Abandon Every Hope, You Who Enter - Book Report/Review Example

I do not think the explanation is adequate for the contemporary reader although it seems to have been enough for Dante in the poem. Dante also appears not too entirely take heed of this advice because shortly after, he faints from terror (61). Gradually though, Dante does learn to not react sympathetically to the sins and retribution thereof he sees in Inferno. To say that Hell was built by justice, wisdom and love are to attribute its creation to God. Dante’s Hell is therefore not accidental, not an oversight on the part of God but a deliberate creation of the Holy Trinity - “Divine Power” (The Father), “Highest Wisdom” (Son) and “Primal Love” (The Holy Ghost) (62).

The purpose of stating this is Dante’s justification for God’s actions. Dante, in this epic theodicy, seeks to reiterate the justice and inherent correctness of all that exists on Earth, as a direct consequence of the benevolent Christian God. Susan Blow, in her article on Dante’s Inferno, speaks of how this inscription summarizes the theme of sin and punishment in The Divine Comedy. Blow says that the argument forwarded by this inscription is that humans are essentially free, therefore responsible.

And as responsible creatures, Justice demands that they are faced with the consequences of their actions. “To spare him the result of his own activity is to insult his ideal nature by denying his freedom. Hell is the Creators' final tribute of respect to the being he made in his own image; and, as both Wisdom and Love imply recognition of the essential nature of their object, they concur with Justice in demanding the punishment of the sinner.” (Blow). The inscription also reveals that Hell is envisaged as an actual, geographical entity.

It is conceived in the likeness of a city. Dante invokes St. Augustine’s concept of Heavenly and Earthly cities - The City of God and The City of Man, respectively - to describe Heaven and Hell (Durling 62). The gates to Hell are also personified, and they say that nothing was created before them other than “eternal ones.” Later in the epic, Dante identifies these eternal things as a pure act or the angels, pure potential or prime matter, and part of the potential actualized i.e., the heavens (62).

The purpose of this inscription is to state the functions of Hell. It makes clear Dante’s conviction that Hell is an actual place, with Gates and divided into several concentric regions allocated to different kinds of sins. It also states the infallibility of God. Hell, and by implication, Satan, are not results of a Divine Fallacy. God, with his sense of justice, wisdom and love, decided to create Hell as a place of retribution for those who have consciously chosen sin while alive. This is why Virgil asks Dante to abandon cowardice and not to feel terrified by or sympathetic towards any of the sinners he sees.

This is one aspect of Dante’s rites of passage as initially, he faints with terror at earthquakes and gruesome sights of punishment but later, he gains a detached perspective on all he sees.