The Divine Commedia- Cantica 1 Inferno

The Inferno is the first part of Dantes Epic Poem the divine comedy. The Divine Comedy consists of Inferno which is the journey through hell, Purgatorio the journey through purgatory and Paradiso which is the final poem of the Divine Comedy which takes you through heaven. The book looks at people and things of Dante's time as well as a look at Dantes love later on in the Divine Comedy. This poem is also somewhat indicative of Dante's midlife crisis where he does not know which path to take. 

In inferno Dante and Vergil, Dantes guide, travel through each circle of hell to observe the different punishments and make it to the centre of hell. We get to hear about Dantes point of views on religion and punishments and this poem is good for some life lessons. We also see Dante spiritually grow during his journey into hell. The plan of Hell consists of Threshold- The apathetic, Circle 1- Limbo: Pagans and the unbaptized, Circle 2- The lustful, Circle 3- The gluttonous, Circle 4- The avaricious and the spendthrifts, Circle 5- The wrathful and melancholic, Circle 6- The heretics which then consists of three rings which include Ring 1- Violence against others e.g murder and plunder, Ring 2- Violence against the self e.g Suicide and profligacy and Ring 3- Violence against God and nature, e.g Blasphemers, sodomites and usurers.

Circle 8 is for fraud and because this is such a large area it consists of many rotten pockets which include Pimps and seducers, Flatterers, Simonists, Soothsayers, Corrupt Officials, Hypocrites, Thieves, Intellectually dishonest, Rabble-rousers and Counterfeiters. After the rotten pockets, the final part of hell before getting to Lucifer the devil is Traitors to family, Traitors to nation and Traitors to guests. As Dante travels further down hell he notices how he becomes further away from God through symbolism.

This poem is hard to read and understand for some reason which maybe because of all the complicated language which has been translated from Italian and more likely Latin. Because the poem is so hard to understand after I finished each of the cantos I watched one of the videos from Course Hero on YouTube where they summarised the Canto as well as making some analysis and I could not have done it without them to help with my understanding. I suggest if you want to read Inferno that you check out all the videos created by Course Hero whilst reading the poem.

Although I do not agree with all the punishments and images of Hell that Dante describes, he basis much of his work on greek mythology and creates a very classic and original version of hell which is interesting and gives an insight of not only what hell may look like but what other people think hell is like because I believe everyone has different views of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory and for the hell, we base the punishments on our fears.

I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in views of hell and the afterlife as well as those who enjoy reading epic poems and classic literature. There are defiantly some life lessons in this book although it would probably be better if you were older when you read this book so you understand it more as I was only 15 at time of reading Inferno and my GCSE Religious Studies teacher told us about Dante's Divine Comedy and that is what motivated me to want to read this epic poem.

Please continue to look out for my reviews on the other two poems Paradiso and Purgatorio which I will write after I have read them to give you an insight of what the Divine Comedy has to offer and help you to decide if you want to read this book or not.

Charlie Medcalf