Juxtaposition In Dante's Inferno

Burning Up

(A Discussion of the Allegorical Significance of Dante’s Hell)

Fire and brimstone, flames engulfing people, and the endless cries from the souls that are suffering are all things that are commonly associated with hell. It’s not thought of as some place of just punishment, but filled with pain and torment. The question raised is whether or not it is actually full of fire and heat, or is it something different. When we read about hell in Dante’s Inferno, he describes the place not only full of fire, but also of ice, wind, and rain. All of the elements sit on different levels that have been thoughtfully laid out by Dante himself. Carol Forman speaks of how Dante set up his hell, “Hell is structured around Dante’s concept of sin.

Man has free will. Everyone gets, ultimately what he chooses…their punishments and suffering are very often simply a continuation of the sin they had chosen,” (Carol Forman). The punishments in hell deal directly with the sin. Dante’s allegorical significance in the hell he created is shown in the first circle, second circle, and ninth circle of hell.
First of all, Dante shows the allegorical significance of his hell through his first circle. As readers, we are first introduced to the circle of hell early in the poem. The first circle being limbo. This is where the souls of people who haven’t committed to either heaven or hell. Along with the souls are also the angels that nether committed to God or Satan’s side in the war of Heaven. Also, the souls that weren’t baptized are sent to spend eternity here. Ian Thomson talks about Dante’s purpose in creating Limbo, “If Dante speaks to our present condition, it is not because we fear damnation, but because he wrote the epic of everyman who sets out in search of salvation,” (Thomson). The significance of this place is to show readers that they need to choose one side or the other, preferably God’s side as he is holy and all mighty. The souls here are sentenced to an eternity of drifting around doing nothing. The allegory here is, if on Earth you drift around not doing anything, not choosing sides, then in hell you will also do nothing. By sentencing everyone in Limbo, Dante takes away any hope that they had.
Dante also shows his allegorical significance of Hell in his second circle, where the lustful souls go. This is where the lustful reside. The people who have sinned due to love will spend eternity here in the second circle of hell. In Cantos 5, Dante enters the second circle of hell where he meets Francesca. She and her lover are constantly whipped around in the air as gale winds whip them around and rain pours down on them. She tells Dante of what she has done, but she never repents or says sorry for the sins she has committed. Jeffrey Hart discusses the significance of the punishment, “Since she never repents, she will always be where she is. Dante the pilgrim faints with sympathy for Francesca. But Dante the author places her precisely where she belongs,” (Hart). The significance of this punishment is quite genius actually. The winds that whip the souls around in the circle have the same force as the power as the emotions that whipped around the decisions of the lovers on Earth. From the evidence shown, you can see the significance of the Dante’s punishment in the second circle of hell.
One of the most significant places of punishment in Dante’s hell would be in the ninth circle of hell. In the ninth circle of hell, the reader understands what Dante classifies as the worst possible sin of all time. That is betrayal; not simply that, but betraying your master. For some people, this may be different, but this is Dante’s hell, so that’s who he put in the ninth circle. Antonia Ryan discusses how Dante gets to this point, “Dante was forced into exile…which led him to chronicle his inner experience of hell,” (Ryan). Since this is his hell and he created it, we see what the worst possible sin for Dante is. Like stated earlier, the hell that Dante created wasn’t really the hell that everyone thought of. We commonly thought of it as full of fire and heat, but when reading over Dante’s thoughts, we find that he placed the worst people of all time in ice. “Dante is the one who made eternal punishment exotic and real,” (‘Art and Humanities). The significance of freezing in the ice is to show how extremely cold their souls are, cold and unaffectionate. As you can see, the significance of the ninth circle deals directly with the cold and heartless sins that the souls there committed.
From fire to wind and ice, Dante created a hell full of different punishments for different sinners. There was a certain significance that came along with the sins that the souls committed. First, we saw the punishment of those who didn’t chose a side in the war against heaven or hell, along with those who weren’t baptized. They were forced to reside in limbo, a place full of nothing. Next, there were the souls in the second circle. These were the souls that committed sins of lust. There were eternally whipped around in the wind as were their decisions and desires when they lived on Earth. Finally, one of the most significant punishments in Dante’s hell is in the very center. This is the ninth circle of hell, where the worst souls of all time reside. The bodies of these souls are covered in ice, just like their hearts were when they made the decision to betray their masters on Earth. From the evidence shown, the conclusion can be made that Dante created a hell with different punishments that had allegorical significance.
Creating My Own Hell
After reading Dante’s Inferno, there were several things that I picked up on.

The first being that there was a certain construction to his hell. The shape, first and foremost, was with a cone. Being largest at the top and getting smaller and smaller as you went down. Of course, the farther you went down, the worse the sins. When taking into consideration how I would construct my own hell, I decided I would follow this same format. The people who committed the worst sins would sit in the bottom on hell, in like a pit. The people that committed sins that were the least offensive would be at the top of the cone, where it’s the widest. As far as the actual geography of hell, I don’t think I would follow Dante’s schemata exactly, although I would draw a couple ideas from it. One thing that I would keep the same is the fact that the punishment of the sinner would reflect the sin that he or she committed while on Earth. The thing that I would change would make hell a lot more personal. For example, the sin committed would deal with the person directly. What the person feared or dreaded the most would be the punishment inflicted upon them. Depending on the severity of the sin. For instance, someone simply lied, then the extent of their own fear wouldn’t be as severe as it would if they had killed

someone.
Next, there comes the issue of where I would put certain people in my hell.

When reading Dante’s Inferno, you could see that the worst possible sin for him was betrayal, especially that of a master. He put the people that directly betrayed their masters in the very center of hell. These people were eaten alive by the devil. He had different opinions on what the ultimate sins committed were. When looking at how I would create my own hell, I to would put people in different levels of hell due to the sins they committed on Earth. First of all, I would give souls who weren’t baptized the chance to change that. There are several factors that come into play; maybe their parents didn’t believe in religion, or maybe they died before they got the chance to be baptized. Either way, I would allow souls who haven’t been baptized the opportunity to change. If they chose not to, then they would spend forever in Limbo. It’s difficult to say where I would put each and every sinner; there are several different aspects to take into consideration. The severity of the sin, what it planned out of simply out of rage, etc., but there is a certain category of people I would put in the bottom of hell. Here would reside the souls of all those who hurt children. There is something truly awful about these people. Kids have no way of really knowing just how bad the world is, and the people that hurt them make them grow up much too fast. They take away their innocence. There are even

instances where they change their entire outlook on life. There is no reason to hurt a child, and that’s why I would put the people that do hurt kids on Earth, in the bottom pits of hell.