Dante Image Images of Suffering

Dante Image

Images of Suffering in Dante's Inferno

The cliche saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words," is true in a great many circumstances, but in the case of many great works of literature it seems that the opposite is true, and that a few carefully selected words can create a much clearer image in the mind of the reader than any picture ever could. This is certainly the case with Dante's Inferno, which narrates the journey of the poet through the many circles of Hell. The images of the suffering inhabitants of the netherworld that are created in Dante's verses are very clear yet at the same time largely incomplete, and oddly it is the same method of description that creates both of these features. Through his highly selective description of specific actions or features of the figures he is describing, Dante manages to paint very clear and poignant images of unique suffering using very few words, showing his true genius at the craft of poetry.

It is through very simple details that Dante is often able to create the images of suffering that appear throughout the poet's trip through the Inferno. The timing of these details can be just as important as the descriptions of the details themselves; they often appear suddenly in the midst of less image-filled and far wordier sections, catching the reader -- and the poet -- off-guard and thus accentuating the suffering. A lengthy description of one unfortunate fellow, for example, is interrupted by the line, "O me! See that one, how he grinds his teeth" (Inferno Canto XXII). This brief detail manages to convey the frustration, the pain, and the ongoing anguish of life in hell, with the grinding of the teeth standing out as an eternal detail of the figure identified only by this one activity -- for the reader, it is his whole being.

Obviously, having only the grinding of one's teeth as an identifiable feature would be a rather hellish mode of existence, and the simplicity with which Dante conveys this hellishness is both a testament to his poetic genius and a highly effective means for providing imagery without interrupting the story. Other descriptions of suffering are somewhat longer and far more active, but are no less succinct and powerful for this: "There never was an earthquake of such might / That it could shake a tower so violently, / As Ephialtes suddenly shook himself" (Inferno, Canto XXXI). The image Dante conveys here again comes form a singular detail, yet the amount of information that this detail -- and the specific description provided by the poet -- conveys is extraordinary, enabling the reader to clearly see the shaking of the figure and to adequately gauge the enormity of this figure's suffering from the shaking. It is by enhancing specific details such as these that Dante is able to produce such clear and vivid images of suffering without inordinately lengthy descriptions or resorting to complex bouts of symbolism and character exposition -- though the suffering and agony that the inhabitants of hell feel is eternal, the understanding of it is quick.