The Progressive-era stands out as a time when reformers sought to address social ills brought about by a rapidly changing society. Debates surrounded issues such as political corruption, the regulation of business practices, racial equality, women’s suffrage, and the living conditions of impoverished immigrants overcrowded into urban slums.

When it came to the issue of suffrage, did all women agree? Explain.

 

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.

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 Studies4(8), 487.

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

Sample Solution

No, not all women agreed on the issue of suffrage during the Progressive-era. While some women, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, were passionate advocates for the right to vote, many others felt that the cause was too radical or thought it would be an embarrassment to their families. Even within those who supported suffrage, there were divisions among them – African American women pushed for a more inclusive view than what was being proposed by white activists, while other minority groups also sought representation in political debates.

Sample Solution

No, not all women agreed on the issue of suffrage during the Progressive-era. While some women, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, were passionate advocates for the right to vote, many others felt that the cause was too radical or thought it would be an embarrassment to their families. Even within those who supported suffrage, there were divisions among them – African American women pushed for a more inclusive view than what was being proposed by white activists, while other minority groups also sought representation in political debates.

The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was founded in 1890 with a primary focus on state-level campaigns to gain voting rights from legislatures rather than pushing for a federal amendment. The NAWSA leadership excluded people of color from participating and refused to consider resolutions condemning lynching and segregation at its annual conventions until 1920. This caused great contention between white suffragists who wanted equal rights for all regardless of race and black suffragists like Mary McLeod Bethune who believed racial equality should be central to any reform efforts during this period.

In addition to disagreement over tactics or inclusion of certain groups in the movement, there were also divided views amongst some prominent female leaders themselves regarding whether they should align with progressive causes or remain independent from them entirely. Alice Paul famously opposed working within existing organizations like the NAWSA because she felt they were too moderate while Carrie Chapman Catt argued that cooperation with larger progressive reformers provided needed resources and energy toward achieving their goals faster.

Ultimately, due to these disagreements about tactics and strategies among advocates for women’s rights during this time period along with exclusionary policies implemented by some leading figures in the movement against members of different races and classes meant that not everyone agreed on how best achieve complete suffrage for all Americans regardless of gender identity or background when it came down to such matters during this historically significant time period known as Progressivism

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