Dante asks Virgil what will happen to the souls in hell after the Last Judgment, and Virgil answers that since the Last Judgment will bring perfection to all of creation, the punishments of those in Hell will be perfected as well. The gluttonous are housed in this circle and are forced to lie in mud while they are rained on by filth and excrement. When he awakens, he is in the Third Circle of Hell. Overcome with pity, Dante faints for the second time since he’s arrived in Hell. The Second Circle of Hell is where the lustful wind up. His job is to assign punishments to the condemned souls who enter. In Canto V, Virgil and Dante descend to the Second Circle of Hell where they meet the monster Minos. Here he meets Ovid and Horace, and he learns that this is where Virgil resides, along with the great philosophers Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, etc. This is where pagans and good people who did not know Christ are housed. When they enter Hell, they arrive in the First Circle, Limbo. Dante feels pity for the souls he’s witnessed already and is uneasy about entering Hell. A boat lead by an old man, Charon, takes Virgil and Dante across the river of wailing souls into Hell. Now, they chase after a blank banner every day while hornets sting them, and worms drink their blood and tears. In this part of Hell live the people who were unable to live either lives of good or of evil and so neither Heaven nor Hell would accept them. In Canto III, Virgil leads Dante through the gates of hell, which read “abandon all hope, you who enter here.” As the pair enter Hell, they first go through the outer layer, the Ante-Inferno. As he approaches the gates, he fears that he will not be worthy of traveling through Hell and returning. In Canto II, Dante invokes the muses, asking for help telling his experiences as he travels through Hell. Virgil tells Dante that Beatrice saw him wandering alone and afraid and sent Virgil to help guide Dante to her. Virgil tells Dante that their path goes through Hell, but they will eventually reach Heaven, where Dante’s love, Beatrice, is waiting for him. While wandering, he encounters the ghost of the poet Virgil, who says that he will guide him to the top of the sunny mountain. Unable to fight them, he returns down to the dark forest. He decides to try and climb to a sunny point on a nearby mountain but meets a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. The poet Dante Alighieri is lost in a forest and is looking for the way out. The poem begins on Good Friday in the year 1300. What Dante truly did well with Inferno is to write a universal work that critics would praise due to its elevated style, but ordinary people could also access and enjoy it. It is upheld in two ways-it is written in vernacular language, and it starts off sad/dramatic (in Hell) and ends on a happier note (in Heaven). The Divine Comedy is genuinely a comedy in terms of the classic genre. The fact that this poem is written in vernacular Italian-the common language of the people-it provides an amazing historical context in which literature and language can be evaluated and studied.īefore Dante, most epic poems, and literature in general, was written in Latin and nobody quite understood the value and poetic beauty that could come from writing in one’s natural tongue. It is upheld as a beautiful poem unmatched by any other of its time. Inferno is widely considered by scholars to be the greatest medieval poem written in vernacular language. Literary Significanceĭante’s The Divine Comedy is considered to be a landmark in European literature. For example, the punishments of the condemned symbolizes their sins on Earth.Ĭlimax: Dante’s encounter with Lucifer. Major Symbols: The entire poem is allegorical, so every aspect serves as a symbol. Mostly, the Cantos align with where the characters are in their journey through Hell. Plot: The story is told in Cantos-sections of the poem. He is met by the poet Virgil, who offers to be his guide.Ĭonflict: Dante attempts to find his way to God, to Heaven, to Beatrice, but obstacles in Hell hinder his journey. Motifs: Political arguments allusions to classical literature cities fame and prestige in human lifeĮxposition: Dante is wandering a dark forest by himself, alone and afraid. Major Thematic Elements: The perfection of God’s justice evil juxtaposed to God’s grace storytelling as a vehicle for immortality