Dante Aligheri's Divine Comedy

In the beginning of Dante’s Inferno, Dante engages the reader in a personal way by including them in his story. He allows the reader to relate and emphasizes that they will or most likely have gone through an experience of losing their path in life. Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself/ In dark woods, the right road lost (Dante, 1408). The Inferno is often described as the quintessence of the medieval worldview, a codification of the values of the high Middle Ages in art, science, theology and philosophy (Wilke, Hurt). He was a pious man whose own experiences in a corrupt society shaped his writing style and the symbolism he included in his stories. There are graphic details of each circle of hell by describing the appropriate judgement of each sin. In essence, the condemned are those who ignored with God’s laws and eluded His spirit. He describes the different realms of Hell and always descripts the emotions he is feeling in order for the reader to understand the severity of what he has witnessed. The comedy is supposed to symbolize the world we reside in; and Dante’s journey into the afterlife evaluates the human struggles when confronted with sin whether they conquer or succumb to it. Dante’s imagery is seen how he exemplifies God’s divine retribution and his own intentions of judgement of sinners by creating the circles of hell into a downward spiral. As the spiral descends the worse the sins, the more dreadful the punishment. Dante presents appropriate schematic judgement in the nine circles of hell because it was important to symbolize the judgement his society would endure due to their low levels of morale.

In Cantos I, Dante is trying to find his way because he has lost “the straight path” (Dante 1405). He cannot ...

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...te clearly had an issue with people who committed fraud, hypocrites and blasphemers. Virgil goes on to explain the order of the circles as they grow smaller. Therefore each sin starts to be broken down and why the souls were placed in certain areas, Virgil and Dante focus on how their sins not only effect the person, but impacts God as well, Virgil says,

... because fraud is peculiar to man / it displeases God more; therefore the fraudulent are placed lower/

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Violence is committed against the Deity/ by cursing Him and denying Him in one’s heart; (1448, 1449).

There are times where Dante contrasts Hell with his society, hell is basically the self-centered and vile city which serves its own judgement at the expense of their citizens. It ignores the common good thus creating a self-destructive society that corrupts its people.