Dante\'s Inferno, Reader Response Dante\'s Inferno Tells

Dante's "Inferno," Reader Response

Dante's "Inferno" tells the story of Dante, a good man who has lost his way on the road of life and so finds himself on the precipice of Hell. "When I had journeyed half our life's way,/I found myself within a shadowed forest,/for I had lost the path that does not stray" (I, 1-3). Having strayed onto the path that leads to a permanent residence in Hell, Dante is kept from passing by several great beasts and, when he has lost all hope and is sure he will be devoured, encounters Virgil who directs him to another path, this one a direct route to Hell. The idea here seems to be that if he continued on the path he was treading, he would have been devoured and become a permanent inhabitant of Hell, a fate Virgil's intervention -- upon Beatrice's request -- is meant to prevent.

Beatrice is apparently one of three heavenly spirits who care a great deal for Dante. As Beatrice is heaven-sent, she is invulnerable to the horrors of Hell. "God, in His graciousness, has made me so / that this, your misery, cannot touch me; / I can withstand the fires flaming here (I, 91-93). To which Dante, "As little flowers, which the chill of night/has bent and huddled, when the white sun strikes,/grow straight and open fully on their stems," Dante rallies his courage to "return to what [he] was at first prepared to do" (I, 127-129, 138).

The quelling of cowardice and rallying of courage in the face of darkness is one of several recurring themes in "Inferno." These themes include -- but are by no means limited to:

Disdain for mediocrity.

Compassion for the suffering.

Persistent nature of good.

Authority of the will of God.

Connection between God, self and other.

Regarding disdain for mediocrity, the first group of sufferers Dante encounters, who are not in Hell, Heaven, or even permitted a residence in Limbo, are the "sorry souls of those/who lived without disgrace and without praise" (III, 35-36). As a result, "The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened,/have cast them out, no will deep Hell receive them -- / even the wicked cannot glory in them" (III, 40-42). What I find particularly interesting is Dante's indication of the vast number of this group, saying "Behind that banner trailed so long a file/of people -- I should never have believed/that death could have unmade so many souls" (III, 57-57).

Regarding compassion for those who suffer, Dante continually weeps or otherwise expresses compassion for the many sufferers within Hell, and even Virgil -- who is a resident of Hell himself -- pales in compassion at the sight of suffering. Regarding the persistent nature of good, it is recognized early on -- first by Charon and then by several others of Hell's inhabitants -- that Dante is a good man who does not belong in Hell, yet none of Hell's natural inhabitants is able to stop his descent. The persistence of good is related to the authority of the will of God, as Dante's descent "has been willed on high" (VII, 11). As even in Hell, the will of God/good is recognized as supreme, Virgil implores Dante to "forget [his] fear," as "no one can hinder our passage [when] One so great has granted it" (VIII, 104-105).