An Analysis of the Setting in The Inferno

Abstract Plutus and Pluto, and their placement in the fourth circle of Hell, were originally very confusing for me. After researching for the interactive oral, I had a much better understanding of him because, in Greek mythology, he is the God of wealth and, in Roman mythology, he is the God of the underworld. Pluto, the Roman God, is not only the God of the underworld, but also of the riches. He is placed in the fourth circle of Hell, that of greed and avarice, which makes sense because of the occupants’ sins, which have to do with riches and wealth. Also, the negative association of money and wealth to greed helped me tie in why a God was in Hell, other than the fact that Pluto/Plutus was Roman/Greek and not Christian. This development not only helped me understand why greed was around the middle of Hell, but also why Pluto/Plutus was there. It also connects to the prevalent idea of retribution, or an eye-for-an-eye, because the God of wealth, riches, and the underworld (money and evil) was around greed (evil due to money). My understanding of the retribution idea in The Inferno was also developed substantially through the interactive oral. Originally, it was easy for me to understand that the punishments were retributive; such as those who tried to look into the future will look backwards (to the past) for all eternity; gluttoners are rained upon by vomit (because they regurgitated what they ate), etc.; but what I did not understand was why. What really helped me grasp this concept is what was said about the laws in place when Dante was alive, such as, if one were caught stealing, his or her hand would be cut off. This helped me realize that Dante used retribution because almost everyone in his time believed that the best was to teach someone a lesson was to give him or her a taste of his or her own medicine. On the contrary, I found it interesting that he believed this, and so did nearly everyone of his time, but upon further investigation, he was never publically damned, despite the fact that he damned so many others in The Inferno. He was exiled, but that was not for the poem. Through these things, the interactive oral presentation helped me realize the importance of retribution and how it symbolized giving sinners their due.

An Analysis of the Setting in The Inferno The setting of the epic poem The Inferno, by Dante Alighieri, is extremely important to the work, and its interpretation, as a whole. In the poem, a man, Dante the Pilgrim, enters Hell with a deceased poet, Virgil, as his guide. They travel through Hell, observing all of its horrors and emerge after three days. The motif of the number three can be constantly observed as a holy symbol, which also plays a major role in the formation of the theme, in collaboration with the setting. In specific relation to the setting, the main aspects include the dates themselves and the stars depicted when Dante and Virgil emerge from Hell. Also, another aspect, which relates to the setting, but not directly, is the structure and its thematic effect on the poem. Although it is not clearly stated within the actual text, the tale of Dante the Pilgrim begins on Good Friday of the year 1300 when he enters a “forest dark,” which starts the poem off with an ominous tone (Alighieri 3). Good Friday is the anniversary of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, so the poem beginning on this date further supports the previously stated tone of ominousness. Also, the fact that Dante enters Hell on the 1300th anniversary of the death of Christ conveys the thought that he is currently not a good Christian, since his “straightforward path had been lost,” but that he wants to become a better one because the year 1300 is a jubilee year, which is one of reduced sins and universal pardon (3). Around the middle of the poem, once Dante the Pilgrim is submerged within the depths of Hell, Dante the Poet, the narrator, presents another clue as to what the time setting is in the world outside of Hell. Dante the Poet states that, “Yesterday, five hours later than this hour,
One thousand and two hundred sixty-six Years were complete, that here the way was broken,” which creates the inference of two things: that Dante entered Hell at noon on Good Friday and that it is now seven in the morning on Holy Saturday (103). The final point in which Dante the Poet hints at the time when events are taking place in The Inferno is at the very end of the poem when Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil are exiting Hell and “[they] came forth to rebehold the stars,” thus marking the morning of Easter Sunday (169).
A connection to the setting of time is the motif of threes and its holy symbolism. Dante’s trip through Hell takes three days; Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday; all of which are connected to the death and resurrection of Christ. Also, Dante the Poet only mentions dates three times throughout all of The Inferno. This connection symbolizes the fact that it was God’s will for Dante the Pilgrim to travel through Hell. Also, through the connection of the dates to Christ’s resurrection, the purpose of Dante’s Journey is revealed because Jesus died on the cross to save all of the sinners, thus Dante was sent to Hell to tell others of the horrors he witnessed there so that they will repent and, because of his intervention, become saved from eternal damnation. The physical setting in The Inferno, like the time and date setting, is also significant because of its contributions to the tone of hopefulness in The Inferno. Upon Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil’s emergence from Hell, “[they] came forth to rebehold the stars,” creating the setting of a star-filled, clear sky (169). The clear sky both symbolizes and foreshadows a clear and more pleasant future for Dante and the stars symbolize the eternity for which this pleasantness will last. This idea is supported by the lines in which Dante and Virgil actually exit Hell, which state,
“We mounted up, he first and I second,
Till I beheld through a round aperture Some of those beauteous things which Heaven doth bear;” because of the positive and holy connotations of “up…beheld…Heaven,” and “bear,” all of which further support the idea of Dante’s eternally pleasant future (169).
Another significant portion of the physical setting in The Inferno is that of the actual exit of Hell. The fact that Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil exit through a “round aperture” creates a particularly important symbol of eternal pleasantness (169). The juxtaposition between the fact that the opening is circular and that it is the exit of Hell creates the idea that Dante will never go back to Hell. This is because of the fact that circles are forever continuous, having neither breaks nor corners, thus symbolizing the eternity a sinner would stay in Hell. The juxtaposing factor of Hell’s exit being a circular opening is what creates the formerly mentioned idea because an exit is literally a break or an end, so the exit being circular symbolizes an end of something eternal, or an eternal end of Dante ever being in Hell.
In The Inferno’s original language of Italian, the structure of the poem is characterized as being that of terza rima. This means that the poem consists of tercets that are woven into a rhyme scheme that requires the second line in one tercet to rhyme with the first and third lines in the following tercet. Throughout the poem, this structure proves to create a sort of easy-going and flowing tone which helps steady Dante the Pilgrim’s movement through Hell, particularly when the depicted scenes are more vivid and intense. In relation to Dante’s journey, this also implies the notion that he is attempting to move more quickly through Hell in order to get out faster, despite the fact that he knows it is God’s will for him to travel through and observe Hell. This supports the aforementioned idea that Dante will never return to Hell because he has learned, through his journey, the horrors contained within and he obviously does not enjoy or ever want to experience them again, as conveyed through the usage of terza rima and his apparent desire to complete his journey more quickly.
The setting of The Inferno; specifically, the mentions of time, the stars present upon Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil’s exit from Hell, and the connection to the poem’s structure; contribute to the thematic interpretation of the epic poem as a whole. The positive outcome of these aspects also helps to create the classification of The Inferno, along with the other two poems in Dante’s Divine Trilogy, Purgatorio and Paradiso, as comedies, despite The Inferno’s grim scenes and gruesomely depicted punishments. What is created in order for the poem to be interpreted this way is a hopeful tone, thus conveying a positive outlook from Dante the Pilgrim. Moving from the tone of the poem in its entirety, the conceptual associations within The Inferno are that of hopefulness, repentance, and predestination. These conceptual associations create the thematic statement of The Inferno: one’s sins will eventually come back and attack him or her retributively in Hell, so in order to avoid this, one must repent for his or her sins and follow God and His word. This thematic statement also raises the question of whether or not it is worth it to live a Hedonistic life of pleasure and go to Hell after death, rather than live for God and happily spend an eternity in Heaven. Although Dante, at the beginning of The Inferno, is straying from God’s path, in the end he decides that he would rather live for God and go to the Promised Land. Despite Dante’s own decision, he cannot decide the fate of others, so each person must decide his or her own fate: live hedonistically and sacrilegiously now and pay for it later, or live angelically and righteously and spend an eternity in paradise.

Work Cited
Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno. Trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Ed. Matthew Pearl. New York: Modern Library, 2003. Print.