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In Canto XI of Dante's Inferno, Virgil carefully explains the layout of hell to his student, Dante. Toward the end of his speech, Virgil says that "Sodom and Cahors" are "speak[ing] in passionate contempt of God," (XI, 50-51), and divine will thus relegates them to the seventh circle. The sin of the Sodomites is clear for Dante, who poses no question on the matter, sodomy perhaps being an obvious affront to God which the bible directly addresses. However, the sin of "Cahors," namely usury, is not clear to Dante. He asks Virgil to "unravel" the "knot" in his mind, since there is no obvious reason why a usurer - a money lender essentially - deserves any punishment at all for a crime which does not necessarily involve dishonesty, and certainly is not violent in nature.

Independent of the question itself, the very fact that Dante is comfortable enough to ask Virgil anything reveals a certain intimacy between the two characters. The student-teacher relationship need not be interactive. An interaction implies an equality. Dante could very well have written a Virgil who talks but does not listen, much like the Virgil who wrote the Aeneid; there is no dialogue when one reads an epic poem. Dante's Virgil allows Dante into his intellectual circle, both by listening to Dante, as he does here, and by introducing Dante to other master poets, as he does in Canto IV. Virgil even says that the "pupil imitates his master," which, as we shall see, has an entirely separate meaning, but does refer back to the relationship between this pupil and his master as well.

What is especially remarkable though in the way that Virgil addresses Dante's question is that he is at first condescending. By beginning with, "Philosophy, for one who understands..." Virgil effectively mocks Dante, since Dante is certainly familiar with classical literature (as is evidenced by the Divine Comedy itself). Thus, Dante is on Virgil's level in one sense, and far below him in another, which is true in the grand scheme of the work: Dante is only beginning to understand the workings of the divine order by Canto XI, while Virgil borders on omniscience throughout. Furthermore, Dante has not yet eclipsed Virgil as a poet, since at this point the Inferno is hardly begun, while the Aeneid presents Virgil's view of Hades from top to bottom..

In Dante's hell specifically, the reason that usury is a deadly sin is very confusing, which is why Dante calls it a "knot." Unlike other sins, usury is not on its face a dreadful immorality. Virgil approaches the issue at first philosophically, making the profoundly esoteric claim that "nature follows... the Divine Intellect and the Divine Art." The idea "nature" is therefore composed of these two abstract elements. The "Intellect," coming first, must be at the root of the "Art," since intellect must precede production, as in the Platonic doctrine of the "essence" of a thing preceding the existence of a thing. The "Intellect" is the potential; the art is the result. In concrete terms, the "Intellect" must therefore be the primordial "stuff" from which everything is made, and the "Art" therefore must be the process of making it into something tangible or usable. From this, then, we can deduce that "Intellect" is literally the stuff that God provides to enable us to live - the land, the fruit, the animals - and "Art," the process of sustaining ourselves by using that stuff, the labor.

This interpretation fits perfectly with the rest of the passage. Virgil elaborates on the idea of nature as being the process of going from intellect to art by citing Aristotle's Physics, wherein Aristotle apparently proves that "when it can, your art would follow nature." Our "art," as it were, is not very different from the Divine Art, since God is the source of all that we do (as Saint Augustine says over and over again). Our "art" is our method of self-sustenance as determined by God, since God has given us the tools we need to employ our method ("intellect"). Therefore, we are learning from God "just as a pupil imitates his master." We are, then, "God's pupil," which is an apt analogy since self-sustenance is really a type of creation: Planting and harvesting crops is the human version of making the universe. Virgil goes on to say that our "art" or production "is almost God's grandchild." This analogy sums up everything Virgil has previously said and foreshadows his later comments, as it works in several different ways. First, if the Divine Intellect leads to the Divine Art, and if our art is a derivative of the Divine Art, then our art is indeed the "grandchild" of nature, since it is the offspring of the Intellect and the Art, which are in a way the offspring of nature herself. Second, we are all in some sense God's grandchild, as we are all sons or daughters of Adam. Finally, the idea that our "art" is "almost God's grandchild" reveals the egregiousness of any sin, as we all can imagine a child who is disrespectful to his grandfather more easily than a man who is disrespectful to the abstract "God." Thus we are further prepared for all the terrible punishments that we will encounter in the coming cantos.

Furthermore, the idea of our art being "God's grandchild" is clearly an allusion to the biblical concept that we are made in "God's image," as it says in Genesis. It is therefore perfectly fitting that Virgil makes the allusion, asking Dante to "recall" how Genesis "begins." What Virgil asks us to focus on though is not how we were made, but what Adam had to do to "make [his] way" and thus what "men" in general are supposed to do "to gain their living." The Genesis story teaches that Adam must "in toil eat of [the tree] all the days of [his] life..." and must "eat of the plants of the field." (Genesis, 2.17). To be moral then is to procure wealth (sustenance) through work, turning the "Divine Intellect" through "art" or human labor into life-giving food.

Finally, the "knot" has been "unraveled" for Dante. The usurer "prefers another pathway," meaning that a money lender does not seek to sustain himself by using "stuff" for "life." A usurer by definition uses money to make money. Thus he is cut off both from "Intellect" and "Art," or, as Virgil puts it, "he scorns both nature in herself and art," as "his hope is elsewhere." A banker, for example, charges a fee in exchange for loaning money. Nowhere is he working to produce anything, in contrast to Adam who is a "producer" in the most basic sense. Instead, he is using others as a means of life: in Dante's pre-capitalist economic system, he is a parasite. He is a fraud of the highest magnitude because at first he appears to be doing nothing wrong. As we see in the usurers' punishment in Canto XVII, their "outer semblance" is very normal. Only upon looking closer does one make out that they are "adorned with twining knots and circlets," the word "knots" of course referring back to Dante's original confusion, his own personal "knot" of the mind.

After Virgil has made everything clear, he tells Dante to "follow." The word "follow" (in Italian "seguimi") is the same word that Virgil had used to refer to art "following" ("segue") nature. This repetition underscores the divine presence throughout the Comedy, showing us that Dante is "following" a path that was set for him by the higher power. The reason that it is "time to move" is that Dante now understands why the usurer is a sinner. This means that what is propelling the story forward is Dante's progressive education. At points of confusion, we stop to try to understand. Once the issue is clear, we move on. This gives us a key into understanding the whole work, in that it shows that Dante is on this divine path in order to learn from it. From that we can deduce that we too are on the same path in order to distinguish the moral from the immoral. Dante serves as our Virgil.

Another subtlety within the text that demands a wide-angled literary lens to see is the mixing of secular doctrine with Christian doctrine. Dante has moved seamlessly from Aristotle to Genesis, so that his argument holds on every conceivable level. He even seems to make a indirect reference to the fact that the ideas of the respective schools of thought are both in perfect harmony with the claim - which can be interpreted in a multitude of ways - that "[our] art would follow nature." Our art could very well be a combination of philosophy and science: Aristotle coins the term "metaphysical" in his work Physics. And our art, our logic, does not contradict in the least with the inescapable nature that God creates in Genesis. In fact, it "follows" directly from Genesis.

One final possible interpretation of "your art" (as Virgil says to Dante) is the Comedy itself. The Comedy is a poetical depiction of the divine order as Dante sees it. This is in a way a contradiction, because no human could ever wholly grasp the divine order. Dante seems to recognize that when he has Virgil say that his "art is almost God's grandchild," the word "almost" being key. The connection to the divine mind is irrefutable, as art follows nature, but Dante subtly admits his own humanity. Just as Dante is in one sense the teacher (the writer) and in another the student (Virgil's "pupil"), so too is he in one sense divine, and in another sense human. Perhaps this is how Dante wants us to see him throughout the Comedy. The only way that we could trust him is if he is omniscient like God throughout the whole of the work, while the only way that we could learn from his journey is if he is as ignorant as the reader at the same time.

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The only certain conclusion that one can draw from this incredibly rich passage is that there are a thousand possible conclusions that one could draw, a thousand possible interpretations of a phrase like "Divine Intellect." Not one plausible interpretation however seems to contradict with any other plausible interpretation. This means that Dante has deliberately layered his text just as he has layered hell. We must then, like Dante, work our way carefully through the divine path, asking deeper and deeper questions of our teacher along the way, striving to "unravel" all of our "knots" as we descend further and further down through the spiraling realm of ideas called the Inferno until we have probed deep enough to finally ascend upwards toward the Divine Intellect as nature had always intended.

The Inferno by Dante is not only a catalogue of evil, it also serves as Dante’s outlet for his political frustrations. Dante creates a Hell where the punishments fit the nature and level of evil of the sin. In cataloguing the punishments this way, Dante shows the reader what he feels is the order of sins, by following strict, doctrinal Christian values. The moral system in The Inferno does not prioritize human happiness or harmony on Earth, but God’s will in Heaven. Along the way Dante uses his descent into Hell to show the sins of his political rivals and those who have transgressed against the state in the past.

Dante creates a correlation between a person’s sin on Earth and the soul’s punishment in Hell. The Lustful, blown about by passion in life, are caught by a raging storm and blown about for eternity. The Wrathful attack each other for the hatred and strife they created while alive. The Gluttonous are forced to eat excrement, because of their lack of control. This simple idea is used to illuminate one of Dante’s major themes: God’s wisdom and perfect justice. In Canto III, the gates of Hell bear an inscription that explicitly states God was moved to create Hell by justice. The reason for Hell is to punish sin, and the punishments illustrate the divine perfection that the sinner violates.

In the beginning of The Inferno, Dante creates tension between God’s justice and his fictional self’s sympathy for the tormented souls. Thus, the poem shows God’s infinite wisdom in punishing the sins of the tormented souls. For Dante to pity the suffering of the damned demonstrates his early lack of understanding. As the story unfolds, Virgil’s comments to Dante cause him to become less inclined towards pity for the sinners. The suitability of God’s punishments is significant in Dante’s moral message and in the structure of Hell. Although these punishments may seem harsh, when the poem is viewed in its entirety it becomes clear that the punishments are designed to form a balance with the sin. The sinners’ punishments are constructed to relate allegorically to the sins they committed while alive. Since the notion of balance shapes God’s chosen punishments, his justice is mechanical, strictly objective, and impersonal; there are no extenuating circumstances in Hell.

The structure of Hell serves to reinforce this relation: as Dante travels deeper into Hell the sins become more evil. At times, this structure may be called into question, such as why he views murder (sixth circle) as less evil than fraud (eighth circle). Thus Dante must consider violence less evil than fraud; fraud is the greater opposition of God’s will. God requires that people treat each other with as much love as he extends to all people. Even though violence is a direct act against God’s love, fraud constitutes a perversion of that love. A fraudulent person proclaims love while knowingly committing sin against it.

Throughout The Inferno, Dante asserts a political belief that church and state should be separate but equal powers on Earth. While the church governs a man’s spirit, the state should govern that man’s actions, thus creating a chaste and obedient person. If Christ is the perfect leader of the spirit and Caesar is the perfect leader of the state, then by showing Lucifer masticating Judas, the ultimate spiritual betrayer, and Cassius and Brutus, the ultimate political betrayers, the final image of the poem clearly shows Dante’s belief that treachery against the church and the state are of equal importance and warrant the betrayers’ placement in the final circle of Hell. While Dante emphasizes the equality of church and state, he also asserts the necessity of separating them. Particularly harsh punishments are given to souls guilty of breaking this separation, such as clerics whom accepted bribes or desired political power. Dante intended his work to speak of spiritual matters more than of political ones, so his inclusion of government in his religious allegory is probably a plea for earthly justice that mirrors God’s perfect justice.

While The Inferno implies the moral arguments of sin and punishment, generally there is little discussion of them. Dante simply declares that evil is evil because it is a direct contradiction of God’s will, and God’s will needs no justification. His journey through evil never really addresses the causes or earthly consequences of evil, but instead is a representation of Dante’s personal spiritual and political beliefs. The Inferno is not philosophically motivated and does not critically evaluate evil, but is used to reinforce Dante’s political opinion and Christian doctrine.

T.S. Eliot is considered one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century and his poetry was greatly influenced by Dante Alighieri. Eliot's introduction to Dante was in his college years at Harvard, where he studied philosophy. Eliot read Dante's works extensively in college and may have meant to "apprentice" himself to learn everything he could from the master (Sloane).

Dante's influences on Eliot include appearances by way of direct quotations, similar images, and thematic elements. The direct quotations are simple to find because they are written in Italian, but there are also lines from Dante's works that have been translated and slightly adapted to fit into Eliot's poetry. Dante's images are also prevalent among Eliot's works. Eliot's view of the world as a cold and desolate place was greatly influenced by Dante and his visions of Hell. Similar themes are also apparent; Eliot often uses themes such as isolation from Dante's works to express his own inner feelings. At least one of these three elements can be seen in most of Eliot's works, so it is obvious that Dante influenced Eliot.

The influences from Dante in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" include direct quotations and thematic elements. In "Prufrock" the narrator, Prufrock, seems to be addressing a potential lover. However, Prufrock "knows" too much to simply approach the woman; in his mind he can hear other people's voices mocking and taunting him. Prufrock is very shy about expressing his feelings, and he is only telling us, the reader, under the assumption that no one else will hear him admit to his fear of others judging him. The entire poem is about Prufrock explaining why he cannot express his feelings of love to the woman he admires.

Dante's influence first appears in "Prufrock" as a direct quotation from The Divine Comedy as the first epigraph:

S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse

A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,

Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.

Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo

Non torno vivo alcun, s'i'odo il vero,

Senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo. (1-6)

The epigraph literally means, "If I thought my reply were to one who could ever return to the world, this flame would shake no more; but since, if what I hear is true, none ever did return alive from this depth, I answer you without fear of infamy ("The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot)." This sets the tone for the rest of the poem; Prufrock can speak his shame only because he thinks no one who hears his confession will condemn him for his cowardice (Drew 827).

Prufrock's fear of humiliation seems to be his own personal Hell; the idea of individuals having their own personal Hell is a thematic influence from Dante. Dante's work, The Divine Comedy, is a compilation of different versions of Hell. In "Prufrock" it is obvious that Prufrock is feeling anguish over his inability to express his love for the woman he admires (Bloom 17). Eliot's frustration appears when he can't decide whether or not to speak to the woman:

And indeed there will be time

To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"

Time to turn back and descend the stair,

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair

[They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!"]. (37-41)

Prufrock is obviously frustrated and is even self-conscious of his bald spot when he is contemplating whether or not to tell the woman he adores how he feels. Prufrock is so concerned about his appearance that even when he is trying to speak to the woman, he can't stop thinking about what others think of him. Prufrock finds his inability to go on with life without worrying what other people think is making him miserable, providing his own personal Hell.

Dante's influence appears again in the form of images and themes in Eliot's "The Wasteland". At the beginning of "The Wasteland" there is a description of a prophetic, apocalyptic journey into a desert waste. Near the end there is a very obscure section where the narrator walks through the streets of London populated by the ghosts of the dead. The narrator meets a ghost and asks him what happens to the corpses in the ground. Part one ends with a famous line from the preface of Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal, "You! hypocrite lecteur!-mon semblable,-mon frère!" (76) This quote is accusing the reader of sharing the poet's sins (Martin).

In the following passage from part one, Eliot describes similarities between the crowd and the flow of souls into Hell in Dante's Inferno.

Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,

A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,

I had not thought death had undone so many.

Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,

And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. (61-65)

These city dwellers are lost and lacking values and damned to Hell for all eternity. The description of London as an "Unreal City" suggests that the corruption within the city cannot be imagined and seems like Hell to Eliot (Bloom 42). Near the end of part one, when Eliot quotes Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal, the quote implies that the poet and the reader have sinned, thus damning them to Hell. This exemplifies the theme from Dante that each person has sinned and they will go to their own personal Hell.

Dante's influence becomes apparent in part five of "The Wasteland" when Eliot takes an image directly from Dante's Inferno. The first half of the section builds to an apocalyptic climax, as suffering people become "hooded hordes swarming" and the "unreal" cities of Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna, and London are destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again. The poem ends with seemingly random fragments of children's songs, works from Dante, and works from Elizabethan drama.

Dante's influence in part five expresses the effects of isolation on the mind. In the following excerpt, the image portrayed is taken directly from Dante's Inferno where Ugolino, who is damned in the lowest circle of Hell for treachery, hears the memory of the key turning to lock him and his children in the Hungry Tower to starve to death (Drew 838).

I have heard the key

Turn in the door once and turn once only

We think of the key, each in his prison

Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison

Only at nightfall, aethereal rumours (411-416)

Eliot connects this passage with the reality of human isolation and the idea that memories can be painful even if only you can see them and no one else can.

Once again, Dante influences Eliot in the form of descriptive imagery in "The Hollow Men". "The Hollow Men" is an explanation of how the hollow men could not choose their fate, unlike Guy Fawkes, to whom Eliot makes an allusion earlier. Fawkes plotted to blow up England's House of Commons in 1605, but was arrested before he could set off the gunpowder. Fawkes was executed, but he chose his fate, unlike the hollow men who appear to have no control over their final destination. Eliot often mentions different kingdoms where souls are being kept; these kingdoms bear a striking resemblance to Dante's visions of the afterlife in The Divine Comedy.

The similarities between the Kingdoms mentioned in "The Hollow Men" and Dante's visions of the afterlife are extremely similar. Death's other Kingdom in "The Hollow Men" relates directly to Dante's Inferno, where the violent souls go. Eliot's Death's Dream Kingdom, where those who are suffering towards redemption go, is amazingly similar to Dante's Purgatorio. When the hollow men are waiting to cross the "tumid river", the river is analogous to Dante's River Acheron, the river that separates Purgatorio and Inferno. The Kingdom of God is comparable to Dante's Paradiso (Southam 99).

The hollow men are also similar to the souls in Dante's Ante-Hell of Neutrals. The hollow men died without shame, but they were not praised either. The idea of the Ante-Hell of Neutrals is similar to the Catholics' belief that babies who were not baptized don't go to Hell because they haven't committed any sins, but they can't go to Heaven because they have not been resolved of the original sin. Instead these souls go to purgatory. These souls, like the Hollow Men, do not deserve to be recognized as "violent souls" because they have not done anything wrong. The hollow men have "Gathered on this beach of the tumid river" (60) where they will stay because they do not have adequate reasons to be in Inferno or Paradiso. Both of these beings have been forgotten because they were neither good nor evil (Bloom 61).

Dante Alighieri's influences on T.S. Eliot's poetry are excellent examples of Eliot's expressions of emotions through his poetry. Eliot has been accused of stealing many of Dante's ideas, although they appear to be well integrated in Eliot's poetry. It is apparent that Dante has influenced Eliot in the form of direct quotations, similar imagery, and comparable thematic elements.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold, ed. T.S. Eliot. Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.

Drew, Elizabeth, ed. Major British Writers. Harcourt, Brace & World Inc., 1959.

Martin, Melissa. SparkNote on Eliot's Poetry. 19 Mar. 2006 <http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot>.

Sloane, Patricia. Notes and Observations on T.S. Eliot's Early Poems. 19 Mar. 2006 <http://web.missouri.edu/~tselist/sloane1.html>.

Southam, B.C. A Student's Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot. 5th ed. Faber & Faber, 1990.

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot. 20 Mar. 2006 <http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/enam312/prufrock.html>

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Willard, Jeff. Literary Allusion in "The Hollow Men". 15 Mar. 2006 <http://bosp.kcc.hawaii.edu/Spectrums/Spectrum2000/literary.html>.

Dante’s Inferno is one of the most famous poems ever written in the vernacular. Dante is renowned for being a master of words and a great artist. But what few people know is Dante’s personal history, and the climactic events that prompted him to write Inferno. Dante’s anger towards those who exiled him from Florence was so all-consuming that it poured out in the written word as a personal journey to help him overcome this anger. This is the central idea behind Inferno. Without understanding this, the poem simply seems like a story about a man’s journey through hell. But to really understand Inferno and all of its hidden meanings or insinuations, you must understand Dante’s history and rage over his current situation in life.

Life of Dante, as told by Giovanni Boccaccio, gives us an idea of the political strife Dante faced, prompting the rage which he used to write Inferno. It seems that the citizens of Florence were divided into two political parties, the Black and the White Guelphs. The wars and bloodshed they cost Florence, his beloved city, weighed heavily on Dante, and, wanting to alleviate the situation, he devoted his “genius, art, and learning” (Boccacio, 23) to the party he most agreed with: the White Guelphs. After some time, it seemed as if the Black Guelphs had triumphed, and the leaders of their adversary saw no choice but to admit defeat. “With them Dante, thrust down in an instant from the highest place in the city’s government, saw himself not only fallen to earth, but thrust out from the city” (25). Dante, along with his fellow leaders, were sentenced to perpetual exile by the Black Guelphs, and their property was confiscated. As one might imagine, this did not sit well for our poet. He was forced to leave his wife and children, his property and possessions, and everything he loved about the city which his ancestors built. As he had been a man of means in Florence and unaccustomed to physical labour, he was not pleased when he had to work to sustain himself while traveling. “Oh, what honest indignation he had to repress, more bitter to him than death, while hope promised him that his exile would be brief and his return speedy!” (27). It was under these direst of circumstances of impotent fury and loss that Dante took up his writing of Inferno.

It is improbable that Dante would have written Inferno in the same words had not he been so angry with his life. He saw himself as a brilliant poet who, despite giving everything he had to his beloved city, was left alone and penniless, and in his eyes, mistreated. He is his own main character. In Inferno, he is a man, desperate and confused, who is approached by Virgil to make a spiritual journey through the afterlife. He obviously thinks of himself as worthy enough to be singled out by God to go on this journey, with a world famous poet as his guide. He compares himself to Aeneas and St. Paul, and says, “I alone, I was the only one preparing, as in war, to onward march and bear the agony that thought will now unfailingly relate” (Inf. 2.3-6). When Dante the Pilgrim starts questioning whether he is strong enough to go on this journey, Beatrice comes down from Heaven as an angel to convince him. As Dante makes his journey through hell, he is rewarded for casting further judgement upon sinners, and yet he himself is inexplicably sin-free. When considering that Dante wrote all this about himself, it seems slightly narcissistic. This evidence shows how righteous Dante felt about himself, and this perhaps reflects on how wronged he thought he had been in his real life.

Dante’s anger is evident throughout Inferno, and it gets increasingly angry as the poem goes on. As Dante journeys through the nine circles of Hell, he describes the types of sin and the sinners that he encounters. But unlike the writers of his time who would personify sin, Dante uses actual people who were well known in his time to represent each of the sins. This was a risky move on Dante’s part, since family, friends or supporters of these people could take offense with him over the fact that their comrade was placed in Hell, and the graphic torture they received at Dante’s hand. Dante clearly had anger he wanted to express, and was not afraid to proliferate tensions between himself and his enemies. For example, Pope Boniface VIII, who backed the Black Guelphs and had much to do with Dante’s exile is referenced in Canto VI. Since he is still alive at the time Dante wrote Inferno, Dante avoids placing him in the poem. However, he has reserved a spot in Hell for Boniface. In the eighth circle, Dante and Virgil come across the sinners who have committed simony. They are placed head first into holes in a rock, with their feet on fire. As Dante approaches Pope Nicholas III in such a position, he mistakes Dante for Boniface, whom he is waiting on as his replacement (Inf. 19.52-57). Later Dante again shows his indignation towards the betrayers of himself and Florence. In Canto 32 he meets a multitude of men trapped in ice up to their necks, and he asks one of their names, to which the shade replies, “I’m Camiscion de’ Pazzi. I wait for Carlin. He’ll acquit me here” (Inf. 32.68-69). Alberto de’ Pazzi, nicknamed Camiscion de’ Pazzi, murdered a man named Ubertino. However, Camiscion had a relative, Carlino de’ Pazzi, who had promised to protect some White Guelph exiles in a castle. He then betrayed them and surrendered his castle to the Blacks. As you can see in this Canto, Dante has damned Carlino to the ninth and most treacherous circle of Hell. Like Pope Boniface, Dante cannot place Carlino in Hell just yet as he is still alive, but that does not hinder him from expressing his anger.

Dante’s anger over his situation was so great that it prompted him to write an epic poem as a way to punish the people who had wronged him by placing them in fictional Hell, and inventing more and more shocking and sickening ways for them to suffer. This point is entirely missed by the reader, unless he or she understands Dante’s personal history and reasons why he might want to write so off-putting a story. This understanding is absolutely essential to properly understand Inferno. For this reason alone, Dante’s anger against those who victimized him is the central issue of his work as a whole.

Works Cited

Alighieri, Dante TR Robin Kirkpatrick. Inferno: The Divine Comedy I. London: Penguin Classics, 2010. Print.

Boccaccio, Giovanni TR J.G. Nichols. Life of Dante. London: Hesperus Press Limited, 2002. Print.

Dante's Inferno, itself one piece of a literary trilogy, repeatedly deploys the leitmotif of the number three as a metaphor for ambiguity, compromise, and transition. A work in terza rima that details a descent through Nine Circles of Hell, The Inferno encompasses temporal, literary, and political bridges and chasms that link Dante's inspired Centaur work between the autobiographical and the fictive, the mundane and the divine and, from a contemporary viewpoint, the Medieval and the Modern Dante's recognition of the Renaissance as our millennium's metamorphic period and of himself as its poetic forerunner (until deposition by Shakespeare).

The Inferno is a work of transition between two points, as attested by the opening lines: "When I had journeyed half of our life's way,/ I found myself within a shadowed forest,/ for I had lost the path that does not stray" (I, 1-3). Echoes of these famous lines can be heard in Robert Frost's "The Road Less Traveled"; whereas Frost's poem concerns itself with the duality and firmness of decision, Dante's tercet implies an interval of great indecision and limbo. Indeed, he is anything but entrenched in position: "I cannot clearly say how I had entered/ the wood; I was so full of sleep just at/ The point where I abandoned the true path" (I, 10-12). Dante is nearly sleepwalking, yet another fusion of two worlds, the conscious and unconscious. This division of self can best be explained by Dante's exile and his loss of national identity. He examines this alienated state through a geographic metaphor: "And just as he who, with exhausted breath,/ Having escaped from sea to shore, turns back/ To watch the dangerous waters he has quit,/ so did my spirit, still a fugitive,/ turn back to look intently at the pass/ that never has let any man survive" (I, 22-27). Of course, Dante was in exile when he wrote The Inferno, but his journey takes place beforehand. This "presaging" underscores the theme of cyclical time in the epic, that of historical repetition with confused tenses.

The tangle of temporalities is never more evident than in the Sixth Circle, comprised of Heretics. Dante is told of his future difficulties in returning to Florence from exile: "'If they were slow,' he said, to learn that art,/ that is more torment to me than this bed./ And yet the Lady who is ruler here/ will not have her face kindled fifty times/ before you learn how heavy is that art'" (X, 77-81). As Mandelbaum points out, "Dante himself learned within 50 months how difficult it is to try to return from exile" (Notes, Canto X, 81). This vision of futurity is also bestowed upon the damned:

"'It seems, if I hear right, that you can see/ beforehand that which time is carrying,/ but you're denied the sight of present things.'/ We see, even as men who are farsighted,/ those things,' he said, that are remote from us;/ the Highest Lord allots us that much light./ But when events draw near or are, our minds/ are useless; were we not informed by others,/ we should know nothing of your human state./ So you can understand how our awareness/ will die completely at the moment when/ the portal of the future has been shut'" (X, 97-108).

The rhyme scheme of The Inferno also presents the reader (or, more appropriately, the listener) with foresight. The "aba bcb dcd" terza rima permits each lines to function as both the tercet sandwich's meat and the bread; the cyclical and uniting aspects of time are on sonic display here as the reader is able to glimpse the upcoming tercet's framing lines through the current tercet's middle line. The number three even carries mathematical salience pi is approximated as three, thus furthering the circular imagery. A similar scheme is usually employed in the final lines of each canto, which describe the current setting and the next one: "And so, between the dry shore and the swamp,/ we circled much of that disgusting pond,/ our eyes upon the swallowers of slime./ We came at last upon a tower's base" (VII, 127-130). More important than the devices with which to compose Dante's language is his language itself. Brucker explores the implications of Dante's revolutionary use of the vernacular:

"Yet his Divine Comedy was written in the local Tuscan dialect; not in Latin. And although this work contains the universal concepts of the classical and Christian traditions, it is also a Florentine poem, replete with the particular values, emotions, and concerns of that tradition. The poet did not succeed in reconciling all of the contradictions between the two traditions, but his genius enabled him to surmount these discordant elements, and to create a magnificent synthesis combining ideal and reality, the universal and the particular" (215).

The Inferno is a landmark in literary history as much for its allegorical and spiritual values as for its accessibility. Its similes are at once sweeping and grounded. Though other languages had been written in the vernacular, such as the French fabliaux, those stories were light and comic. Dante's work is the natural predecessor to Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which were written in the English vernacular as opposed to Latin, but which were also comic tales of fabliau descent in which characters remained fairly constant throughout. The descent of The Inferno, pun intended, is that of spiritual catharsis and change. Even the tripartite structure of The Divine Comedy follows the Aristotelian conception of a three-act drama in The Poetics, with a beginning, a middle, and an end (Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise), all of which correlate to the protagonist's metamorphosis.

Though Dante writes in a deeply moral tone, the sinners' immorality is not always so clear-cut. Those in the First Circle, Limbo, are condemned, albeit lightly, for their impious, pre-Christian beliefs: "'...they did not sin; and yet, though they have merits,/ that's not enough, because they lacked baptism,/ the portal of the faith that you embrace./ And if they lived before Christianity,/ they did not worship God in fitting ways;/ and of such spirits I myself am one'" (IV, 34-9). The "portal of faith" denotes the filtering powers of religion, and filters often blur the picture. It is fitting that Limbo resides in the First Circle; they are on the cusp of the above- and below-ground worlds for their lack of grounding in the divine world. This is yet another threesome of Dante's, the heavenly, the earth-bound, and the infernal (and if one chooses to make the correlation, "Paradise" is the heavenly, the infernal is obviously "Inferno," and our time on earth is "Purgatory"). Further ambiguity arises in the Second Circle, where Minos warns Dante to be careful of "whom you trust;/ the gate is wide, but do not be deceived!" and where the environment is appropriately hazy: "I reached a place where every light is muted,/ which bellows like the sea beneath a tempest,/ when it is battered by opposing winds" (V, 19-20, 28-30). Dante encounters Francesca, who persuades him of her relative innocence through her poetic description of love: "'Love, that can quickly seize the gentle heart,/ took hold of him because of the fair body/ taken from me how that was done still wounds me./ Love, that releases no beloved from loving,/ took hold of me so strongly through his beauty/ that, as you see, it has not left me yet./ Love led the two of us unto one death'" (V, 100-6). Her anaphoric refrain of "Love" and its captivating powers stands out as lyrically enchanting even among Dante the poet's legendary similes, but Dante the traveler's emotional reaction is suspect; after all, he was warned not to be deceived, and he concedes that "pity/ seized me, and I was like a man astray," much like his initial state prior to his descent (V, 71-2). Francesca contends that "'There is no greater sorrow/ than thinking back upon a happy time/ in misery" (V, 121-2), another continuation of the past-present thread, and she then recounts the power a book had over her love:

"One day, to pass the time away, we read/ of Lancelot.../ And time and time again that reading led/ our eyes to meet, and made our faces pale,/ and yet one point alone defeated us./ When we had read how the desired smile/ was kissed by one who was so true a lover,/ this one, who never shall be parted from me,/ while all his body trembled, kissed my mouth./ A Gallehault indeed, that book and he/ who wrote it, too; that day we read no more'" (V, 130-8).

Mandelbaum explains that "Since Gallehault is a character who encouraged the queen and her lover, the book is a Gallehault indeed,' for it serves Paolo and Francesca as a go-between'" (Notes, V, 127-138). Not only is literature again used as a bridge, but the power of words is what is truly on display here. Are Francesca's odes sincere or seductive? Since marriage was so often an arranged affair in Florence and, along "with wealth, antiquity, and the possession of high communal office...were the most important factors for determining social status," Dante's fainting from the notion of true love is feasible. Still, Francesca's wily words serve as yet another trinity, also one of poetic implications: the transition from thought to language to speech. Here, thought parallels the memory of the "crime," Lust, while language is the factual account, and speech beautifies the act. The intermediary and enhancing qualities of the Arthurian romance she read highlight Dante's vision of poetry. Even if Francesca is cajoling him, he seems to suggest, her lyricism excuses her. The Lustful are placed only in the Second Circle, after all; theirs is a victimless crime, and the third player is an emotion, not a vice.

Less ambiguous is Dante's indictment of the greed that has split Florence into the White and Black parties. The Usurers of the Seventh Circle each wears a purse with his family's heraldic emblem about his neck, and one purse is "bloodred,/ and it displayed a goose more white than butter" (XVII, 62-3). The symbolic significance warring factions asphyxiated by their own nepotistic, violent, and immoral practices from which they grow as fat as an "azure, pregnant sow"compactly explain the prevailing view that holds usury as unnatural and anti-mercantilist (XVII, 64). In contrast to the innocuous Lustful in the Second Circle, usurers capitalize off the loss of others. This is Dante's underlying moral concern, that of indicting selfishness and disloyalty. The final circle holds three of history's greatest traitors, Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. Lucifer gnaws at them in his mouth, a digestive image that reconciles the external and the internal: "Within each mouth he used it like a grinder/ with gnashing teeth he tore to bits a sinner,/ so that he brought much pain to three at once" (XXXIV, 55-7). The unity of wrath the three treasonous figures receive is another conflation of triangulation, and one that leads to the epic's final image of reemergence: "My guide and I came on that hidden road/ to make our way back into the bright world;/ and with no care for any rest, we climbed/ he first, I following until I saw,/ through a round opening, some of those things/ of beauty Heaven bears. It was from there/ that we emerged, to see once more the stars" (XXXIV, 133-9). The celestial image, as viewed through a portal of the earth, fuses Dante's trinity of the netherworld, the world, and the other-world, and leaves the reader with a lasting sense of redemption in the divine.

A modern critic can interpret Dante's fixation on the number three with a multitude of metaphors yet to be covered Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; material-artist-reader; (B)lack-(W)hite-color but the very fact that The Inferno lends itself to so many speaks highly of its notion of a "third way" as an ambiguous compromise. What is most fascinating is the degree to which one of the more stable metaphors, that of past, present, and future, has come true. The Inferno repeatedly invokes past epics, especially Virgil's Aeneid, with such cries as "O Muses, o high genius, help me now," and Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan welcome Dante and Virgil into Limbo. Now many modern poets, most notably T.S. Eliot, allude quite frequently to Dante's work. It seems that The Inferno will forever be canonically in the terza rima originally written as a centerpiece to the Italian epic, now accepted as a framer of world literature.

WORKS CITED:

Brucker, Gene A. Renaissance Florence. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.

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Mandelbaum, Allen. Inferno (translation). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

Table of contents

1. Abstract
2. Conclusion
3. Reference

Abstract

In a traditional sense humans have been considered to be solidly and indisputably classified as high-functioning animals, but both their biological and physical constraints limit/tether humankind to the base level. It is here that Post Humanism promises a condition in which humans and intelligent technology are intertwined by means of developing science, including hereditary building, computerized innovation, and bioengineering, as a venture to alter the human species to modify their body and look, alter human life span, mental aptitude, and faculties. A vicious side of such a promise for human enhancement other than as therapy is seen in these 21st centuries Hollywood films such as in Morgan's British-American science fiction film by  Luke Scott where an artificial being with nanotechnology-infused synthetic DNA The 'hybrid biological organism” named Morgan is more astute than humans and develops rapidly. At a point when the girl breaks free, the staff members find themselves in a dangerous lockdown with a capricious and fierce engineered human. Furthermore, in the film Splice Canadian-French sci-fi film by Vincenzo Natali investigates a great deal of the moral ramifications of making new life remixed from developed genes of Earth. Thirdly in Elysium American science fiction action film produced, written, and directed by Neill Blomkamp. Set in a future where just two worlds exist: the affluent, who live on a man-made space station called Elysium, and poor people, who live on the tragic survives from the Earth.

Keywords- Ethics, Hybrids, Enhancement, Humans, Transhumanism

In a traditional sense, humans have been considered to be solidly and indisputably classified as high-functioning animals, but both their biological and physical constraints limit/tether humankind to the base level. It is here that Post Humanism promises a condition in which humans and intelligent technology are intertwined by means of developing science to alter the human species by modifying their body and look, altering human life span, mental aptitude, and faculties. Transhumanism is a way of thinking that tries to take us toward a post-human condition. Utilizing both advanced nanotechnology or radical innovative enhancements and through the blend of biological advancements such as genetic engineering, life extension therapies, neural interfaces, or brain mapping, transhumanism supplants the human consciousness by these artificially created intelligent cyborgs or cross breeds.

These technologies seek to end all human realities such as disease, aging, and even death. They may empower us to enjoy more noteworthy 'morphological freedom' through prosthetics or hereditary design. Transhumanism expects to use complex innovation to design and overhaul the human populace's insight and physiology to superhuman levels as they have confidence in the compatibility between the human personality and computer hardware. In short equivalent access of contemporary technology to all is what transhumanists advocate for. A progression from the present human condition, to moving beyond other physical constrained due to the natural limitations of humanity is the ultimate objective of transhumanism.

Transhumanist scholars contend that there not simply exists an imperative for people towards advancement and improvement of the human condition but also conceivable for mankind to enter a transhuman phase, in which people are responsible for their own development. A natural evolution in such a stage would be supplanted with intentional changes. 'Utility' by Jeremy Bentham is the contrast between net happiness and net suffering. Numerous transhumanist advancements can possibly diminish this suffering. In order to accomplish the best utility, we should limit the suffering. Perpetual human existence is also sought by a few transhumanists as it would wipe out the suffering brought about by the dread of death. Disability can be eliminated by Therapeutic means of transhumanism by the use of smart prosthetics. Genetic engineering more comprehensively could be utilized to abstain from having a child with any hereditary disability by rejecting such embryos or by including characteristics’ of guardians' choices.

Transhumanism in the long run by expanding the humans’ ability to fix neurological issues, of creating artificial bodies or limbs, of ideas/thoughts enables people to live without any restrictions forced by their physical structure and lets human beings to be their own masters. These potential changes to the human body are proposed by transhumanists due to a conviction that every single person can possibly live a satisfying life, and that the normal lack of the body shouldn't disrupt the general flow of such a presence. Ultimately transhumanism improves the existence of humans by expelling the other physical aspects that can debilitate or even execute us. However, many would contend that the end of suffering may not promise happiness. Happiness is not determined by the overall magnitude of suffering, yet rather by one's passionate mentality and position in contrast with others. Some have recommended that suffering adds to a fuller life experience by and large. At the end of the day, suffering is a fundamental part of the human experience.

What the paper inquires is: who might administer and take an interest in this improvement of the populace? Some transhumanism are making it obvious it's a constrained few. In doing as such, they are thinking a way nearer with the impacts of selective breeding called “eugenics'. It is the study of improving the human species by specifically mating individuals with explicit, 'attractive' innate characteristics to breed out infection, inabilities, and other 'bothersome' human qualities. It was very well known with the Nazis. While even transhumanism doesn't expressly encourage rearing for the prevalence of one such explicit superior group, but the strategies embraced by some prominent transhumanists go for a similar end. This paper in an effort to better understand and evaluate transhumanism and its vicious side of such a guarantee of human improvement is studied through the medium of film.

Films can act as case studies by which to discuss the ethical issues at hand. In addition, the film connects generations, individuals, and societies – allowing for an exchange of perspectives. In a few of the 21st century Hollywood movies, for example, Morgan (2016) British-American sci-fi movie by Luke Scott, Splice (2009) Canadian-French sci-fi movie by Vincenzo Natali, and Elysium (2013) American sci-fi action movie produced, written and directed by Neill Blomkamp. The 'hybrid biological organism” named Morgan with nanotechnology-infused synthetic DNA is an artificial being with respect to self-sufficient decision making and enthusiastic responses and is more intelligent and matures quickly than a normal human being. Morgan, who's in fact only 5 years of age (however far more astute and more grounded than her years) rises out of the corporate fixation of genetic engineering and is not a far variant of a 'human' being. She is a corporate trial who has experienced childhood in a glass box. The film opens with an unstable scene in which she's told, by one of her guardians (Jennifer Jason Leigh), that they will need to trim back on the time she invests outside — the time that Morgan esteems with so much emotion. She responds to the news by jumping out of her seat and attempting to hook the watchman's eye out.

So here's the rub: Morgan has emotions, yet she likewise has a profoundly overdeveloped (or perhaps simply uncontrolled) id. She'll gaze intently at a questioner over the table with a hope to slaughter; she can glare into a surveillance camera and let the individual watching feel as though she's looking appropriate back at them. At the point when the young lady breaks free and starts going crazy, the staff individuals end up in a perilous lockdown with an unusual and savage engineered human. Here the authorities choose what Morgan ought to and ought not to do she is chained in, her emotions are not esteemed, she is constantly under the surveillance of the camera. The corporates need to prepare her to be the perfect species to stay as an extraordinary case of human intelligence instead of letting her to be the means by which she is. Splice (2009) investigates a ton of the moral ramifications of making a new life remixed from advanced qualities on Earth. What marks as science improving people with counterfeit bodies, mind-boosting medications, or genetic engineering, turns into a bad dream where man is obliged to the innovation he makes.

Splice is a film about Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley), a pair of researchers who work in the field of hereditary design. The couple makes hereditarily changed animals whose tissues incorporate hormones and synthetic substances that could conceivably fix savage human infections. Clive and Elsa's lab, Nucleic Exchange Research and Development (or, as an abbreviation, NERD), is owned by a pharmaceutical organization that circumspectly empowers their work, realizing that the researchers' manifestations contain the potential for leap and, considerably, bigger benefits. After a few failed experiments and being forbidden by their bosses from endeavoring to either clone or change human DNA, Elsa inserts her very own hereditary material into an embryo. Consequently, the couple is troubled with a mysterious child who has both human and non-human DNA. The animal, who Elsa names Dren (Delphine Chanéac), a re-arranged word for 'geek,' develops at a quickened pace, and before long winds up both a physical and sexual danger to both of her new parents. Dren causes both Elsa and Clive to perform sexual and rough acts that become progressively debased and frantic as the film advances. What started as something crisp declines into the equivalent slithery, goopy, bleeding thriller wherein Dren all of a sudden experiences a sex change and fiercely assaults Elsa. This drives us to an end that the Integration of machines and science undermines our very meaning of mankind and that they are excessive without passionate emotions.

Elysium (2013) depicts two worlds in the year 2154 - an unhealthy and overpopulated Earth and Elysium, a space station where world-class life a long way from the fuming masses in superbly manicured houses. Malignancy can be restored in seconds on Elysium. Set in a future where just two classes of individuals exist: the well-off, who live on a man-made space station called Elysium, and poor people, who live on the dystopian Earth. Those that stay on Earth wind up without access to the modern innovation that makes life on Elysium virtual heaven free from sickness or different issues that plague society. Those that are blessed enough to live on Elysium are able to utilize their maximum potential as individuals are devoid from the limits of their own physical bodies. The significant topic addressed in this film is the role of innovation in improving human presence and how inconsistent access to such innovation represents a significant risk to the general welfare of humankind.

This idea is thusly a significant part of transhumanism, which is defined by noted transhumanist Nick Bostrom of Oxford University as “an international cultural and intellectual movement with an eventual goal of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.” Basically, transhumanism is the conviction that disparity, physical/mental lack, and cultural issues that are brought about by human impediments can be overwhelmed by expanded access to innovation. Transhumanism believes that it can and should profit to every single individual, regardless of their national identity, sexual orientation, race, religious beliefs, gender or other factors by the marvels of present-day innovation. To transhumanists, it is unfathomable that individuals in developing nations can't exploit their natural potential as a result of an absence of access to innovation that is broadly accessible in wealthier countries. Such inconsistent access to innovation implies that not only will these individuals suffer, yet that humankind all in all will suffer due to the potential commitments that will never be made by a section of the worldwide populace because of their absence of access to significant innovation. Transhumanism is like humanism in that it puts an equivalent incentive on all human life and on its dependence upon science and human advancement rather than prayers or religious conviction to improve mankind.

Elysium is positively implied as an ethical evaluation of disparity a cutting-edge story of those who are well off versus the less wealthy. The rich, in Blomkamp's earth of 2154 live on the space station of Elysium-a trans-humanist heaven where ailments are wonderfully checked away while the whole earth underneath has turned into an immense ghetto. Elysium is the mother of all gated networks the individuals inside it are rich and wonderful while those outside suffer. Elysium demonstrates to us that innovation can extraordinarily improve the lives of those that approach its advantages. It additionally demonstrates to us the shades of the evil of permitting just the affluent to appreciate such innovation and the requirement for egalitarian philosophies like transhumanism which advocates for both expanded use of innovation and equivalent access to its advantages.

Conclusion

What does transhumanism mean for those who are not enhanced? Like most front-line medicinal advancements today, the first and most desirable transhumanist devices will be restricted to the well-off. The well-off and special can utilize these gadgets to strengthen their prevalent social position. Efforts could be made to guarantee that equivalent enhancements are accessible to all, yet this would confine the assets that could be allotted to upgrading every person. The rich would consistently have the option to purchase predominant upgrades on the underground market. Taken to the extreme, transhumanism could make a society with human and transhuman castes, with transhumans apparently progressively esteemed for their upgraded capacities.

With an obsession/fixation on elite offspring, those with money and power will utilize Transhumanism as a possibility and may sanction horrendous things in the name of contributing to the future of humanity like sterilization and genocide. While the primary unfortunate casualties will consistently be oppressed and underestimated, no one is really 'safe' from being proclaimed 'unacceptable' for an elite human race. When a few people are announced prevalent, they could change the meaning of mediocrity to incorporate anybody they please. In the event that that seems like fear-mongering, here's a reminder that the Nazis were so intrigued with making a superior race that they sterilized 400,000 Germans and submitted mass genocide.

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An intriguing point is about having an everlasting life and joy. Is it fortunate or unfortunate to live forever the end of time? Won’t people be tired of being happy forever? Nobody knows, nobody did. Without genuine changes, I believe individuals can't remain glad always, yet they can trick themselves that they are happy. Yes, the virtual world gives opportunity, and yet, it leaves you no way to battle against the strong grounded forces. When you turn yourself into data with no control over the code how might you be certain your mind will cease to exist forever? In the physical world, it's straightforward. No heartbeat, no breathing — you are dead. In the virtual world, individuals are put away on numerous servers in various variants and nobody can check if this information was deleted. The supreme code can do anything it needs and it will never be caught or blamed for injustice. AI is the new God and we as a whole will play by its principles without a possibility of infringement. Foucault's idea that we live in a panoptic culture – one in which the feeling of being unendingly watched imparts discipline – is presently extended to the point where the present perpetual apparatus has been known as a 'superpanopticon'.

Reference

1. “Best Genetic Modification Movies That Will Make You Rethink the Future.” Futurism, https://vocal.media/futurism/best-genetic-modification-movies.
2. Elysium. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, Sony pictures, 9 Aug.2013.
3. Nevozhai, Denys. “Transhumanism and the Questions It Raises.” Medium, Medium, 3 Apr. 2017, https://medium.com/@dnevozhai/transhumanism-and-the-questions-it-raises-51d90b6e6804.
4. Morgan. Directed by Luke Scott, 20th Century Fox, 2 Sep. 2016.
5. Splice. Directed by Vincenzo Natali, Warner Bros. Pictures, 6 Oct.2009
6. The Swaddle. “What Is Transhumanism and Why Do People Associate It With Eugenics?” The Swaddle, 8 Aug. 2019, https://theswaddle.com/transhumanism-jeffrey- epstein/.
7. “Transhumanism.” Transhumanism - Ascension Glossary, https://ascensionglossary.com/index.php/Transhumanism.
8. TRANSHUMANIST VALUES - Nick Bostrom. https://nickbostrom.com/ethics/values.pdf.

Table of contents

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Objectives
4. Types Of Anaysis
Data requirementsData processingData cleaning
5. Conclusion
6. References

Abstract

Data analysis is known as 'analysis of data 'or 'data analytics', is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, suggesting conclusions and supporting decision making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, encompassing diverse techniques under a variety of names, in different business, science, and social science domains. Data mining is a particular data analysis technique that focus on modeling and knowledge discovery for predictive rather than purely descriptive process, while business intelligence covers data analysis that relies heavily on aggregation, focusing on business information. In statistical applications data analysis can be divided into descriptive statistics, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and confirmatory data analysis (CDA). EDA focuses on discovery new features in the data CDA on confirming or falsifying existing hypotheses. Predictive analytics focuses on application of statistical models for predictive forecasting or classification, while text analytics applies statistical, linguistics, and structural techniques to extract and classify information from textual sources, a species of data. All are varieties of data analysis. Data integration is a precursor to data analysis, and data analysis is closely linked to data visualization and data dissemination. The term data analysis is sometimes used as a synonym for data modeling.

Introduction

Introduction: The process of converting raw data into information starts with data processing and continues to data analysis. The analysis involves using statistical techniques to order data with objective of obtaining answers to research questions. Analysis can be viewed as the ordering, the breaking down into constituent parts, and the manipulation of data to obtain answers to the research question or questions underlying the survey project. Analysis is followed by interpretation of research results by using the output of analysis to make inference and draw conclusion about the relationships. Analysis of data is done using a careful plan, developed by an open-minded and flexible analyst.

Good, Bar and Scats have listed four modes to get started on analysis the gathered data

1. To think in terms of significant tables that the data permit.
2. To examine carefully the statement of problem and earlier analysis and to study the original records of data.
3. To get away from the data to think about the problem in layman’s terms or to actually discuss the problems with others.
4. To attack the data by making various statistical calculations. Any of these approaches can be used to start analysis of data. The data analysis strategy is influenced by factors like the type of data, the research design researcher’s qualifications and assumptions underlying a statistical technique.

Objectives

Topic sentence: In a study involved with planning for the future, framing the issues through problem identification and realistic goals and objectives is critical. Evidence & citing: How problems are framed shapes the nature of the solutions and the criteria upon which those solutions will be judged. The purposes of this section are to identify goals and objectives for East Anchorage’s future transportation system, to help ensure that the future transportation system will facilitate our achievement of those goals. This section outlines the existing goals and objectives guiding transportation improvements and planning at the federal, state, and local levels.

Types Of Anaysis

Topic sentence: Quantitative data are anything that can be expressed as a number, or quantified. Evidence & citing: Examples of quantitative data are scores on achievement tests, numbers of hours of study, or weight of a subject. Commentary: These data may represented by ordinal, interval, or ratio scales and lend themselves to most statistical manipulation.

Topic sentence: Qualitative data cannot be expressed as a number. Evidence & citing: Data that represent nominal scales such as gender, socieo economic status, religious preference are usually considered to be qualitative data. The process of data analysis Topic sentence: Analysis refers to breaking a whole into its separate components for individual examination. Evidence & citing: Data analysis is a process for obtaining raw data and converting it into information useful for decision-making by users. Commentary: Data is collected and analyzed to answer questions, test hypotheses or disprove theories Statistician John Tukey defined data analysis in 1961 as:"Procedures for analyzing data, techniques for interpreting the results of such procedures, ways of planning the gathering of data to make its analysis easier, more precise or more accurate, and all the machinery and results of (mathematical) statistics which apply to analyzing data. There are several phases that can be distinguished, described below. The phases are iterative, in that feedback from later phases may result in additional work in earlier phases.

Data requirements

Topic sentence: The data is necessary as inputs to the analysis are specified based upon the requirements of those directing the analysis or customers who will use the finished product of the analysis. Evidence & citing: The general type of entity upon which the data will be collected is referred to as an experimental unit (e.g., a person or population of people). Specific variables regarding a population (e.g., age and income) may be specified and obtained. Data may be numerical or categorical (i.e., a text label for numbers). Data collection Topic sentence: Data is collected from a variety of sources. Commentary: The requirements may be communicated by analysts to custodians of the data, such as information technology personnel within an organization. Evidence & citing: The data may also be collected from sensors in the environment, such as traffic cameras, satellites, recording devices, etc. It may also be obtained through interviews, downloads from online sources, or reading documentation.

Data processing

Topic sentence: The phases of the intelligence cycle used to convert raw information into actionable intelligence or knowledge are conceptually similar to the phases in data analysis.Evidence & citing: Data initially obtained must be processed or organized for analysis. Commentary: For instance, these may involve placing data into rows and columns in a table format (i.e., structured data) for further analysis, such as within a spreadsheet or statistical software.

Data cleaning

Topic sentence: Once processed and organized, the data may be incomplete, contain duplicates, or contain errors. Commentary: The need for data cleaning will arise from problems in the way that data is entered and stored. Evidence & citing: Data cleaning is the process of preventing and correcting these errors. Common tasks include record matching, identifying inaccuracy of data, overall quality of existing data, duplication, and column segmentation. Such data problems can also be identified through a variety of analytical techniques. For example, with financial information, the totals for particular variables may be compared against separately published numbers believed to be reliable. Unusual amounts above or below pre-determined thresholds may also be reviewed. There are several types of data cleaning that depend on the type of data such as phone numbers, email addresses, employers etc. Quantitative data methods for outlier detection can be used to get rid of likely incorrectly entered data. Textual data spell checkers can be used to lessen the amount of mistyped words, but it is harder to tell if the words themselves are correct.

Conclusion

Conclusion paragraph: Now a days we will not able to live data analysis. Because in every field we must need variety types of analysis . Which will helps as very much. This data analysis helps in economical field, business field, statistical field ..etcThe statistical techniques in the data analysis is help to order the objective of obtaining answers. Through this analysis we will got good and accurate result.

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References

1. Research methodology (Shashi K. Gupta , Praneet Rangi)

Introduction

Should follow an “upside down” triangle format, meaning, the writer should start off broad and introduce the text and author or topic being discussed, and then get more specific to the thesis statement.

Background

Provides a foundational overview, outlining the historical context and introducing keyinformation that will be further explored in the essay, setting the stage for the argument to follow.

Topic sentence

The topic sentence serves as the main point or focus of a paragraph in an essay, summarizing the key idea that will be discussed in that paragraph.

Evidence & citing

The body of each paragraph builds an argument in support of the topic sentence, citing information from sources as evidence.

Commentary

After each piece of evidence is provided, the author should explain HOW and WHY the evidence supports the claim.

Conclusion paragraph

Should follow a right side up triangle format, meaning, specifics should be mentioned first such as restating the thesis, and then get more broad aboutthe topic at hand. Lastly, leave the reader with something to think about and ponder once they are done reading.

Table of contents

1. The Rise of Analytics in Retain Industry
What are the analytical tools that suit best in the retail industry?Analytics designed to target Social Media as Tool
2. Customised promotions

In the modern retail sector the consumers are the primary drivers of change in this industry, all the decision making process has become more sophisticated and complex than ever before. The objectives of this research analysis report is to find appropriate suggestions to the most commonly faced and concerning questions faced by retailers and what is the best course of actions that can be taken to attain profitability in the retail sector and how to sustain in the retail business in this digital age, Most common questions of them include

a) Identification of the valuble consumers and the strategies to retain them

b) What sort of price should a company generally has to offer to maximize its profits?

c) How to target the potential customers in the future campaigns?

d) What are the inventory valuation and stock handling methods to be adopted so that a company can face the possibility of running out of stocks or measures to be taken so that no excess stock is maintained

There is a quite a bit of uncertainity in this retail business especially in the unorganised retail business models. The key to solve such complex business challenges lies in the efficient and effective way of using modern technological methods with the help of data analytics, a key discipline that involves extensive usage of data and statistics with the help of machine learning to reveal the valuble insights that help the business to prosper and these can be a valuble business aiding tool in the decision making process

The Rise of Analytics in Retain Industry

The practise of using analytics in retail sector began from simple mining techniques like in the IT programming language of SQL queries that would just contain the subset of interests which are filtered from the main database which by example we can understand like in a small scale retail store which uses computer entries of every customer with the help of this software it could show the details of revenue the unit was generation from its top 10 percent of buyers every month.

But since the cloud based POS system came into usage along with advancements in mobile technology and the excessive usage of social media by the millineals has lead to the exponential growth in the volume of data that is being generated and stored with the retail organizations. The scope of analytics for the retails using statistical tools and machine learning algorithms to findout the patterns in the data to predict the future outcomes has become a possibility.

For instance a simple regression analysis can be used on the demographic and connection with the pattern of their buying behavior in the past can be used a vital tool as respective propensities to respond to a future campaign. The fact that such insights are based on hard numbers makes analytics a very powerful tool for enhancing the objectivity in decision-making.

What are the analytical tools that suit best in the retail industry?

Given the wide range of analytical practices followed in the industry, it is not viable for any retailer to pursue all of the available options with equal thoroughness. This makes the selection of practices a vital decision from the wide range of option. Such a selection must be in sync with the model of the business that suits the goals and matches the aim of the firm in the long run

To further explain this concept let’s look at the possible points of focus

1) For a retailer aiming to be the best price provider in its segment, developing analytical solutions related to pricing and supply chain would probably be the best starting point.

2) An organization looking to expand into new markets should venture into analytics with a focus on solutions related to the selection of store location and store size that suits its business needs..

The next section of the report explores the breadth of analytical practices in retail, demonstrating their major applications through nine frequently used solutions across three different categories marketing, supply chain management and customer experience.

The Business Analytical tools that can help to enhance and improve the customer experience

With the increase in competition and advent of new channels like web and mobile technology, customers can now choose from multiple options when it comes to making final purchase decisions. So, providing a superior customer experience across channels has become critical for both acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones. Retailers can improve customer experience through prompt response and appropriate messaging based on customers’ preferences. Some examples are given below.

Step-1 Recommendation of Products

Retailers can use customer purchase history and past transaction baskets to recommend products that they are most likely to buy.

For instance in a retail store it is presumed that there is one customer who visits the store frequently, the system analyst has all the data records of purchases being made by the customer every month so simple with the use of the modern data analytics a company can identify the frequent buying patterns and next time the customer visits use this data to specifically suggest the customer’s favorite brand or product or recommend the upgraded version or different models of same product so this gives a better personal experience from the shopper’s point of view and easy for the company to analyze its best moving stock or consumer preferred products so that they can maintain required stock in case of contingency.

Step 2: Bundled products or Combo Selling technique

This analytical solution can help retailers in developing targeted product recommendations for customers. Doing so can lead to an increase in the wallet share of customers and improve customer experience and loyalty.

A typical example of product recommendation is the instant suggestions given by various e-commerce websites as soon as a person selects a product. They present a list of similar products under the heading ‘You might also be interested in.’ This helps customers to find meaningful products and helps the organization increase its cart size.

Analytics designed to target Social Media as Tool

Customer conversations on social media platforms can be leveraged by retailers to engage them online and manage their experience in real time. This can also help retailers obtain meaningful insights, which can be shared with relevant functions within the organization for further action.

a) Social media analytics tools consist of web crawlers that can capture unstructured data across multiple social media platforms.

b) A text mining model then parses conversations into positive, neutral and negative buckets based on their content.

c) Sentiment analysis can help track consumer behavior in real time across channels and monitor brand health online.

Customised promotions

Retailers can create customized promotions for their customers based on their product preferences as well as their past responses to similar promotions. The analytical solution involving regression techniques first identifies customers who are to be targeted and then helps design customized promotions for them.

Table of contents

1. SWOT Analysis Strengths
WeaknessesOpportunitiesThreatsData analytics in the manufacturing industry
2. Conclusion
3. Bibliography

Data analytics is the process of examining data sets in order to draw conclusions about the information they contain. This is done with the aid of specialised systems and software. In this report I will talk about data analytics, and discuss some of the strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats associated with it. Finally, I will discuss the importance of data analytics in the manufacturing industry today. Data analytics technologies and techniques are widely used in commercial industries to enable organisations to make more-informed business decisions and by scientists, engineers and researchers to verify or disprove scientific models, theories and hypotheses. Data analytics can help businesses increase revenues, improve operational efficiency, optimise marketing campaigns and customer service efforts, respond more quickly to emerging market trends and gain a competitive edge over rivals, all with the ultimate goal of boosting business performance. Depending on the application, the data that's analysed can consist of either historical records or new information that has been processed for real-time analytics uses. In addition, it can come from a mix of internal systems and external data sources.

SWOT Analysis Strengths

The fundamental strength of data analysis or big data is in the three Vs it represents: volume, velocity, and variety. The sheer volume, velocity, and variety of data that is getting scooped up opens up a new array of business opportunities in all functional areas from marketing, operations, accounting, finance, and human resource management, and in all sorts of organizations from industry, government, and non-profit. In short, the data itself is the opportunity for innovation.

Weaknesses

As big data analytics becomes more popular and a more standard part of modern business processes, there will need to be more training and knowledge transfer for the small to medium enterprises such that they are able to analyse the data they collect to gain a better insight into what their customers want and need. It was pointed out that there are not enough people comfortable dealing with large amounts of data and that big data should be incorporated into all aspects of an undergraduate degree so that more graduates have at least a moderate level of understanding in the field. Another major issue with data analytics is the risk of unintentionally, or deliberately, violating the privacy of individuals, as companies analyse large amounts of data the risk of this happening can be high.

Opportunities

Data analytics has an exciting set of opportunities in many different industries including healthcare, education, manufacturing, supply chain, and transportation. Similarly, the promise of big data spans all functional areas including, marketing, accounting, finance, operations, and human resource management. Big data can be used to tease out unique customer needs and wishes and develop products and services that satisfy those needs. Another area where data analytics could benefit a good majority of the population would be in the education sector. Having the ability to process the data to see if teachers are being effective in improving their students' performance would not only increase the testing scores to boost the school system's standing, but it would make for a more productive and educated future workforce.

Threats

As more and more data are collected, there is a risk that some of this data could be used inappropriately. For example, in the healthcare field, if a third party were analysing data, the data would have to be stripped clean of certain identifying information. Leaving someone's name or other personally identifiable information in a dataset that was sent outside of the company could not only endanger the client, whether it be from identity theft or some type of fraud scheme; but it could also have an impact on the company that released the information.

Data analytics in the manufacturing industry

Data Analytics is hugely important to the manufacturing industry today, as it is essential in achieving productivity and efficiency gains and uncovering new insights to drive innovation. With Big Data analytics, manufacturers can discover new information and identify patterns that enable them to improve processes, increase supply chain efficiency and identify variables that affect production. Manufacturing enterprise leaders understand the importance of data analytics in today’s industry.

A Honeywell Process Solutions-KRC research study found that 67 percent of manufacturing executives planned to invest in data analytics, even in the face of pressure to reduce costs. The majority understand that data analytics are required to compete successfully in a data-driven economy, and they are making investments in data integration and management assets to achieve digital transformation and gain a competitive edge. With the right analytics, manufacturers can zero in on every segment of the production process and examine supply chains in fine detail, accounting for individual activities and tasks. This ability to narrow the focus allows manufacturers to identify bottlenecks and reveal underperforming processes and components. Data analytics also reveal dependencies, enabling manufacturers to enhance production processes and create alternative plans to address potential pitfalls.

Data analytics also makes it possible to accurately predict the demand for customized products. By detecting changes in customer behaviour, data analytics can give manufacturers more lead time, providing the opportunity to produce customised products almost as efficiently as goods produced at greater scale. Innovative capabilities include tools that allow product engineers to gather, analyse and visualize customer feedback in near-real time. By giving manufacturers the tools they need to do a review on processes, data analytics allows them to identify points within the production process where they can profitably insert custom processes using in-house capabilities or postpone production to enable a partner to execute customisation prior to completion of the manufacturing process.

According to a Deloitte review of the rise of mass personalisation, the ability to postpone production gives manufacturers new flexibility that allows them to take on made-to-order requests. Deloitte also notes that the ability to postpone production can “help reduce inventory levels and ultimately increase plant efficiency.” A streamlined manufacturing process is not only beneficial in its own right — it gives manufacturers a way to maintain efficiency while performing customisations.

Conclusion

From my report you can see the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to data analytics and why data analytics is so important to the manufacturing industry today. Data analytics use to be a perk for a company to have, now it is no longer a “nice to have” option for manufacturing enterprises. Nowadays companies must find a way to improve efficiency and generate insights, and data analytics provides this to the company and helps them to succeed in an increasingly complex environment.

Bibliography

1. Ahmadi, M., Dileepan, P., Wheatley, K. (2016) "A SWOT analysis of big data", Journal of Education for Business, 91(5), 289-294.
2. Rouse, M. (2008). data analytics (DA). Available: https://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/definition/data-analytics. Accessed 27/09/18.•
3. Consoli, R. (2018). Using Big Data Analytics to Improve Production. Available: https://www.manufacturing.net/article/2018/05/using-big-data-analytics-improve-production. Accessed: 27/09/18.

Data Encryption is the mechanism by which message is changed to form that cannot be read by the unauthorized user, known as ciphertext. Only user having a secret key can access the text message. The message before being sent without encryption is called plaintext. Two mechanisms of message encryptions are: Symmetric encryption, in which the same secret key known as private key is applied to encrypt the data by the sender and decrypt the data by the receiver. The secret key is common for sender and receiver. Asymmetric encryption uses two keys; private and public for encryption and decryption.

The mechanism of data encryption is to protect information from threats as it is stored on computers and transmitted using the internet or other computer networks. The following mechanism is used for changing the text into colors at the sender side: ASCII based encoding mechanism using color

The method of ASCII based encoding mechanism using colors is used by. In RGB 256 color style, a pixel is represented by 24 bits, in which 8 bits represent the intensity of each color. For instance, color (100, 125, 140) is represented as (01100100 01111101 10001100) and implemented by. Choosing the first eight bits i.e. 01100100: and ignoring the Most Significant Bit, the remaining 7 bits or first 128 parts of the color is used to represent a character in the ASCII table. Likewise, three different characters can be denoted by a single color. Thus, a text document is converted into an encoded file filled with colored dots. By using the above technique of encoding, huge quantity of text can be compressed and transmitted in a more secured way. Concept of ASCII based encoding method for representing characters and changing them into colors is used in the proposed study.

Lossless text compression

Text compression mechanism needs that the combination of compression and decompression mechanisms to be lossless, or else the data cannot be restored in actual format. The data compression through text substitution method is referred by. The scheme of data compression mechanisms includes adjustments among various factors, such as degree of compression, amount of distortion introduced; if using a lossy compression algorithm and the computational resources required to compress and uncompress data. The mechanism given below is used for lossless text compression in the Color Coded encryption at the source end implemented by Huffman:

Huffman Encoding Compression Algorithm

The Huffman encoding algorithm is an optimal compression algorithm in which the occurrence of each letter or symbol are used to compress the data. The idea behind the algorithm is that if you have some letters that are more frequent than others, it makes logic to use fewer bits to encode those letters than to encode the less repeated letters. This algorithm builds the bottom up tree using the occurrence of each letter or symbol.

First, every letter starts off as part of its own tree and trees are ordered by the occurrence of the letters in the actual string. Then the two least frequently used letters are combined into a single tree and the frequency of that tree is set to be the combined frequency of the two trees that it links together.

This new tree is reinserted into the record of trees in its sorted place. The process is then repeated, treating trees with more than one element the same as any other trees except that their frequencies are the sum of the frequencies of all of the letters at the leaves. This is just the sum of the left and right children of any node because each node stores the frequency information about its own children. The process completes when all of the trees have been combined into a single tree. This tree describes a Huffman compression encoding.

Generally tree is design from the bottom up manner: we start out with 256 trees and end up with a single tree with 256 leaves along with 255 internal nodes. The tree has interesting property: the occurrences of all of the internal nodes combined together will give the total number of bits needed to write the encoded file.