Dantes Inferno Analysis

Dante’s Divine Comedy is a multi-layered epic, containing not only a story about his incredibly difficult journey from earth to the depths of hell then up to the peaks of heaven, but it also contains many insights on theology, politics, and even his own life. Broken into three canticles—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—the work is written in the terza rima form. In Inferno—in 33 Cantos—Dante makes a vast journey through the nine circles of hell. In the Eighth Circle (specifically, the Ninth Pouch), Dante meets with those who “were, when alive, the sowers of dissension” (Inf. XXVIII.35-36). Dante encounters a myriad of characters in many realms of interest, including theological and political figures.

This Canto adequately flows in the

Medicina, in his time, was “a political trouble maker” (Dante, 608, n. 73). Conferred from the minimal passage regarding Medicina, a conflict referring to Dante’s actual life can be detected—an example of the theme of polysemous writing. Since Dante (was aware of) Medicina and his antics, it is accurate to assume that Dante wrote him into the story out of spite; he describes Medicina as “another sinner, with his throat slit through and with his nose hacked off up to his eyebrows, and no more than a single ear remaining” (Inf. XXVIII.64-66). Despite the lack of information Dante gives us on this person, it can be assumed Dante did not hold a favorable opinion of Medicina, for, aside the fact that he is in hell in the first place, his only real punishment is to be made physically repulsive (Only his ear and nose is sliced off, as opposed to having functional body parts—hands, stomach, or tongue—cut off). It is also interesting to note here that, despite the eternal suffering of Medicina, he still requests Dante to “remember Pier da Medicina if you ever see again the gentle plain from Vercelli slopes to Marcabò” (Inf. XXVIII.73-75).” Even in the depths of hell, Medicina still cares about his pride and himself. From these context clues, this tiny section about an obscure character shows that Dante saw Medicina as prideful and attempts to remove the pride by making him look hideous by his own standards. If

A man named Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti was betrothed to a girl in the Amidei family, but on the day of the wedding, he married someone else. Mosca de’Lamberti convinced the Amidei family to murder Buindelmonte (out of his hate for him, which, again, shows the theme of anti-love). This is “seen as the cause of the division of Florence into the Ghibellinces and the Guelphs” (Dante, 609, n.106). As Dante is politically active and, at the time of writing this, was exiled due to the conflict in parties, it seems logical that in his writing that he would damn the soul that started is political frustrations. It is worthy to note the punishment Mosca receives: he walks “with both his hands hacked off, while lifting up his stumps through the dark air, so that his face was hideous with blood” (Inf. XXVIII.103-106). There appears to be no correlation between his punishment and his crime. One could argue that the hand is a symbol of power and control (A man cannot exert power over anyone without hands). So by removing Mosca’s hands, he loses the abused control he had over the Amidei