Dante’s Inferno

The literature piece, Dante's Inferno. is more or less a literary work on the justice of God and what happens to sinful man. Dante crafts a story that is essentially grounded in the punishment of what happens to man once he departs Earth. In Cantos XVIII through XX, Dante and Virgil are on the outside of the eighth circle where Dante known for its structure being pouchlike. The crux of these cantos is for Dante and Virgil to explore the pouches and the varying ways by which they are separated by the types of sins that the individuals within performed while they were on Earth. Dante seeks to find out what kinds of sins were done and discovers that they were the lowest of the low (i.e. fraud, sorcery, seducing and pimping, etc.). Dante comments that "each tongue would for a certainty fall short, by reason of our speech and memory, that have small room to comprehend so much" (Canto XVIII) to note that there is a lot that God has taken to do in order to give the souls in the inferno their just punishment. It is in essence a lot to absorb and by most contexts is overwhelming complex and intricate.

Canto XXIX finds Dante coming to terms with the varying elements associated with the lower circles of hell. Dante speaks with Pope Nicholas III, who the soul mistakes for Boniface when he questions "dost thou stand there already, dost thou stand there already, Boniface?" (Canto XIX). Here, Dante expresses the irony of the Pope being in hell and more or less lamenting over the sins that he bore on Earth that ultimately led him to be punished. Furthermore, Dante believes that Nicholas has received his punishment in accordance with the fact that he (Nicholas) was an idolater. This is evident with the lines "the Evangelist you Pastors had in mind, when she who sitteth upon many waters to fornicate with kings by him was seen" (Canto XIX). Basically, Dante is casting light on Nicholas' other gods - which are not looked upon favorably in the scripture.

The later cantos (XXI-XXXIII) continue Dante's journey through the Malabranche of hell and further the discussion on the punishment of God and the intricacies of hell's rules. The illuminating aspect of these cantos (and ultimately) for the entire book is that Dante is able to speak to those who are in hell as they are permitted to step out of their never-ending tortures for the moment. In cantos XXIV through XXVIII, there are moments of grotesque imagery such as the scene where Dante sees a serpent bite a sinner and then burn up only to be relegated to that same punishment yet again when he remarks that "even thus by the great sages 'tis confessed, the phoenix dies and then is born again" (Canto XXIV). Dante does a lot of reflection on morality and encounters Bocca degli Abati, who does not momentarily leave his torture to speak to Dante but wants Dante to pass by him and leave him alone. Dante reaches the ninth circle of hell in the later cantos and there is much more description and admonition of those in this part of hell given their sins of cruelty and lust.

Canto XXXIV finds Dante finally seeing Lucifer. It is the defining aspect of the overall book and theme of divine justice. Moreover, it speaks to Dante's ability to catalog evil and God's ability to render punishment where necessary given his obligatory thought processes. Further, Dante fashions the text to highlight the biblical context of Lucifer being morbid, hideous and vain as well as to unearth the importance of man staying away from sin in order to avoid the inferno that he has written about.

Work Cited

Puchner, Martin, et al., Eds. The Norton Anthology of World Literature Volume 1. Shorter Third Edition. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. Print.