Literary Analysis on Book Inferno by Dante

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Literary Analysis on Book Inferno by Dante
Dante’s book Inferno tells of his vivid journey through the depths of hell. Dante constructs a clear depiction of his encounters along the way, and the reader at some point is at crossroads for interpretation. Through the aid of Virgil who was spurred by Beatrice the symbol of Divine love, he goes on a path of redemption and repentance. In each Canto, something more in-depth about sin is revealed, and more emphasis put on the political injustices that were in the society. Inferno represents a culture comprised of commoners, politicians, clergy, lovers all who find themselves being punished for their sins and vices. Metaphors, symbolism and allegory are found in almost every line hence a complete description, and proper interpretation is crucial to understand Dante’s poem.
In Canto 1, Dante finds himself in a dark wood assailed by three beasts; the lion, leopard and a she-wolf with no option rather than to retreat. The distractions make it hard for him to move forward. The dark forest has been used metaphorically to represent the world that the author thought was rotten during 1300, strayed from the right path of salvation. It was an era that was characterized by political corruption, injustices and bad behaviour of the pope. All these caused emotional confusion and sin among many people including Dante. Redemption was therefore made impossible due to the continual temptation of sin. The three beasts he encounters are taken from the book of Jeremiah in the bible and symbolize the three kinds of sins that cause an unrepentant person to go to hell.

According to biblical interpretation, the lion represents pride, violence and war; the leopard stands for malice, envy and fraud whereas the she-wolf stands for the vice of greed commonly referred to as avarice (Dante 23). It is not a coincidence on how Dante meets them in that order; they represent the severity of the sins in his mind and their order in the circles of hell. When the beasts drive him back to the despairing darkness, it shows how sin causes the unrepentant souls to go to hell.
Dante’s entire journey is an allegory of how a man falls into sin and then later looks for redemption as represented in the Purgatorial and later finds salvation in Paradise. In each Canto, Dante’s Inferno reveals a certain level of sin that was evident in his own life in Florence. At the beginning of the story, we are on an allegorical level regarding the journey itself. Dante in these dark wood shows a period when he has strayed from the right path and cannot return until he faces the full consequences and suffers for a specified period. In real life, the woods represent his life in Florence. He must experience both political and religious turmoil just like the people in it.
Canto XIII has been used to reveal political allegory through suicides which result from sins. In the story of Pier Della Vigne, he commits suicide when everybody thought that he had committed treason and disobeyed the Emperor. Pier knew he was not guilty as he says, “the courtesan … inflamed the hearts of everyone against me” (Dante 107). From this allegory, Dante was trying to demonstrate what was happening throughout his whole life while in Florence. Honest people always became victims of corruption by the politicians. Either way, if Pier was innocent, then he automatically becomes a corrupt government official and if otherwise then the government legal system was entirely evil. Religious allegory is also seen where Pier is contrasted with Saint Peter from the Bible. Pier claims to have let many people like Peter who is known for opening the gates of heaven (Dante 372). While Peter repented, Pier did not either did he find faults in his actions and therefore sees no mercy with God.
The order in which Dante and Virgil see the layers of the Inferno is not a coincidence. The further down hell they go, the more the sins their encounter worsen. For instance, the corrupt politicians are placed closer to hell to depict how bad they had changed the world through corruption. In Dante’s mind, suicide is a lesser sin compared to sin against the state. All these are because, in his life, the political struggles had caused him more pain and grief and finally led to his exile where he suffered. Comically Dante also explains how the sinners were punished, “being cooked and tricked to cross the bridges’ as emphasized where the swindlers in public offices were facing their punishments (Dante 108).
In conclusion, Dante’s life experiences can be reflected in his writings. Though Inferno tells of a journey through hell, it reveals what he went through in his real life. It is the application of real-life experiences that fill his poems with both religious and political allegory as well as metaphors. It is an allegorical tale of redemption and a walk through the Christian Catholic Faith.

Works Cited
Dante Alighieri. Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Trans. and commentary by Mark Musa. Vol. 1. Bloomington: Indianan UP, 2003. Print