Dante’s Inferno: The Divine Comedy

Dante is difficult. This is because of the firm stand concerning evil and the holy. According to him, there will be damnation of all non-Christians as evident in the divine comedy. The reason it is divine is because it is a representation of the journey to heaven or paradise according to the poem. On the other hand, medieval times referred to stories ending happily as comedy, and this is the reason this is a comedy. Dante represents hell in different levels or circles, which represent the equivalent level of sin. The first ring consistent of violent and murders led by Minotaur, the second possession squanderers led by Pier Della Vigna, the third was for blasphemers and sodomites such as Ser Brunetto, and in the fourth, there were magicians and diviners. In addition, the fifth had barraters, the sixth of Malebolge had hypocrites, seventh thieves, the eighth fraudulent advisers, and lastly the ninth had rebels and those against God. The leader of the last ring was Satan.

Dante does realize that he had not been following the guidelines of God. For this reasons, he finds himself in the valley of the evil. Fortunately for him, Beatrice had been praying for him. Beatrice was the woman that, throughout his life, Dante admired. Beatrice becomes necessary because she gives him a chance to go to heaven with the help of Virgil. In accordance, Virgil becomes pivotal in guiding Dante through hell before they get to heaven. While they are passing through hell, the poet reveals to his audience that sins resembled their punishment. In an example, foreseers and fortune tellers pretend to know about the future. In hell, their punishment is the fastening of their head backwards so that they can look behind always.

Dante’s body plays a crucial role in giving the reader an insight into the things that the soul has to go through, according to Dante. Dante is a sinner of pride. His rhetoric attitude against Florence and her sinners is an indicator of that fact. Later, however, Dante acknowledges his sin and deals with it. Satan, on the other hand, presents the last level of sins, and he leads his rebels among them Judas. Satan is a representation of the extreme end of sins in the poem. In symbolism, the poet uses the number three severally. Number three derives its importance from the holy trinity in the bible. They are the building blocks of God, and Dante applies the number as a building block in the novel. That is why there are thirty three demons, and Satan has three faces.

Dante the pilgrim is significant because he provides the reader with a human interpretation of the things that happened while in the journey to hell. Though the pilgrim, the narrator explains personal beliefs and the life of humans during the medieval times. Despite the fact that Dante gives some insight that might be pertinent to the reader in analyzing the poem, there are times that he allows the reader to make such decisions by leaving some of the issues open. This, in turn, allows the reader to scrutinize the justice system used by God. As Dante moves from one circle to the other, there is evidence that he fears the punishment that will be in the next circle. Initially, he has pity for suffering individuals, but eventually this does change, which is evident from his utterances to Virgil. According to the poet, it is an indication of understanding.

Work Cited

Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno of Dante. Trans. Robert Pinsky. New York: Farrar, 1994.