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Jason Perry

Expository Writing

Mrs. Schukman

January 4, 2000

Critical Analysis of Divine Comedy’s "Inferno"

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is considered by many as the first great poem in the Italian language and perhaps the greatest poem written in Medieval Europe. The poem is so famous that one of the minor characters, Capaneus the great blasphemer, has his name on a mesa on one of Jupiter’s moon Io (Blue, 1). Also, the poem is divided into three canticles, or sections, "Inferno," "Purgatorio,’ and "Paradisio." For the purposes of this paper, only "Inferno" will be discussed.

In "Inferno," Dante the Pilgrim is lost. In his wanderings he encounters three specters, the leopard, the lion, and the she-wolf. Dante runs away from these three foes and is stopped by Virgil, a Roman era poet. Virgil promises to show Dante hell, purgatory, and then Beatrice, a dead friend of Dante’s will show him heaven. Dante agrees and they embark. Dante and Virgil see many scary and terrifying sites in hell. He first sees the indecisionists who in life could not make up there mind who in death are forced to run after a flag. They visit Limbo, where those who were not baptized but lived a virtuous life stay. They see various sinners of the lesser circles, Paolo and Francesca, the adulterous lovers and the sinners who committed anger, greed, avarice, and gluttony. They enter the City of Dis and see the heretics in their coffins. They travel down a river of blood where the murderers are kept. As they travel farther down into hell, they see worse sins and even worse punishments for those sins. Finally they see Lucifer. Then, they climb a rock cliff and escape hell.

In Divine Comedy, Dante uses symbolism to get his point across. The chronological placement of the poem and the use of numbers as symbol carry through "Inferno" and throughout the rest of the book. However, again, for the purpose of this paper, only their occurrences in "Inferno" will be discussed. These symbols are important in understanding Dante’s real meaning and in understanding how the different ways the story can be interpreted fit together.

Dante, in Divine Comedy, makes it clear to us when he wrote it. His subtle hints at dating the story allow us to pinpoint the story to Easter Week, 1300. Even though he never comes out and says it, his language gives it away. In the first line of the entire poem, Dante tells us how old he is when this occurs. "In the midpoint of our mortal lives, I find myself in a gloomy wood," here Dante tells us that he is 35 years old when this occurs (Cary 8). In another part of the story, Dante tells us about astronomical occurrences that occur in his journey. Here Dante is describing the constellation Pieces setting. From this we know that Canto VIII occurs at 6:52 am on the Thursday before Easter. At the beginning of Canto IX, Dante describes another astronomical occurrence. From this description of the moon setting, we know that Dante crosses the bridge in 8 minutes because the moon sets that day at 7 am in Florence.

Why is this important? John Carlyle tells us that the chronology of "Divine Comedy" is one of the most studied aspects of "Divine Comedy" (Carlyle, 6). According to Robert Forman, "Chronological placement of the narrative from Good Friday through Easter Sunday, 1300, particularizes the experience even as it implies the death and rebirth that attends a critical stage in any person’s life" (500). Thus the specification of the date of the journey makes it seem more real and gives the reader a sense that they are reading something that happened. Forman goes on to say, "Though he maintains present tense throughout the poem, he is, however, actually writing in the years that follow the events he describes. This extraordinary method allows the poet to place what amounts of prophetic utterances in the mouth of the pilgrim" (500). Lastly, Forman goes on to say, "Dante thus maintains and further develops the thesis of La Vita Nuova, that the progress of the pilgrim corresponds to that of the poet" (500). Thus, the Dante the Pilgrim’s journey in Divine Comedy is an allegory to Dante the Poet’s journey through life.

Another common thread in Divine Comedy is the use of symbolic numbers (Kashdan, 1730). There are three canticles to Divine Comedy like there are three persons in one god in Christian tradition (Kashdan, 1730). The rhyming system, terza rima, is based on the number three (Kashdan, 1730). There are nine circles of hell, a multiple of three. This idea of symbolic numbers is not new to Dante and the Divine Comedy. A lot of Christian writers used symbolic numbers (Kashdan, 1730).

Within the story it self, there are a number of places where symbolic numbers are used. He sees four, a symbolic number, ancient writers in limbo, "This is that Homer, of all bards supreme:/Flaccus the next, in satire’s vein excelling;/The third is Naso; Lucan is the last." (Cary, 19). Here we see Dante use a symbolic number of intellectuals from before Christ.

Dante’s numbering system can not be done justice by picking lines out of the book. It must examined by looking at the overall structure of the book. For example, there are 100 chapters in the poem. According to Kashdan, certain numbers mean certain things:

Thus Dante used the formula that Christian writers had been using for centuries in using symbolic numbers.

Dante’s Divine Comedy is considered by many as a great piece of literature. Dante’s use of symbolism both in numbers and in his chronological placement. Understanding this symbolism helps the reader understand where Dante is coming from and what he really means. Dante intended his great masterpiece to have many levels. The work has many levels. As a literal story, the story describes the journey of a pilgrim through hell, purgatory, and then on to heaven. As a allegorical story, the poem shows the journey of Dante’s soul toward spiritual enlightenment. As a moral story, it shows what can happen to you, the reader, if you commit the various sins described. Finally, as an anagogical story, the poem shows God’s plan for the universe (Kashdan, 1730). Indeed, if one is to understand these levels, literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical, one must first understand Dante’s symbolism.