Dante’s journey to hell and back is a depiction of the punishment that different categories of people will have to go through. The story is not just a preview of what will happen to a sinner after their death but a symbol of what they experience in their day-to-day life. Dante expresses the fact that every sin will be punished and even though a person may look fine in appearance, there are emotional struggles they face due to their actions. For instance, there is a place described for those who do not take sides. In as much as they feel comfortable in their position, there is always a guilty conscience of being neutral. The scenario also applies to other forms of sin such as rape, murder and greed (Berg & Enrico 88). Each category of people faces a unique emotional disturbance for engaging in an evil act.
Dante’s poem can be compared to the Aeneid and the confession in that it encourages people to engage in good acts and repent whenever they go wrong. The poem is also a reflection of the challenges and temptations that a person will have to go through in their effort to enjoy the good of life. Vigil acts as a divine protector to Dante, to signify that there is usually divine help for those who are determined to live lives that please the maker. We realise from the poem that every sin get complicated with stage (Lawall 174). This implies that if a person is not careful to overcome the very first sin of not taking sides, he or she is likely to grow into a bigger sinner and hence making it difficult for them to return to grace. Evil should hence not be tolerated at any stage and efforts have to be made to overcome, before one enjoys the abundance in heaven.
Works cited
Berg, Marcus, Enrico Pajer, and Stefan Sjors. "Dante's Inferno." arXiv preprint arXiv:0912.1341 (2009).
Lawall, Sarah N. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature: The Enlightenment Through the Twentieth Century. Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, 2005.
