Expressing Conflict, Power and Violence: Danger: Relationships in Trouble

by | Apr 5, 2022 | conflict management

Review the four stages of Gottman’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Model. Read each of the following scenarios and determine which stage each couple is experiencing. Complete a Case Study on this case identifying the stage each of these scenarios present from Gottman’s Four Horsemen.

1) Danielle is frustrated because Joe never seems to want to do things with her children anymore. When they first started living together, he played with her children all the time—in fact, he spent more quality time with the children than did their own father. While she’s afraid to say it, Danielle asks Joe if he doesn’t feel a bond with her children anymore because they are not married, and he is not legally their stepfather. As she expresses her dissatisfaction, Joe sits in his favorite recliner, clicks through television channels in search of an interesting program, and responds with “hmmmm” and “umm hmm.”

2) Scott is upset with Missy’s shopping habits. Just last month Missy ran up a $2000 credit card bill. Scott points out that Missy’s shopping has gotten out of hand and threatens to take away her credit cards if she doesn’t get things under control. She defended her purchases by stating, “But Scott, you know I only shop when I get bored. And you’ve been working late for the last three weeks and golfing with your friends on the weekends. I don’t really think buying things that we need, and use is ‘out of hand’!”

3) Elizabeth and Jacque haven’t been getting along lately. Jacque points out to Elizabeth that something needs to be done because their relationship has been unsatisfying in recent months. Elizabeth replies, “Okay Suzy Fix-It. What do you suggest? You’re soooo perfect that I need you tell me what I’ve been doing wrong.”

4) Usha has recently returned to college to take classes toward her nursing degree. Mohammed points out to Usha that she has been spending so much time on college that she has been neglecting the children and the house. Usha responds by saying, “Pardon me! You’re such a perfect father. That’s why the kids’ swing set is still in the box in the garage. And why haven’t you checked on getting my car fixed?”

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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