Dantes Inferno

Dante's Inferno

Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages, was born in Florence, Italy on June 5, 1265. During his adolescence, Dante fell in love with a beautiful girl named Beatrice Portinari. He saw her only twice but she provided much inspiration for his literary masterpieces. Her death at a young age left him grief-stricken. His first book, La Vita Nuova, was written about her.

At the turn of the century, Dante rose from city councilman to ambassador of Florence. His career ended in 1301 when the Black Guelph and their French allies seized control of the city. They took Dante's possessions and sentenced him to be permanently banished from Florence, threatening the death penalty upon him if he returned. Dante spent most of his time in exile writing new pieces of literature. Among his works, his reputation rests on his last work, The Divine Comedy. He began writing it sometime between 1307 and 1314 and finished it only a short while before his death in 1321, while in exile. In this work, Dante introduces his invention of the terza rima, or three-line stanza as well as himself as a character.

The Inferno is the first of three parts of Dante's epic poem, The Divine Comedy, which depicts an imaginary journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Dante's Inferno describes the descent through Hell from the upper level of the opportunists to the most evil, the treacherous betrayers and those bound to Hell as was Judas, on the lowest level. His allegorical poem describes a hierarchy of evil. Dante is the hero, who loses his way in the "dark woods" and journeys to nine regions arranged around the wall of a huge funnel in nine concentric circles representing Hell. Fortunately, his lady, Beatrice, along with the Virgin Mary herself, sends the spirit of Virgil, the classical Latin poet, to guide Dante through much of his journey. But as much as Dante admires and reveres Virgil, and though Dante considers him to have prophesied of the coming of Christ, Virgil is not a Christian. To Dante he represents human knowledge, or unholy reason, which cannot lead a person to God. This infidel may not pass into the highest realms. The ghost of Virgil, the Roman poet, leads Dante from the dark forest and then through the realms of the afterlife. In pity, Dante frequently offered to write about those he met when he returned to mortality. These gluttons, seducers, and robbers were, for the most part, either historical figures or Dante's personal acquaintances - and each one of them represented one of the apt and horrible possibilities of Hell. For example, Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun were found dwelling in Hell's seventh terrace, forced to grovel in boiling blood - a just end for those who in life loved violence.

The first circle they enter is Limbo, which consists of heathen and the unbaptized, who led decent lives. The second through the fifth circles are for the lustful, gluttonous, prodigal, and wrathful. The sixth circle is where heretics are punished. The seventh circle is devoted to the punishment of violence. The eighth is devoted to those guilty of fraud and the ninth for those who betrayed others. In the last section, Satan remains imprisoned in a frozen lake.

The journey is difficult and full of revelations, disappointment and questions, but they persevere. The end of their journey leads Dante and Virgil to the bottom of Hell. Lucifer is seen in all his ugliness and they are drawn towards Heaven. Thus, Dante is finally led to Heaven by Beatrice, his own personal and unattainable incarnation of the Virgin, who represents