Redemption Dante's Inferno

In the eight pouch of the eight circle of Hell, Virgil and Dante meet Guido da Montefeltro, a false counselor who exemplifies the fate of those who stray off the right path and attempt to take a shortcut—unsuccessfully—to return to righteousness. In this short passage from The Inferno of Dante, translated by Robert Pinsky, Pinsky and Dante the poet use the imagery of Saint Francis and the black cherub that greet Montefeltro when he dies to contrast Heaven and Hell and address the Divine Comedy’s theme of redemption. Throughout Dante’s journey, he encounters a lot of “fallen heaven” imagery, which exacerbates the souls’ punishments. For instance, in sixth circle—which houses the Heretics—there are burning minarets, “sepulchers glow[ing] with

In Canto I, Dante finds himself “in a dark woods, the right road lost” (3, 2). When he tries to take the short way to absolution by climbing the hill towards the light—God—he is blocked by three beasts who are symbolic of different sins (Notes 306, 25-45). It is only when Virgil arrives that Dante decides to take the long route through hell to reorient himself. The principle theme of Dante’s journey is that many individuals lose sight of God or what is right at times, but it is how one responds to being “lost”—either through repentance or laziness—that determines one’s fate. For Montefeltro, when he strayed off the right road advising Boniface to make and then break his promise of amnesty with his enemies, he only repents to Boniface and does not take the time to sincerely repent to God. Similar to Dante realization that the shortcut way to redemption seldom works, the black cherub takes Montefeltro, explaining that one cannot quickly return to righteousness because repentance needs to be sincere: “nor can one will a sin / And repent at once, because the contradiction / Precludes it” (233, 120-123). Montefelto found himself in a similar “lost” situation as Dante, but unlike Dante, he was unwilling to use God’s guidance and take the longer and more arduous way to