Inferno By Dante Essay, Research Paper

Although it is hard to read Dante’s triple rhyme, I am thrilled by the Inferno’s ambiguity and allegoric power. It is really “a three-dimensional art.” Just like Picasso in his paintings, Dante makes me think about the meaning of the situations and their implications. Moreover, it is as visual as masterpieces of Picasso. Dante makes us believe in his narration involving our senses. This narrative poem astonishes me by the power of the language and by it’s mysticism.

In the first canto we see Dante in “the dark wood of error.” While he tries to climb up the Mount of Joy, Dante meets three wild beasts, which make him lost in the midway. Dante introduces allegoric symbols of betrayal, violence and hunger. Later in the poem, those major sins described by the author in the circles of hell. Betrayal, the most serious sin that the person can commit, is represented by one of the three beasts. Dante puts sinners of that kind in the last, most horrible circle of hell. A lion is a symbolic creature for this sin. Each beast, like everything else in the poem, displays precise meaning of each sin by its nature. The second by its significance is hunger, which is represented by a she-wolf. This beast is the symbol of all the cravings such as sex, food and money. However, the first beast that Dante sees is a leopard. His spots on the body are very meaningful; they have ability to change if we look at baby deer, for example. Therefore, the leopard is the symbol of trickery, betrayal.

The Inferno by Dante as a pure piece of art intensifies our experience of life. For me, it is a chance to examine my own experiences, some outer source that fulfill my inner need of thoughts.