Essay Example for Free

Imperfect Punishments Essay Imagine a place where tyrants stand up to their ears in boiling blood, the gluttonous experience monsoons of human filth, and those who commit sins of the flesh are blown about like pieces of paper in a never-ending wind storm. Welcome to Dantes Inferno, his perspective on the appropriate punishments for those who are destined to hell for all eternity. Dante attempts to make the punishments fit the crimes, but because it is Dante dealing out the tortures and not God, the punishments will never be perfect because by nature, man is an imperfect creature. Only God is capable of being above reproach and of metering out a just punishment. While Dantes treatment towards the tyrants is fitting, his views on the inhabitants of the Ante Inferno and Limbo seem to be backwards and these poor people are doomed to suffer misguided punishments. Therefore, despite Dantes best attempts to justly punish each sinner, he makes a few mistakes because he is not God and Dante is unable to unbiasedly judge each sinner. If you were to attempt a journey through Hell, the first unlucky hellions you would encounter are the inhabitants of the Ante Inferno. The residents of this not quite heaven, not quite hell domain were placed here because while living, they chose to neither side with God nor with the Devil. By choosing neither good nor evil, these people sinned because they never chose to live by a set of Christian ideals. The punishment for these sinners is to constantly chase a white flag. The color of the flag symbolizes the blank and empty life the sinners led because they did not choose to follow God. The sinners are also bitten by wasps because in real life, they were never forced into any type of moral decision, so in the Ante Inferno, the wasps sting them and force them to chase the white flag. While the ordeal these sinners face seems entirely appropriate, their physical location in hell, or lack there of, is what makes their punishment wrong. This becomes very obvious when the punishment fo r those in Limbo is considered. Limbo is the First Circle of Hell and it is the final resting place for the people who died before the birth of Christianity or who were never baptized. Notable figures like Moses and Noah are former residents of Limbo, until  Christ granted them a pardon. Virgil resides in Limbo and has been given a temporary leave of absence to guide Dante through Hell because Beatrice, Dantes former love who holds a high place in heaven, is worried that he is headed on the path towards Hell. Dante shows pity for those who are stuck in Limbo because as Virgil describes, Some lived before the Christian faith, so that They did not worship God aright and I Am one of these. Through this, no other fault, We are lost, afflicted only this one way: That having no hope, we live in longing(Canto IV 28-32). Dante is said to be seized with heartfelt grief (Canto IV 33) after hearing this, but no pity is supposed to be felt towards sinners who are receiving just punishments. But how just is it that people who never knew the word of Christ and had no knowledge of Heaven or Hell are sentenced to Hell? It is not a fair punishment to doom those unlucky enough to be born before Christianity to Hell when they were not given a fair chance to learn how to gain entrance to Heaven, especially when you consider that those living in the Ante Inferno were perfectly aware of God and knew the consequences of not living a Christian life. Knowing about God and simply ignoring him seems to be a worse crime than being born before Christ. Perhaps some of the residents of Limbo may have ended up in Hell had they know about Christianity, but some may not have. The people in Limbo were never given the choice to live a life with God, so their punishment and placement in Hell should be less severe than the people who ignored their chance to gain entrance to Heaven. If Limbo and the Ante Inferno could geographically switch positions, Dantes reasonsing and punishments for the two groups would make more sense. The sinners in the Ante Inferno experience what seems to be a greater punishment  than what one would face in Limbo. Being constantly stung by wasps and forced to chase a white flag would be mentally and physically exhausting and seems to be a torture straight out of hell yet they arent even technically in hell. On the other hand, in Limbo one merely walks around and talks to other luckless souls, which does not seem to be a punishment constant with what other sinners face in hell. Dante correctly assigned the right punishments to each group of sinners, but he misplaced both groups. Limbo should be outside of Hell because they did not have the knowledge of either Heaven or Hell. The Ante Inferno should be the first level of Hell, reserved for those who knew about Heaven and Hell, choose neither side, and now must face the fact that by thei r indecision, are bound to suffer in Hell. While Dante may have geographically misplaced these two groups of sinners, he did correctly punish most of the sinners in Hell. For example, the river of blood in which boils everyone / Whose violence hurt others (Canto XII 41-42) describes the perfect punishment for those who were violent while they were alive. The degree of the violence committed also factors into the punishment. Tyrants who slaughtered many people are completely covered in boiling blood, while those who were violent against only a few suffer with blood up to their torsos. This is the perfect punishment because violence is a crime of passion and causes bloodshed. It is appropriate for these sinners to be in boiling blood, which would have been similar to their blood, simmering with rage and passion, while they committed their sin. Being immersed in this disgusting pool of heated blood would be a terrible punishment and it is just that those who commit the crime of violence and murder should suffer this endless tor ment. In order to place the sinners in the appropriate levels of Hell, Dante relies on his personal experiences and opinions about the crimes committed. The little bit that we know about Dante and his life, we learn through the opening scenes of the epic and conversations he has with spirits in Hell. The epic opens with Dante, In dark woods, the right road lost (Canto I 2). This shows the Dante is neither a devout Christian, nor is he a sinner. At his place in his life, being neither good nor bad, Dante would most likely be sentenced to life in the Ante Inferno. Throughout the epic, Dante likens  himself to Virgil, but at the same time appears to know that his work is not quite as good as Virgils. Perhaps by placing himself and the Ante Inferno in a level of Hell less severe than Limbo, Dante may still not be as good of a poet, but he is able to represent himself as a better person morally. This may not seem just to me, but to Dante this is a perfectly reasonable punishment. Dante feels the need to be superior to Virgil and since he was not able to accomplish this in life, he supercedes Virgil in the afterlife. It is also evident that Dante has a personal bias towards those who commit the sin of violence. While venturing through their circle of Hell, Dante says there in that crowd / Were many I recognized (Canto XII 114-115). He mentions that Alexander resides there and that he held Sicily under / For many a sad year (Canto XII 100-101). Dante may have placed such a harsh, yet still just, punishment on the Violent because he is avenging his country and people for the violent crimes committed against them. Alexander was responsible for an innumerable amount of Italian lives during his occupancy of Sicily and Dante is making sure that he is correctly punished for his sins. In life, Dante was unable to stop Alexander from committing his atrocities, but he is able to condemn him in Hell. Had Dante and his country not experienced the terrors of a tyrant, it is possible that without his need for revenge, Dante may have awarded the Violent a lesser punishment. Our personal experiences and feelings are what make us human, but yet they also lead us to biases, which prevent us from being as fair and just as God. It is obvious that those in Limbo who were never given a chance to have their soul saved by Christ should not be doomed eternally to a lower level of Hell than those in Ante Inferno who ignored the chance to save their soul. Yet Dante misplaces these two domains of Hell to put himself in a level nearer to Heaven than Dante will ever be able to acheive. While Virgils literary abilities will always be remembered as better pieces of work, by making Virgil his guide to salvation, Dante will reach Heaven, the ultimate goal of a Christian, while Virgil never will. The punishment of the Violent is a strong statement against those who have brought bloodshed to Italy and reflects Dantes hope for peace in Italy. Dante shows that while these sinners may have dominated the lives of others on Earth, that in hell  the Violent are completely overwhelmed by the blood that they created. Despite Dantes good intentions of creating a Hell where the punishment fits the crime, his opinions cloud his judgement. He uses Hell as a way to punish or degrade those whom he had some sort of a conflict with while alive. It is obvious that I do not agree with all of his ideas about Hell, but then again I am also not a fourteenth century Italian male. A just hell is different for everyone, depending on your own beliefs or lack of beliefs. The only universally just Hell that can be experienced is a Hell of Gods making and hopefully I will never know how his punishments compare to Dantes.

An Annotation of Emily Dickinsons I Taste A Liquor Never Brewed Essay

An Annotation of Emily Dickinson's I Taste A Liquor Never Brewed This poem by Emily Dickinson is much harder to figure out compared to her usual poems. She writes about a topic that is not normally written about at this time especially by a woman. At first glance, it is thought that this poem is about liquor and all of the bad things that go along with it, when in all reality it is a poem about sheer happiness. Dickinson is speaking not of a high derived from any alcoholic beverage, but rather of one acquired from life itself. I taste a liquor never brewed (214) Emily Dickinson I taste a liquor never brewed-- From tankards scooped in Pearl-- Not all the Vats upon the Rhine Yield such an Alcohol! Inebriate of Air--am I-- And Debauchee of Dew-- Reeling--thro endless summer days-- From inns of Molten Blue-- When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee Out of the Foxglove's door-- When butterflies--renounce their "drams"-- I shall but drink the more! Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats-- And saints-- to windows run-- To see the little Tippler Leaning against the Sun-- Despite the existence of metaphorical comparisons with drunkenness and liquor, this is definitely not a poem about any form of chemical intoxication. It is an expression of the author's love for a "drunken state"', created by how wonderful she believes life to be. In the second line, I realized the genuine depth of Emily Dickinson's affection for life. Here, she wrote, "From tankards scooped in Pearl," indicating special beer-drinking glasses, outfitted in pearl rather than in ceramic or in clay. According to my research, these were used during her time to drink in a more exquisite, elaborate fashion, usually when one had a notable fondn... ...y. It was the little things that gave her joy and pleasure. Just being surrounded by nature and other creatures gave her the happiness that others need marriage and money to find. Many of Dickinson's poems focus on the themes of life, love, and nature. This one has a little bit of all of those themes tied into it. It describes her love of life and nature by comparing it to the feeling one gets when they are drunk. Dickinson is very inspirational in this poem by showing us that there are many things in life to be greatful for and that we should experience this sense of joy and tranquility when we are surrounded by the simple pleasures of life that have been given to us all. Works Cited Dickinson, Emily. "314." The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. Thomas H. Johnson. Boston: Little, 1960. Encyclopedia Britannica. 12/05/01. Online. www.britannica.com.

Jungs View of Religion Essay

I will be explaining Jung understands and his views of religion. Jung first starts with the key concept of the mind which is the three concepts of consciousness – consciousness, personal unconsciousness and the collective consciousness. Consciousness is where we actively make decisions and choices. The thoughts are based on a sensory experience e. g. the things we see, smell, hear, touch and taste. These are directly accessible. The personal conscious is out thoughts, feelings, urges which are difficult to bring to the consciousness and they are not directly accessible. They have been environmentally determined. The collective unconsciousness is inherited and the thoughts are shared by everyone – archetypes (inherited ideas: first prints or partners that form the basic blue print for major dynamic counterparts of the human personality. ) Jung believes that the archetypes pre exist in the collective unconscious of humanity. They determine how we both perceive and behave. Archetypes are the source of the ideas or images that is inherited instead of the ideas themselves. The experiences you have construct/create uniform images. We inherit a functional disposition to produce the same or very similar ideas not inherit the idea. This is the reason for a dream dictionary, for example a person could be dreaming that their friend is falling. So the falling is the image drawn from the archetype and the friend is from their experience. So the collective unconscious means that many of our ideas will be shared with people. There are different types of shared archetype examples are: the person – this is the mask that covers out true natures for the benefit of society. The mask could be good impressions of what is expected of us by others or the false impression to manipulate others behaviour and opinions. In our dreams the may manifest itself in images of ourselves appearing at a party in disguise. The shadow – this is our darker sides of us. In dreams it might reveal itself in the form of personification of evil e. g. Satan or monster. It could be deeper of our personality identity beings to be lost and individuals experience the chaos of getting closer to the material structure of psychic life. This commonly is found in the woods. The animus – is the masculine side of a female. They may appear as an exotic, sensual, young man or as heroes. The anima – is the female side of a male. They may appear as a  dancing girl, seductresses or goddess. Jung believes that the way neuroses(mental illness is caused by being psychically imbalanced) occurs is that it arises from being psychically imbalanced (so we become mentally ill if the when the psychic energy – psychological energy by which the work of the personality is performed isn’t flowing as well as it could. To maintain mental health all of the features of the personality need to be balanced so the psychic flows properly. There needs to be a balance between conscious and unconscious and the different archetype. If you fail to do this according to Jung this causes a mental disorder. Jung says through individuation (figuring out who you are and becoming your own self) you become psychically balanced personality through the addition of the range of archetypes into the conscious personality. There are two main process of individuation; the first part is when they come to terms with the outer environment with its challenges through work, friendship and relationship. The second part is from a middle age onwards is to come to terms with one’s own personality. For example a mid-life crisis, this is when someone is in the middle of their life they want what they never had in their youth age e.g. a sports car. They want to become psychically balanced as they missed out when they was youths. The things that come from the archetype such as images or thoughts are considered to be religious. Jung redefines religious thought as the numinous. This relies on Rudolf Otto’s understanding of the religious or numinous experience. According to Otto’s a numinous experience affects our consciousness which is caused by something external to our consciousness. Any experience which is archetypal in origin can be stated as religious. All archetypal images are ineffable (indescribable) . Our images of god are themselves archetypal. The concept of god is one of these primordial images (an archetype). Everyone is born with the tendency to generate religious images of god and angels . the actual image that we have of god are through our experiences in the world. An example of a case study is where Miss Miller had a dream about a moth’s desire for light. Jung said this parallel between god and light can be found in countless religious traditions e. g. the Aztec preoccupation with the sun and the Christian view of Jesus as ‘light of the world’. The role of religion is the process of individuation. The two reasons he gave was the self archetype this guides and controlled the innate process of individuation. Individuation is a religious process. The second reason is the self archetype generates images of wholeness. For example the mandala – means circle and is perfectly balanced, the design is symmetrical which represents the balance and wholeness same with Islamic art instead the repetitive patterns to show his eternality. Jung argues that god images are beneficial to our health. The images are used by the mind to individuate the personality, the personality then achieve its goal of integration. Religion now becomes clear, the ones that reject religion are therefore less likely to individuate successfully and is most likely to experience neurosis as a result. Jung concludes that the existence of an actual god is similar to Freud’s – there is no proof either way. We don’t know where the archetype actually comes from and we don’t know the origin of the-psyche because there are ineffable. As a psychic reality – god is real to those who experience the effect of archetypes. Jung always considered religious beliefs to be a natural expression of the collective unconscious.

Spanish Homophones Same Sound, Different Meanings

Spanish has far fewer homophones — different words that are pronounced the same although they may be spelled differently — than does English. But Spanish homophones and homographs (two different words that are spelled the same, which in Spanish but not necessarily English means they also are pronounced the same) do exist, and it is helpful to learn them if you hope to spell correctly. Homophones and Spelling Some of the Spanish homophone pairs are spelled alike, except that one of the words uses an accent to distinguish it from the other. For example, the definite article el, which usually means the, and the pronoun à ©l, which usually means he or him, are written alike except for the accent. There are also homophone pairs that exist because of a silent h or because certain letters or letter combinations are pronounced alike. Below are most of the common homographs and homophones of Spanish and their definitions. Definitions given are not the only ones possible. An asterisk before a word pair indicates that the words sound alike in some regions but not all. Most often, this occurs because some letters, such as the z are pronounced differently in Spain than in most of Latin America. Most of the word pairs where the two words are closely related but are distinguished in usage by an orthographic accent are not included in the list. Among them are cual/cuà ¡l, como/cà ³mo, este/à ©ste, aquel/aquà ©l, cuanto/cuà ¡nto, donde/dà ³nde, and quien/quià ©n. Spanish Homophones and Homographs a (first letter of the alphabet), a (to), ha (conjugated form of haber)ama, amo (owner, master/mistress), ama, amo (conjugated forms of amar, to love)* arrollo (conjugated form of arrollar, to roll up), arroyo (stream)* asar (to roast), azar (chance, fate)* Asia (Asia), hacia (toward)asta (mast), hasta (until)baile (dance), baile (type of judge)barà ³n (baron), varà ³n (man)basta (enough), basta (coarse), vasta (vast)basto (coarse), vasto (vast)bazar (bazaar), vasar (kitchen shelf)be (phonetic spelling of the letter b), ve (phonetic spelling of the letter v)bello (beautiful), vello (bird down)bienes (property), vienes (conjugated form of venir, to come)bis (encore), vis (force)calle (street), calle (conjugated form of callar, to silence)* callà ³ (conjugated form of callar, to silence), cayà ³ (conjugated form of caer, to fall)* casa (house), caza (conjugated form of cazar, to hunt)* cazo (saucepan), cazo (conjugated form of cazar, to hunt)* ce (phonetic spelling of the letter c ), se (reflexive pronoun), sà © (conjugated form of saber, to know)* cebo (bait), sebo (fat)* cegar (to blind), segar (to cut off)* cepa (vine), sepa (conjugated form of saber, to know)* cerrar (to close), serrar (to saw)* cesià ³n (cession), sesià ³n (meeting)* cesto (basket), sexto (sixth)* cien (hundred), sien (temple of the head)* ciento (hundred), siento (conjugated form of sentir, to feel)* cima (summit), sima (chasm)* cocer (to cook), coser (to sew)copa (cup), copa (conjugated form of copar, to win)de (of, from), de (phonetic spelling of the letter d), dà © (conjugated form of dar, to give)el (the), à ©l (he, him, it)errar (to make a mistake), herrar (to put horseshoes on)ese (that), ese (phonetic spelling of the letter s), à ©se (that)flamenco (Flemish, a dance), flamenco (flamingo)fui, fuiste, fue, etc. (conjugated forms of ser, to be), fui, fuiste, fue, etc. (conjugated forms of ir, to go)grabar (to record), gravar (to worsen)* halla (conjugated form of hallar, to fi nd), haya (conjugated form of haber, to have)* has (conjugated form of haber, to have), haz (conjugated form of hacer, to do)hierba or yerba (herb), hierva (conjugated form of hervir, to boil)hierro (iron), yerro (mistake)hojear (to leaf through), ojear (to look at)hola (hello), ola (wave)honda (deep), honda (sling), onda (wave)hora (hour), ora (conjugated form of orar, to pray), ora (correlative conjunction usually translated as now)* hoya (hole in ground), olla (cooking pot)* hozar (to move dirt around with ones snout), osar (to dare)huno (Hunnish), uno (one)huso (spindle), uso (utilization)la (the, her, it), la (note of the musical scale)* lisa (smooth), liza (battle)mal (bad), mall (shopping mall)mas (but), mà ¡s (more)* masa (mass), maza (club used as weapon)* mesa (table), meza (conjugated form of mecer, to rock)mi (my), mi (note of the musical scale), mà ­ (me)mora (Moorish), mora (blackberry)o (letter of the alphabet), o (or)oro (gold), oro (conjugated form of orar, to pra y)papa (potato), Papa (pope)* pollo (chicken), poyo (stone bench)polo (pole as of a magnet or planet), polo (polo)* poso (sediment), pozo (well, shaft)puya (goad), puya (puya, a type of plant found primarily in the Andes)que (who, that), quà © (what, how)* rallar (to grate), rayar (to make lines on)* rasa (conjugated form of rasar, to skim), raza (race or ethnicity)rebelarse (to rebel), revelarse (to reveal oneself)recabar (to ask for), recavar (to dig again)sabia (wise female), savia (vitality)sol (sun, unit of Peruvian currency), sol (note of the musical scale)solo (alone), sà ³lo (only)si (if), sà ­ (yes)* sumo (supreme), zumo (juice)* tasa (rate), taza (cup)te (you), te (phonetic spelling of the letter t), tà © (tea)ti (you), ti (note of the musical scale)tu (your), tà º (you)tubo (pipe), tuvo (conjugated form of tener, to have)vino (wine), vino (conjugated form of venir, to come) Why Do Homophones Exist? Most homophones came about because separate words coincidentally arrived at having the same pronunciation. An example can be seen with flamenco. The word referring to the dance is related to the English words Flanders and Flemish, presumably because the dance came to be  associated with that part of Europe. Flamenco when referring to flamingos, however, is related to the English word flame (flama in Spanish) because of the birds bright colors.