Inferno Analysis

Let’s face it, you can’t really discuss Hell and all its inhabitants without illuminating something about the society that produces such evildoers. So Dante’s personal crisis and...

We’re going to go out on a limb here (a hellish ice-limb, probably) and say that the Inferno wins the competition for coolest setting of all time. Hands down. Not just because it’s Hell, the mo...

In our "Character Analysis" of Dante, we’ve discussed how it’s important to distinguish between author-Dante and character-Dante. Here’s why: Our narrator is primarily character-Dante because...

The Inferno is in verse. It rhymes. And has a meter (a fancy meter called terza rima). Do you need any more convincing that Inferno is a poem? As for the "epic" part, Dante is talking about a man's...

Fair warning: Dante is on more of an emotional roller coaster than a two-year-old that just ate a bag of Chips Ahoy. Dante cares super-deeply about the moral thought processes of mankind, having pe...

There's very little that's easy n' accessible about Dante's style. You might want to read a terse Hemingway short story after you finish Inferno as a kind of palate cleanser... kind of like drinkin...

Yeah, "comedy" doesn't sound too apt for an epic poem that spends 99% of its lines talking about people suffering, does it? (Unless you have a sadistic sense of humor, you sick puppy.)But Dante’s...

Dante has been losing his way. He needs to tour Hell so he can get back on the righteous path. (Inferno in its entirety.)Dante needs help in a bad way because he is lost in a dark wood, symbolizin...

"Abandon every hope, ye who enter here."Dante has a rather special case of midlife crisis. He’s lost in the woods. Which is, of course, allegorical. He has lost the true path to God and now wan...

Dante is rescued by Virgil within the dark wood. They enter Hell. In the first five circles, Dante shows an excess of compassion for the incontinent sinners. Towards the end, Dante rebukes Filippo...

Dante was twelve years old when he first met Beatrice. He immediately fell in love. His close friend, Guido, ended up marrying her. (Source)Dante’s party of White Guelphs were attacked while he w...

People aren’t actually having sex in Hell, though they’re certainly there for doin' it. There are, however, stories of sex. In fact, the whole first circle is devoted to the lustful. In the eig...

Virgil is Dante’s guide, first mention (Inf. I, 79)…Homer (Inf. IV, 88)Aristotle, Ethics (Inf. XI, 80)Aristotle, Physics (Inf. XI, 101)Aesop (Inf. XXIII, 4-7)Charon (Inf. III, 94-99)Aeneas (Inf...