My Favourite Stories - Part 8: Dante's Inferno
Dante’s Alighieri’s divine comedy is one of those classic titles which is constantly being referenced, even unintentionally. I was aware of its status as a great pillar of the western canon, but I didn’t fully appreciate how good it was until I read it and studied it while abroad in Italy.
This was all the more impressive when I realized that what Dante wrote is essentially a Christian self-insert fanfiction. If the average writer tried to create a story where they were guided through hell by one of their personal heroes of history, passing smugly by all the heinous people who wronged them throughout their life who are toiling away in eternal damnation as they go to reunite with the subject of their unrequited love, I think most of us would consider it hackneyed and ham-fisted. Dante somehow got to have his torta and eat it too, indulging in his revenge fantasy love poem while still managing to create an absolutely sublime narrative.
The story left such an impact on me that it served as one of the central pieces of inspiration for Mythos Ascending, as I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post. While I’m tempted to write about the entire divine comedy, I’ll keep this post exclusively about my favourite part: Inferno.
One of the most lasting concepts which Dante introduced in this story was the hierarchical nature of hell, and by extension, the idea that not all sins are equal in their severity.
This is a piece of nuance which I feel is sometimes absent in Christian theology, the idea that there are different degrees of punishment according to the kind of wrongdoing, and that sin doesn’t just place people in a categorically neutral place known vaguely as ‘hell’. I believe this is something we all know intrinsically, but Dante presents it magnificently.
What I find most gripping about the story is the symbolism present all throughout. Especially towards the end of the narrative, where Dante enters the deepest layer of hell and comes across Satan, trapped in a massive field of ice.
It seems initially like an image of hell which goes against the stereotypical visual of fire and brimstone everywhere, but I think what Dante touches on with his version of hell is much more profound. The idea that hell is a frozen wasteland depicts it as a place of stagnation, inaction, and paralysis. It suggests that true damnation is the inability to move, change, or grow.
Furthermore, the ice field is maintained by Satan flapping his wings, in a desperate attempt to flee hell. The very thing he does to try and flee hell is what keeps him locked there for eternity.
This image gives greater meaning to the end of Purgatorio, where Dante walks through a wall of flame to enter heaven, suggesting that paradise is a place of movement, action, and mobility.
The story is absolutely brilliant, both in concept and execution.
