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How is Dante’s Inferno an allegory?
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Inferno is an allegory for a spiritual journey, depicting Dante's descent through Hell to warn readers against sin. It illustrates the consequences of turning away from God, using historical and personal references to highlight various sins and their punishments. The work reflects Dante's views on sin, morality, and the political and religious corruption he observed in Florence.
Dante's Inferno is indeed a religious allegory. Dante is involved in a spiritual journey which will take him down to the fiery depths of hell, through Purgatory, and then finally up into the Empyrean realm of the blessed. During his trip to hell, Dante encounters a number of people who've been consigned to the inferno for the sins they've committed on earth. Some sinners are presented more sympathetically than others. Paolo and Francesca have been sent to hell on account of their adultery, yet there's little doubt that they have true feelings for each other. In the Seventh Circle of hell, where people are sent for the sin of committing acts of violence, notable characters from history such as Alexander the Great are permanently sunk in a river of boiling blood and fire.
But whatever sins have been committed, and whatever punishments are meted out to the sinners, all...
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the shades that Dante encounters in theInferno share one thing in common: they have turned away from God. Dante the Christian pilgrim wants to warn his readers of the dangers of what will happen if they too choose to follow such a foolish path.
How is Dante's journey through hell an allegory?
Dante's Inferno is an allegory, which means it is a work that operates on both a literal and a symbolic level at once.
Take the first canto of Inferno, for example. Dante wakes to find himself in the "dark wood of error." His character is literally in a forest that has a path (the "straight path") and a hill in the distance. On the symbolic level, the forest represents a life of sin, while the path represents a path of redemption that takes the contrite and forgiven sinner to heaven (the hill). In this canto, Dante is also ambushed by three beasts, which represent temptations like greed, anger, and lust. He finds that he cannot continue on the path while those beasts are in his way; this symbolizes how Dante does not feel able to overcome his temptations yet. Luckily for him, Virgil appears and offers to take Dante on a journey through all of the circles of hell as an alternate way to purgatory and then to heaven.
During the journey, Dante witnesses the symbolic punishments of a variety of sinners. For example, the sinners who are in the second circle, for "the carnal," are swept up in a whirlwind for all eternity, like they were swept up in their emotions during their lives. Each circle of hell punishes the sinners therein in appropriate ways that reflect the sins for which they are being eternally damned. At the end of Inferno, Dante climbs onto Virgil's back and together they literally surmount Satan himself. The symbolism here is clear: Dante must overcome the most evil being of all to move away from a life of sin.