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This causes Dante’s reaction to change from that of confusion to the reaction of fear caused by the appearance of the leopard, which eventually turns out to be less dangerous than he had anticipated. The only problem with the leopard is that it certainly hinders Dante’s progress by causing him to stop and rethink how he would come out of the forest. Just when he contemplated on how he would make a pass on the leopard, another more threatening danger appears. Therefore, the leopard occurrence give Dante a short reprieve, since the appearance of the leopard to threaten his life was followed by that of a threatening hungry lion, which seems more dangerous than the leopard (Dante, Bennett and Biancolli, 31).

The lion is more dangerous because it is hungry and intends to feed on Dante, such that the lion has been applied in this poem to represent the theme of violence, which Dante is later to experience when he finally finds his way through hell. Fear is the same reaction that Dante exudes when he is faced by the ferocious she-wolf, which then appears to be more dangerous than the previous animals that Dante had faced before (Dante, Bennett and Biancolli, 55). The she-wolf appears to be more malicious than dangerous, and is focused on injuring Dante’s will and spirit to continue with his journey back to the earth completely.

Nevertheless, Dante is finally able to go through all these fears, and when Virgil appears in the form of a shadow to lead Dante out of the forest and back to the earth, Dante has no option but to take the offer (Dante, Bennett and Biancolli, 47). Nevertheless, the offer given to Dante by Virgil soon turns out to be even more disturbing than the experiences that Dante had gotten before on his own. This is because, the journey back to the Earth is prolonged and laced with more dreadful experiences of the suffering of other