Dante’s Confession – A Literary Analysis
In his “Inferno” Dante Alighieri, the author of The Divine Comedy, portrays himself as the 35 year old Dante the Pilgrim, who is “Midway along the journey of [his] life” (Alighieri & Musa, 2002). Alighieri’s Dante the Pilgrim is a man who has “wandered off from the straight path” (Alighieri & Musa, 2002) and has gone astray from “the path of truth” (Alighieri & Musa, 2002). Dante wrote the Inferno as a public confession of his sins, to make his readers comprehend the redemption of the soul. After all, confession is the first step toward redemption. In the Inferno, Dante the Pilgrim feels unusually sympathetic for sinners who have sinned just like him. Dante the Pilgrim’s sympathy is utterly necessary as it exposes the sins that the Pilgrim has been involved in and serves as a form of confession. Why should Dante feel sympathy for those souls who have sinned like him? In this paper I will attempt to analyze and explore why Dante the Pilgrim initially felt sympathetic towards the souls in Hell and why Dante’s sympathy turned to anger towards the sinners.
As the Pilgrim’s heartfelt sympathy is initially explored, the idea that he is truly feeling pitiful might seem ludicrous. Some might even say that he should rather be feeling fearful that someday he will be punished in the same way as the sinners before him in the nine circles of Hell. However, eventually the Pilgrim’s sympathy is strongly logical. According to Mark Musa the sinners are punished because they sinned. Dante Alighieri does not limit the symbolic punishment to the afterlife. The punishments created by him in Hell somewhat literally reflect a sinner’s mental state while still alive. This assumption can be clarified by contemplating some of the punishments, such as Dante Alighieri wrote that in the Second Circle of “sad” Hell, the “If by opposing winds 't is combated Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine; Whirling them round” (Alighieri & Musa, 2002), which reflects the mental whirlwind experienced by in life by sinners who allowed their minds to succumb to lust. Thus, Dante feels sympathetic towards those in Hell because he has also sinned just like them. He knows their pain and that is why he weeps. Although Dante also experiences the lack of sympathy, but the absence is never complete because he is still a sinner like the rest.
Dante Alighieri never mentioned what sins the Pilgrim specifically committed, but since the Pilgrim feels exceptionally sorrowful about four particular sins, this is evidence that connects the poet to them. As Dante the Pilgrim approaches the Gate of Hell that bears the sign containing a very famous line “ABANDON ALL HOPE, ALL YOU WHO ENTER” (Alighieri & Musa, 2002), the first thing he did is comment that “these words I see are cruel” (Alighieri & Musa, 2002). After entering the gate, Dante hears the endless cries of suffering and torment, and he weeps, which suggests that Dante probably considered himself an opportunist. Alighieri writes in Canto V that in the Second Circle of Hell, “The infernal storm, eternal in its rage, sweeps and drives the spirits with its blast; it whirls them, lashing them with punishment. When they are swept back past their place of judgment then come the shrieks, laments, and anguished cries” and Dante’s sympathy might suggest that Dante had succumbed to “carnal malefactors.” The Pilgrim also feels sympathetic in Canto XIII when he meets the soul of Piero Forest of Suicides. The fact that Dante the Pilgrim identifies with Piero suggests that he might have experienced suicidal thoughts, which is the reason he feels a strong connect to the sinners in Canto XIII. In Canto XX, Dante the Pilgrim actually wept finally realizing that that the sinners in Hell do not deserve any sympathy.
Dante’s attitude towards the sinners in Hell starts changing from sympathy to the anger in Canto XIX. Earlier, Dante felt sympathy for the sinners, but Dante actually expresses his anger towards the Simonists. In particular, Dante tells Pope Nicholas III that he should “stay stuck here” (Alighieri & Musa, 2002), i.e. in Hell. At this point, Dante realizes that Simony is a very terrible sin and he view towards sinners begins changing. Dante the Pilgrim finally seems to understand that by placing sinners who have not repented in Hell, God has done the right thing. Dante now agrees that the sinners in Hell deserve all the punishment and torture they are going through in Hell. At one point, Dante even goes to the extent of tricking the sinner, Friar Alberigo. Dante promises Alberigo, “if I do not help you, / may I be forced to drop beneath this ice!” (Alighieri & Musa, 2002). However, Dante does not intend to help Alberigo because he is already aware that going beneath the ice is a part of his journey. Dante has now started treating the sinners disdain because he now believes they deserve it. Dante the Pilgrim’s shift from his previous sympathy for the sinners also illuminates a desire to vent out his personal anger. This shift also further develops Dante’s character as well. His feels have permanently departed from sympathy and it seems that he can no longer tolerate sin. This growing scorn is accepted by Virgil, and seems to be supported by the poet.
The way in which suffering and torment are imaginatively evoked by the poet is one very incredible aspect of the Inferno. Dante the poet’s conception of Hell is quite remarkable because he shows that sinners who are being punished and tortured in Hell is not so different from how they were on Earth. The poet is showing the readers what makes Hell so horrible is that sinners are not able to repent to God. However, Dante manages to do that. It can be assumed that by depicting a tension Dante’s shift from heartfelt sympathy to anger towards the sinners, the poet is pinpointing that in the end divine justice, i.e. God’s justice, always wins out, and indeed this is what happens in the Inferno. By the point that Dante the Pilgrim is almost ready to progress on to Limbo, as Virgil says, “Now is the time / to leave this place, for we have seen it all” (Alighieri & Musa, 2002), which suggests that Dante has achieved his ultimate form of piety.
Works Cited
Alighieri, D., & Musa, M., trans. (2002). The divine comedy: Volume 1. (Revised edition ed.). Penguin Classics.
