How Did Politics Affect Dante's Inferno

Dante’s divine comedy Inferno address a series of issues that related to the period of the early 1300s. Dante gave excessive detail of his perspective of Hell, though his views on Hell were borrowed primarily from his literary hero Virgil and The Iliad, and he even went so far as to add Virgil as a character within his divine comedy. Inferno was set up by Dante to be a model of the universe, detailing how the inner circles of Hell were organized and how Heaven and Purgatory played a role in the afterlife. Throughout Inferno, Dante described his views on the political, economic, and cultural aspects that were believed during the Middle Ages, and he stated his opinions by also using examples of figures that he believed would live in the multiple

inner circles of Hell for all eternity.
The majority of Inferno related to how Dante perceived the political, as well as cultural, ideologies that were present during the Middle Ages.

Within his divine comedy, Dante broke down the sins that were represented within each sub-circle of Hell by splitting each layer into a Canto, and each Canto contained Dante’s reactions to seeing the atrocities and cruelties that happen within Hell. Typically, the political laws of the Middle Ages dictated how there was only one God that should be believed in, and those who took part in pagan activities – whether or not they knew of any other God – would not be sent to Heaven. Dante did bring up the issues he had with this ideology, most noticeably in Canto IV. Within this section, Dante, along with Virgil, who accompanied Dante through each sub-circle of Hell and explained the truth behind each level, entered Limbo, the circle that contained those who never knew of God. Limbo was described as a place of “sighs of sadness, but not of torment” (Dante IV, line 28) because the people that lived within Limbo lived in perpetual sadness; the area was portrayed as being very beautiful, with “a noble castle…and a meadow green with fresh grass” (Dante IV, lines 106-112), and it was made this way because nobody within Limbo actively sinned. Instead, the souls of the dead were damned to Limbo because they died without being baptized or without being Christian, so, therefore, there was no chance that these people would ever see Heaven. Limbo

proved to be a heartbreaking place for Dante because he didn’t agree with the fate that these souls must have to endure for all eternity. He understood the ideology placed on society during the Middle Ages; however, he also understood that these souls who must live in Limbo forever, never knew that they could have had more – they never knew they could have known God and could have instead been placed in Heaven. Even if the atmosphere of Limbo was exactly what the pagans asked for, with beautiful streams and a high castle, it didn’t compare to the glory that was Heaven where God resided, and this torment bothered Dante extremely. He did not see why the souls of believers, no matter which God, should suffer the agony of living in a world that did not have God’s glory, simply because they didn’t know it was an option before they died.
Another example of how Dante described politics within Inferno was in Canto XIX. Within this section of Inferno, Dante illustrated the torture of all the old popes of Rome. This sub-circle of Hell did contain physical torture, while the souls in Limbo were never physically abused. Canto XIX, however, gave no such pity to the old popes of Rome; instead, the men were forced to have the souls of their feet burned until the next pope came to replace them, and, once replaced, they would be stuffed into a large sphere with all the other popes, one of top of the other. This form of torture truly portrayed Dante’s opinions on the popes who took advantage of Rome and used it for financial or public gain. Dante’s opinions on how painful and torturous this layer of Hell should be also stemmed from the fact that he himself was betrayed by Pope Boniface VIII. This betrayal truly pained Dante because he felt that the pope was supposed to represent the love and truth within Christianity, but, instead, Boniface’s actions caused Dante to doubt his own devoutness. Dante’s anger and feelings of betrayal came to light when he described the place in which the popes were forced to suffer, with “the soles of both feet on fire” (Dante Canto XIX, line 25). The connection that Dante had with his religion was what caused the betrayal from the pope to feel so painful, and he made it clear that the current pope, Boniface VIII, would end up in the sub-circle of Hell with all the other popes who took advantage of Rome and the papal crown.
Dante briefly mentioned the laws of economics and how they played a part in the layers of Hell, and he did so in Canto VII, as well as with the example described above. Within Canto VII, Dante referred to those who were taken by Fortune and became greedy. Those trapped within the Fifth Circle of Hell would “butt against each other eternally” (Dante Canto VII, line 55) due to their addictions to their possessions, and when Dante and Virgil saw the constant clashing and pain that ultimately resulted, the men who were taken in by their greed were called “a mockery” and their souls were said to never be able to rest due to “all the gold that is beneath the moon” that they could not have (Dante Canto VII, lines 61-64). Dante made his thoughts on the sin of greed painfully obvious when he made Virgil describe the sinners as a mockery, and he is shown to have very little sympathy for those who lived their lives craving only gold and money. It can be assumed that Dante did not care for the ideology that surrounded greed or wrath and, instead, he detailed how he viewed many of those within this sub-circle of Hell to be brutish and undignified. Even with the example that discussed the popes’ fate, Dante is shown to not care much for those who lived their lives through greed and monetary gain. Boniface VIII had not only betrayed Dante’s trust in the papacy within Rome, but he also managed to profit economically when he was pope, and in doing so, he angered Dante even more. Dante took out his anger by directly stating within Inferno that Boniface VIII would undoubtedly be joining the rest of the popes in Hell, and he would be the next one to have his feet scorched for years upon years.
The last main theme discussed within Dante’s Inferno is the theme of culture and how cultural ideologies within the Middle Ages played a role in how he saw Hell’s structure.

Most of the beliefs during the Middle Ages revolved around how those who fell prey to sins like Lust and Betrayal – as well as sins like Injustice and Passion – were among the worst of all, and Dante went into great detail about these beliefs in both Canto V and Canto XXXIV. Within Canto V, Dante visited the Circle of Lust and saw many ancient figures that he revered or studied, figures like Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Dido, and Paris; soon after, though, he learned of a couple that made his heart break, and Dante’s true opinion on Lust comes to light when he discussed the fate of the couple Francesca and Paolo. Dante learned how Francesca was doomed to be in an abusive marriage and how she found solace in her teacher Paolo and, while reading Lancelot and his love for Guinevere, the two kissed, sealing their fate within the Circle of Lust. Dante’s level of heartbreak and shock was so strong that his “body fell like a corpse to he ground” (Dante Canto V, line 142), and this action truly solidified how horrified he must have felt to know that those who truly loved each other, but were meant to be with another, would be forced to live within a world of torturously painful wind for an eternity. Worse than Lust, though, is Betrayal, which Dante finally visits with Virgil in Canto XXXIV before passing upwards

through the last layer of Hell. Within this level is Hell is the worst punishment imaginable: Lucifer himself. The world is frozen and bare and Lucifer “stood out of the ice up to his chest” (Dante Canto XXXIV, line 29). He is described as having “three faces arranged on his head…and under each face grew a pair of wings” (Dante Canto XXXIV, lines 38-46) that caused gusts of wind so large that they kept the rest of Cocytus frozen. The worst punishment imaginable is shared between three men: Judas, Brutus, and Cassius, for they were all being held in one of Lucifer’s mouths while he chewed on them with his teeth in such a way that they were left in constant agony. The reason Dante placed them here, though, was because their sins were so large and they betrayal was so cruel that it could never be forgiven; Judas Iscariot is the one Virgil says is punished the most due to his betrayal against Jesus himself, a crime so heinous that he will forever be forced to endure the mouth of Lucifer. Dante’s devoutness truly shines in this section of Inferno because he places a crime against Jesus as the worst sin that could possibly be committed, and this Canto also described how the ideology of the Middle Ages also agreed that religion was so hugely important that any sin against the Holy Spirit was worth an eternity within the Devil’s jaws.
Dante’s Inferno is an incredibly important piece of literature that details exactly how Dante thought the layout of Hell should be, even when he placed those he loved and respected, like Virgil himself, in a sub-circle of Hell. Inferno addressed not only Dante’s personal beliefs, but also those prevalent throughout the Middle Ages within Italy, and it lays out each and every issue Dante has with the ideologies he encountered during that time. Inserting himself within his own divine comedy and having himself speak with his literary hero was a way for Dante to cope with the horrors he encountered while sitting and describing his version of Hell, an experience that would have been grueling for anyone to do. However, because Dante wrote out his thoughts within Inferno, the political, economic, and cultural aspects that existed during the Middle Ages are able to be dissected and reviewed for decades to come, and it will forever remain an amazing piece of history.