Description Of Love, Death, Fate, And Honor In Dante' Hell - Essay Example

The Mexican Bishop in Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz’s Reply to Sor Filotea de la Cruz is placed in Eighth circle, Agathocles in Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, in the second ring of the Ninth Circle, and Chaplain in Brecht’s Mother Courage & her Children, in first ring in the Dante’s Seventh circle of hell. The bishop in Sor Filotea de la Cruz belongs to Dante’s Eighth Circle of Hell. Also referred to as Malebolge, the eighth circle has different evil pockets or pouches- divisions of the circle separated by folds of the earth (Alighieri, Dante and Peabody 4).

In particular, the Bishop belongs to the sixth pouch, where hypocrites are placed. The bishop is a great hypocrite since he pretends to be impressed by Sor Juana’s criticism of Antonio de Vieira only to turn against her. The bishop deceives Sor Juana to put her criticism in writing but later publishes the critique under an offending pen name. He also included a letter that condemned Sor Juana’s intellectualism as a woman. Bishop’s hypocrisy is also manifested in his defense for the teachings of the church: Sor Juana defends the right of women to have equal access to education and relentlessly condemns the church for its role of keeping women uneducated.

She also provides her accounts of lifelong struggles with education in a community where learning among women is not favored (Brecht and Kushner 39). However, the Bishop is aware of the importance of education but still campaigns against Sor Juana’s articulations in the pretext of abuse of patriarchal policies of the church. The Chaplain in Brecht’s Mother Courage & her Children belongs to the first ring in Dante’s Seventh circle of hell. This is where those who were violent against others are housed.