Analyse the Christian themes of Dante's "inferno" in terms of its relevance to and his refection's on his contemporary society?

For Dante this political corruption, treachery, and deceit, was a form of hell on earth for Dante, and embarked on his literary journey to reverse this ideology that had encompassed society.

The Christian themes enveloped in the text the Inferno are very much mirrored on the political and social issues of Dante’s context and thinking.

Justice is a major underlying theme that undermines the text, and explored as Dante plunges deeper and deeper into the depths of Hell. From a Christian perspective, hell exists to punish sin, and his poetic language explores this through obvious symbolism and character use from a historical perspective. In canto X, Dante enters the circle of Heretics the 6th circle of Hell, where Farinata Degli Uberti meets him (The head of the Ghibelline party for 25 years and Great War chief of the 12th and 13th century). As an obvious illustration of Dante’s political bias, Farinata is depicted as the pinnacle of ‘sinner’ as he substitutes the love of God for politics and political pride.

“It is Farinata rising from the flames…

He rose above the flame, great chest, great brow;

He seemed to hold all Hell in disrespect” 

Said to be one of the most driving and theatrical passages in the entire poem, the background of hell is almost lost among the references to “flame”, as the two political rival’s face each other and their continuing debate on who is right. Thus Dante reanimates the theme of justice through his confrontation with Farinata, who under Gods judgement is sentenced to suffer in Hell, among the heretics.

This one example of many in the text, of the theme of Justice, acts as prophetic poetry warning Florentines of the evils that awaited them in Hell.

Another theme expressed in the text is the connected theme of sin and redemption. The Comedy itself is Dante’s salvation from sin, symbolizing the whole conversion or deliverance of mankind.

The setting and the first lines of the poem are crucial to this understanding, as Dante enters the gates of Hell, he gazes at the inscription overhead;

“Through me you enter into the city of woes….Justice moved my high maker, in power divine wisdom supreme, love primal….All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”

 Dante must acknowledge sin before he can be redeemed. From a contextual perspective, Dante was trying to bring the point across in his works, the importance of overcoming this whirl of sin that had captured Florentine and medieval society. He imagined his inferno and his later finished work “The Divine Comedy” would reverse this   “remorseless process of disintegration”

The inferno is also an obvious organization of the severity of evil, as a response to Dante’s own beliefs, and most especially doctrinal Christian values. His moral system prioritises not human happiness on Earth, but rather God’s will in Heaven.   In Canto XXXIV we see the climax of the poem, with Dante and Virgil reaching Lucifer at the bottom of hell. Here we see how influential religious doctrine and Dante’s own personal concerns were in describing the deepest of sinner and the religious symbolism he developed to reinforce his ideas.

“That soul my master said, who suffers most is Judas Iscariot… of the other two who twist their heads down, the black mouths hold the shade of Brutus…. Cassius is the sinewy one on the other side”

Thus by the end of the poem, Dante manages to tie his main political themes with his religious concerns and values. By showing Lucifer chewing on Judas (the betrayer of Christ), Cassius and Brutus (the betrayers of Julius Caesar) he unites his concerns of church and political affairs and states their equal importance. Contextually once again, this reinforces the idea of getting the attention of society to acknowledge their own sins, and returning back to the Christian way of life that had become disillusioned during the middle ages.

In conclusion Dante’s epic “The Divine Comedy” and his prologue, “inferno”, is a mirror image of the philosophical, political and religious paradigms of 13th century thinking. Dante’s anger and outrage at his beloved state Florence, its people, and most of all the power play between church and state all played a major part in contributing to the motive for his literary work. His Christian themes of Sin and redemption, Justice under Gods judgement, and the severity of evil in his own eyes all contribute as a reflection of society’s ideals and of Dante’s own personal values and attitudes.  

Bibliography:

• Hubbard, E. (2000) ClassicNotes: About the Inferno. GradeSaver.com. <http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/inferno/about.html>. [accessed 26/10/03]
• Chadwick, O. (1995)  A History of Christianity Orion publishing group, London
• Pertile, L. (1996) The Cambridge History of Italian literature. Cambridge. Cambridge university press.
• Bradbury, M. (ed) (1996) Atlas of Literature. London. Agostini Editions.
• Gallagher, J. (ed) (1994) The Modern Catholic encyclopaedia. Australia. (unknown Publisher)
• Furia, C. (2003)  Divina commedia  Dante Alighieri on the web <http://www.greatdante.net/commedia.htm> [accessed 2/11/03]
• (2001) spark notes on Dante Alighieri’s Inferno.  [internet] Barnes and Noble learning network

<> (accessed 20/11/03)

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