Dante’s visit to Inferno

In Dante’s Inferno, readers follow the journey of Dante and his guide Virgil through the other world, Hell. The story begins when Dante is trapped by a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf and then starts to cry out for help (Dante 1 line 32, 45, 49). Virgil appears to Dante and tells him “to climb that hill that brings delight, it is another journey you must take” (Dante 1 line 77 and 91). After further explanation, Dante agrees to follow Virgil as his guide through Inferno and the two set out on an epic sightseeing trip. Virgil first leads Dante through the gates of Hell, Virgil then begins to show Dante the souls trapped in Hell in each different ring (Dante 3 intro to canto). Virgil uses his time with Dante to show the nature of sins and how we must change our lifestyles if we wish to avoid eternal suffering.

When Virgil leads Dante into the first ring of Hell, which is called Limbo (Dante 4 intro to canto). Limbo is the place where the souls of those who were unbaptized and those who lived virtuous lives but did not have a true and firm faith in Christ. The souls that reside in Limbo allow readers to understand that, while humans are capable of living virtuous and good lives without being reborn in Christ, humanity can never be fully free. Although, Limbo is the first of the rings of Hell, Limbo is a place without suffering and also without joy (Dante 4 line 84). While Dante tells his readers those in Limbo are without suffering, the lack of joy, with no possibility of improvement, makes Limbo just as terrible as the other rings of Hell. The souls trapped here in Limbo really had no chance to avoid it, since they lived good lives before Jesus was sent to Earth.

Virgil then leads Dante to the second ring of Hell, which is where the souls of the lustful are punished by a never ending cyclone (Dante 5 line 31). Dante meets Minos, who is judge of all the souls entering and Minos tells Dante that the second ring is a sanctuary of pain (Dante 5 line 16). Dante then hears the wails of sorrow from the souls trapped there and are receiving their eternal punishments for the wickedness of their flesh (Dante 5 line 25). However, the souls trapped in the cyclone are in this ring of Hell because they allowed their reason to be at the whims of their physical desires. These souls were only focused on their physical wants when they were alive and they lead lustful lives. These souls that were so consumed with their physical desires, but could have easily avoided this fate by denying themselves of their erotic love and turning to God’s true eternal love.

In the third ring of Hell, the gluttonous are being punished by an eternal storm of cold rain, which causes the souls to sink and lay flat on the ground (Dante 6 line 7-8/line 37). Dante meets the soul of Ciacco, who tells Dante and Virgil that it is the sin of the throat that he is being punished for (Dante 6 line 53). Dante is greatly troubled by this punishment (line 59), so Virgil comforts him by saying that these souls all sinned in their flesh, they never reached their true perfection, and by meeting this end they are closer to perfection (Dante 6 line 110). In the fourth ring, Dante sees the avaricious, who must roll boulders to each other for all eternity to pay back for being squanderers (Dante 7 intro to canto). In the fifth ring, Dante sees where the wrathful are punished by being ripped limb from limb (Dante 7 line 114). However, all of these souls could have denied themselves the sins of the flesh and turned to God and they would not be suffering for all eternity.

In the sixth ring, the heretics are punished by being confined in their tombs of fire and are clawing to get out, but they cannot leave (Dante 9 line 129). In the seventh ring, the violent souls are being punished and those souls who are responsible for taking the lives of others are doomed to eternity in the bloodstream, wailing for what they have done (Dante 12 line 100/106). Souls of those who committed suicide are also in the seventh ring and they are imprisoned as thorn trees being attacked by dogs (Dante 13 line 37). Virgil leads Dante to where those who were violent against God are being punished by an eternal rain of fire (Dante 14 line 37-38). All of the violent souls being punished in the seventh circle were consumed by violence while they lived; they turned away from the loving spirit of the Lord. The eighth circle is where the fraudulent are punished in ditches, with each ditch having a different affliction (Dante 18 intro to canto). Some souls are whipped by demons (Dante 18 line 35), and some are trapped in trenches of dung (Dante 18 line 113), others are stuck in holes (Dante 19 line 22). Although, all these souls are being punished in Hell for their own sins, Dante tells his readers that he wept for all of them and was greatly hurt to see their suffering (Dante 20 line 25). Virgil tells Dante that he should not pity these souls he has seen because they all chose these lifestyles and must be subjected to God’s judgment (Dante 20 line 30).

Virgil told a demon that it was willed in Heaven that he showed someone the savage road of Hell (Dante 21 line 84). While Virgil was talking of Dante as the one he was showing, Virgil was really showing the readers the road of Hell and teaching us just as he was teaching Dante. Although, it is impossible for humans to walk through Hell, Dante’s Inferno allows readers to visualize what Hell could be. Dante depicts the layers of Hell to show readers how their actions in this world will decide the final resting place for their eternal souls. Dante followed Virgil on the road through Hell so he could give readers a way to fully understand their sins and repent before it is too late.