Dante’s Inferno
Dante Alighieri
 Born 1265 in Florence, Italy during Middle Ages
 Due to political strife/conflict, he is exiled (kicked out) of Florence
Divine Comedy
 “comedy” – means everything turns out ok (Dante will end up in Heaven)
The Number 3
 based off the Christian belief of the Holy Trinity – the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit
 3 parts of the Comedy – Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso
 3 days of Dante’s journey – begins on Good Friday (Jesus was crucified) and ends on
Easter Sunday (Jesus rose)
 3 lines in every stanza = terza rima
 9 circles of Hell
 33 cantos (“song”) in Hell
Inferno
 Dante’s motivation during his travels is Beatrice (“the blessed one”) – a woman he
loved & an object of purity. She will become his guide in Purgatorio and Paradiso
 Dante’s guide in Hell is the Latin poet, Virgil – the symbol for human reason
 Virgil is stuck in Limbo because he was born before Christ and therefore could not be
baptized
Circles of Hell
 Each circle represents a different sin
 Each punishment fits the crime (symbolic retribution)
 They descend in order of degree of offense
1. Limbo – unbaptized, born before Christ
2. Lustful – caught up in windstorm
3. Gluttonous – lie in garbage with icy rain
incontinence
4. Avaricious/Greedy – pushing boulders in circles
5. Wrathful – buried in muddy river Styx
6. Heretics – fiery graves
violence
7. Warmongers, Psychopaths, Suicides, Usurers – boiling blood
8. Flatterers, Sorcerers 9. Traitors – Lucifer with Brutus, Cassius, and Judas in his mouths; fraud/malice
trapped in ice
Canto I – The Dark Wood of Error
 Allegorical – although the character Dante is making a true & physical journey
through Hell, it is symbolic of any person’s straying into sin, having to recognize and
understand sin, to repent and try to live a life free of sin in order to get to Heaven
 At 35 years old, Dante has strayed from the True Way into the Dark Wood of Error
(worldliness)

He makes his way to the Mount of Joy, but is blocked by three beasts:
1. Leopard – malice & fraud (hatred & lies)
2. Lion – violence & ambition
inner desires
3. She-wolf – incontinence (lack of self-control)
that tempt us
Canto III – The Vestibule
 Entrance hall or lobby before Hell
 Opportunists (the apathetic, indifferent, morally lazy)– those who take advantage of
every opportunity to advance themselves despite the common good
 Punishment – souls eternally chase a banner as they are pursued by wasps & hornets
who sting them, which makes blood and pus run down their bodies, which is then
eaten by worms and maggots on the ground (symbolic of their inability to choose a
side & their guilty conscience pursuing them)
 Acheron – 1st river in Hell
 Charon – the ferryman who carries souls to their punishment
 On the GATE OF HELL: “Abandon all hope ye who enter here”
 Literary Devices
o Anaphora – insistent repetition (“I am the way into the city of woe. I am the way
to a forsaken people. I am the way into eternal sorrow.”)
o Alliteration – the repetition of beginning sounds (“sucked at sand”)
Canto V – The Carnal
 People who gave in to the sins of the flesh; let their sexual appetite guide their actions
rather than reason
 Souls are swept up in a whirlwind that bites and burns their skin just as they were
swept up in their sexual desires in life
 Francesca and Paolo – two lovers that committed adultery & were murdered by
Francesca’s husband, who is also Paolo’s brother
 Dante seems to have compassion for these sinners as this sin is most nearly
associated with love
 Minos – monster who determines the level of hell souls are to go by the number of
times he wraps his tail around himself
Canto XXXIV – Circle Nine: Cocytus
 The very bottom of the last circle is Judecca – the place for those who were
treacherous (betrayers) to their masters
 Sinners are trapped in ice in distorted positions unable to speak
 Satan is in the center, trapped to the waist in the ice, his wings beating and creating
an icy wind that further freezes him
 He has three faces and in each mouth is chewing on Brutus & Cassius (traitors against
Caesar) and Judas (in the middle; traitor to Jesus)
 Dante and Virgil must climb down Satan during which gravity seems to reverse itself
as they cross the river Lethe and they climb up and out on the other side of the earth
 When they emerge, it is Easter Sunday and they see the stars – symbolic of hope &
virtue