The Thematic Importance of Journeys in Dante Inferno - Literature review Example

Discuss the thematic importance of the in Dante’s Inferno Introduction Dante’s Inferno is incorporated in the first part of his epic poem Divine Comedy. Inferno is followed by two other poems Purgatorio and Paradiso. Divine Comedy is an allegorical story pertaining to the journey of a soul through three phases. The Italian name for hell is inferno. In Inferno, Dante has depicted Hell as the place of recognition and rejection of sin. Hell is the domain of the nine circles of sufferings. Within these nine circles we have the Seven Deadly Sins of the mortals. It is once said by Dante, ‘To me the whole is a homeland, like the sea to fish’ (Alighieri and Lombardo, ix). In Dante we perceive a sense of vastness and his language is open to multiple interpretations. There is ‘declaration of boundless interests’ and also ‘an allusion to his life in exile’ (Alighieri and Lombardo, ix).Dante’s Divine Comedy is a chronicle of journey into the other world, ‘the after world that lay ahead of him’ (Alighieri and Lombardo, ix).It is not only a journey of the soul into the dark recesses of the hell but also a venture of the poet to the medieval Gothic past. It is Dante Alighieri’s journey into the self exploring the spiritual faculty of his mind. The poem begins in a ‘banal set of circumstances’ (Alighieri and Lombardo, xiv) and the narrator finds himself lost in the dark and deep forest. With the onset of dawn the narrator finds out the path to climb the hills but falls in a jeopardized situation when menaced by three wild animals. However, he is saved by the ‘intervention of a stranger’ (Alighieri and Lombardo, xiv). It becomes transparent that the journey is of mystical nature. The journey is not only through the deep forest but the sojourn of life as he says ‘the journey of our life’ (Alighieri, Bondanella and Longfellow, 3). The appearance of the fierce and strange animals evokes a sense of mystery pertaining to the journey. The species of the animals are generally not found in the medieval woodlands of Tuscan. The meeting with the stranger makes Dante realize later that he has been dead and learns that it is the spirit of the great poet, Virgil. Therefore, we may say that the ‘dark wood’ (Alighieri and Musa, 50) is suggestive of the other world that is far removed from man’s tangible experience. In Inferno, we are encompassed with questions and the answers are not really solved. In the final canticle, Paradiso the conflicts of the soul are resolved. Dante own exile can be compared to the ‘journey undertaken by the Trojans on their way to home’ (Alighieri and Kirkpatrick, xiv) Dante in his journey is accompanied by Virgil and reaches at the gate of Hell and is astounded by the imperative –‘Abandon all hope, you who enter’ (Alighieri and Musa, 89).This is perhaps the hammer stroke of the thematic journey of Inferno. It is the domain of ‘sorrow eternal ‘(Alighieri and Musa, 100). This is the scepter of justice designed by the God to punish the mortals for their sins. The protagonist and Virgil enter the outer region of the Hell, Ante-Inferno and meet a band of sinners. They are called the ‘neutrals’ (Alighieri and Musa, 29) and cannot be accommodated neither to heaven nor to Hell because of their ‘moral cowardice’ (Alighieri and Musa). They cannot choose between excellence and evil. They are continuously chasing after a banner and are subject to the biting of the hornets and the sucking of the worms. The ferryman Charon then escorts them to river Acheron, the actual boundary of Hell. Here we find Dante’s rendezvous with great poets like Horace, Ovid and Lucan who are not sinners but their souls are deprived of purgation. They are not baptized. It suggests that baptism and the worship of Christian God is mandatory to seek salvation. The journey tends to give a lesson that human beings should rise above moral ambiguity and must resort to the path of faith and Christian beliefs. Dante wants to discover the relation between cause and effect. However the damnation of the virtuous pagans sounds not justified and in this respect Francesca’s self justification is valid. Dante too explains these propositions as ‘hard’. Inferno aims to realize the ultimate truth. It ‘aims to activate within us the principles of upright living- virtue, in a word’ (Alighieri and Lombardo, xviii). The quality of virtue and virtuous living should motivate the moments of life. Dante is the only character in Inferno who still has the chance to ‘learn, grow and change’ (Alighieri and Lombardo, xxi). This sojourn will enable him to view his ‘own personal history’ (Alighieri and Lombardo, xxi) against the vast history of the world. This self realization is only possible through experience. The journey motif is prominent throughout Inferno. In this venture Dante is caught between the notion of salvation and damnation. The protagonist pays tribute to Brunetto and his ‘political sympathy’ (Alighieri and Lombardo, xxii) for Ugolino or Farinata for their noble qualities cannot save them from the hands of damnation. The mortal are guilty of many a guilt. In fact, Ugolino and Farinita anticipate the ‘ultimate distortion of human possibilities’ (Alighieri and Kirkpatrick, 442). In the Second Circle of the Hell punishment is given for committing the sin of lust. Here Francesca relates his illegitimate love affair with Paola da Rimini. In the Third Circle the sinners of gluttony are drowned in muddy water and receive a downpour of filths and excrements. The Fourth Circle is for punishing the avaricious souls. The Fifth Circle of Hell has the river Styx in which those who commit the sin of wrath and anger meet with punishment. We find that Dante is delighted to see Filippo Argenti, his former political enemy baring the torture in Hell for his mortal sins. Dante and Virgil then move into the city of Dis and from there shift to the Sixth Circle of the Hell and encounter with a political leader, Farinata. It is a journey to look into the ‘sterile barbarity’ of the then Florentine society (Alighieri and Kirkpatrick, xiv) In the First Ring of the Seventh Circle the souls who were violent and aggressive towards others were submerged in a river of boiling blood. In the Second Ring of the Seventh Circle the souls have to bear eternal torture that resorted to self- inflicted death. Here he meets Pier della Vigna. The protagonist and his guide going deeper into the realm of the Seventh circle meet the Blasphemers and then meet the Sodomites and the Usurers. They are condemned for showing violence to Nature and Art respectively. The journey to the Eight Circle or Malebolge is significant. The realm is divided into number of pockets. The First Pouch comprises of the Panderers and the Seducers. The Second Pouch is filled with the Flatterers. The Third and the Fourth Pouch are inhabited by the Simoniacs and the Astrologers. The Fifth and Sixth Pouches consist of the persons who have taken bribes, the Hypocrites like the cleric who established Jesus’ death. All these human follies are subject to eternal punishment in the Hell. In the Eight Pouch there is a reference to Ulysses and his sin of committing spiritual theft as he is found guilty of implementing the trick of the Trojan horse. Ulysses stands for journey but he too is not far from human follies. He is seen to disregard his obligations at home and ‘surrendered to an illegitimate desire to know things he was never meant to know’ (Alighieri and Lombardo, xxiv).His oratory skills has easily persuaded others as he says, ‘This little speech steeled my crew’s hearts/ and made them so eager for the voyage ahead’ (Alighieri and Lombardo, xxiv).In the Ninth Pouch the scandal mongers are afflicted to constant wounds. The Falsifiers in the Tenth Pouch are afflicted with diseases and plagues. A conclusion can be drawn from here that the wages of sins are always punishments. In this respect Inferno is like the morality plays of the medieval ages. Inferno can be said the journey into corrupt denizen of only to realize that the mortals must lead a life at the mercy of God and keep themselves aloof from the deceptive charms. The lowest region of the Hell also has rings. Here punishments are given to people who deceived their brothers, guests, benefactors by making them stand cold. The final encounter is with Lucifer. Dante’s Lucifer is three-headed and each mouth chews the three greatest sinners of the world. They are Judas the thirteenth disciple who betrayed Jesus Christ. The other two are Brutus and Cassius who deceived Julius Caesar. It is suggestive of the fact that fraud is the worst of the sins. It is opposing to God’s utmost gift to man in the form of love. Therefore, the degree of wickedness is determined by the extent to which man opposes love and God. In this respect, Beatrice’s love is mark of spirituality and a symbol of hope. The poet then arrives at the threshold of Hell and spots the river Lethe of forgetfulness. Finally, they rise from the Hell on the Easter morning before the sunrise and returns to Earth. In Inferno, Dante has shown that ‘hell is the final destination for those who opt out of God’s plan (Alighieri and Lombard, xxvii). Through the venture into the realms of the Hell the mysteries of the entire universe is unfolded. It is also opined that ‘Dante, the pilgrim has to ‘overcome the physical dangers’ (Alighieri, Bondanella and Longfellow, 185) for a spiritual realization of the soul. The ‘arrival of Geryon-is a literally true image from a literally real journey to Hell ‘and is not endowed with the ‘philosophical allegory’ (Alighieri, Bondanella and Longfellow, 228). Dante also wants that his readers will learn the knowledge of life along with the Pilgrim (Dante himself). Throughout the sojourn we find that Virgil accompanies him as his guide. This was an apt choice made by Dante as he had been to Hell before him. The journey also teaches Dante that experience is the best teacher of life. It is a venture into ‘the physical territory of hell and a spiritual through the dark forest of human sin’ (Alighieri, Bondanella and Longfellow, 189). The spiritual realization is possible only when Dante, the pilgrim is purged of the emotion of pity. The journey also reveals that in life and death everything is predestined by God. As we find Virgil saying to Charon-“do not impede his journey fate-ordained’ (Alighieri, Bondanella and Longfellow, 25). The journey affirms the faith in God’s justice. The journey also speaks for Dante’s desire to seek immortality to through the art of story telling. It will allow him to live in the memories of the people. The sojourn also offered the political scenarios of the fourteenth Florence from which he had been exiled. He condemns a few political figures and comments on the corrupt activities of Florence. He also gives voice to his political beliefs and opines that church and state should be separate bodies. The church governs the spirit and the state the person. This is emphasized in his references to the spiritual leader, Jesus betrayed by Judas and the political leader, Caesar deceived by Brutus and Cassius. Dante’s Inferno is a personal theological and political journey (Alighieri and Sayers, 9). Conclusion In Inferno, Dante has made a venture into the realms of the Hell to explore the sufferings of the sinners and comes out of the Hell with a new realization that the divine justice must be done for the purgation of the human souls. Beatrice is the only blessed soul in the Inferno and Beatrice aids Dante to find Virgil. She is the symbol of hope, love, spirituality and salvation. It is through her the spiritual motif of the journey is emphasized. In fact, Dante’s imaginary journey is to seek reunion with Beatrice in afterlife. Here the personal motif of the sojourn is explored. Virgil is the symbol of human reason which is needed to arrive at the self. It is a self-exploring journey. Inferno prepares the ground for a pilgrimage to God. To reach God the souls need to be purified and for that one has venture into the Underworld. It is a journey pre-ordained by God. The journey to the Hell is full of disturbance. It is further suggested to reach the divine blessing it is necessary to descend to the Hell. The Hell is the first phase of seeking redemption. Therefore we may conclude that Inferno is Dante’s imaginary, religious, spiritual and personal journey. Works Cited Alighieri, Dante and Robin Kirkpatrick, The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno, New York: Penguin Classics, 2006 Alighieri, Dante and Stanley Lombardo, Inferno, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2009 Alighieri, Dante, Bondanella, Peter and Henry Longfellow, The Inferno, Volume 2003, Part 2, Spark Educational Publishing, 2003 Alighieri, Dante and Mark Musa, The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno, New York: Penguin Classics Alighieri, Dante and Dorothy Sayers, The Divine Comedy: Hell, New York: Penguin Classics Read More