Dante's Inferno

A detailed Summary of Dante's Inferno

The Inferno is more than just a fictional story about someone travelling through the universe. It is actually more like an autobiographical journey of life through its author, Dante Alighieri's eyes. Written in the early 1300s by a disgruntled Dante living in exile, he literally describes a man who has been trapped, and must find a way to escape. Allegorically, he's telling us about the terrible moment of crisis that occurs in each one of our lives "when evil inside and outside of ourselves seems to block any hope for further constructive development". Written originally as a long poem separated into cantos or songs, he basically wrote with the personal purpose of recording where all of the people he came in contact within his life, will go when they die. This could be one of three places; Hell, Purgatory, or Heaven. He went on to design specific, fitting punishments or rewards based

Overall, it is apparent that the Inferno is an extensive piece of history that describes much of what it was like in the Middle Ages. We also get a sense of how Dante was feeling at the time and how terrible humans can be to one another. Combined, these ideas make this a very intriguing piece of writing.

In a few instances, Dante shows signs of the times in which the Inferno was written. This piece is loaded with numerous allegories that are references to the middle ages. One of these includes Dante's conception of the universe. The way Hell is in the center with nine rings surrounding it, leads us to believe that he was using the then current Ptolemy's belief that the universe was made up of concentric circles, with the Earth at the center. Another common reference we see is the constant use of, then crucial, historical figures. For example, in this passage he refers to the patro

Some common words found in the essay are:
Divine Comedy, Due Dante, Dante Alighieri's, Elders Finally, Purgatory Heaven, Count Ugolino, Middle Ages, , middle ages, Archbishop Ruggieri,

Approximate Word count = 598
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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Dante's Inferno

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