The text is in this sense highly educational because it draws the attention, through literary language, to aspects which are often disregarded in everyday life nowadays.
In a general manner, Dante's Inferno, as is the trilogy the Devine Comedy may also represent the interior feelings of a tormented soul, trapped in its sinful thoughts and actions. A symbol in this sense can be considered the continuous circles of the Inferno which represent the decaying levels of humanity. The upper levels may still present some innocence as the sins are not evil but rather innocent because the people trapped in the Limbo lost the divine contact with God; for the lower levels however, which include fraud and treachery, the sins are unpardonable. Thus, while the Church can bring back faith, fraud and treachery as understood by Dante cannot be forgotten.
Indeed, parts of Dante's journey are today dissolute. Aspects such as magic or defiance of the religion are not as common today as were in the medieval time. However, Dante's exquisite masterpiece offers also, through this point-of-view, a mirror of the way in which the church was perceived and the belief that witchcraft along with occult means of defying faith were the gravest sins. This perspective only points out the importance of religion and faith, a perspective which would be useful in today's world as well.
The approach Dante took for his work is not uncommon however. The period of his writing was deeply religious. It must be pointed out that the 1300s represented one of the most religious periods in the history of human kind largely due to the influence the Catholic Church had in Europe in particular. Following this troubled period, the conquests would eventually determine the actual power and precision of the Roman Catholic...
Therefore, from this point-of-view, the defending of the Church and of the Holly beliefs seems natural for Dante.
It is rather difficult to compare Dante's work with others. There are some particular elements such as true love or emotions which are then left unfulfilled that are visible in other works as well. Despite the fact that the era of Shakespeare is centuries apart from that of Dante, the belief in long lost love tormented by the feeling of guilt and repression may be found in both cases. From this point-of-view, Shakespeare found a good source of inspiration for characters which must be torn apart by grief, sinful acts, and redemption. In any case, the Inferno by Dante represented a source of inspiration for Shakespeare.
Despite the fact that Dante is nowadays less and less known among the young generations, the values it advocated must be made available, through any means possible. In general, these values are no longer applicable for a world which uses the Internet and not the flying pigeon for sending messages. Even so, in order to have a better understanding of our world today, we must know our history and our ancestors. From this point-of-view, Dante's Inferno is an open gate for the values, norms, and beliefs, so vividly presented as real emotions of that era.
Dante's choice to present all these elements in the form of the Inferno made it a masterpiece. Indeed, to this day, there are little works of literature to blend sinful acts with those of love and human affection. Given this mixture, it can be said that Dante performed an exquisite literary and philosophical piece of writing.
Bibliography
Dante Alighieri. Inferno. Everypoet.com. 2009. available at http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/dante/dante_i_02.htm
