Inferno
(Dante)

Inferno was written in fourteenth century Italy. Medieval Florence, Dante’s home town, has long been in political turmoil. There was fighting between the Black (those that supported the Pope) and the Whites (those that didn’t support him). Dante was not a supporter of the Pope, so when Pope Boniface VIII schemed to help the Blacks take over Florence in a military coup, Dante and his family was exiled.

That little bit of background helps to see why Dante is always criticizing Boniface and previous Popes in Inferno. There are clergy mentioned in nearly every circle of Hell. There are also many major political names mentioned, people we probably don’t know anything about. When it was necessary to know what was going on, some of these people are explained a bit in this guide.

So, Inferno was very much a story that reflected the time it was written in. It was about political vengeance. But it was also about a man who found himself far from home (in exile and having a middle-age crisis, perhaps?), trying to find purpose in his life again.

It’s a good idea to note, also, that Inferno was originally written in Italian. At a time that Italy was is such turmoil, Inferno actually help unify the Italian language. Dante used many interesting words, here, and several Italian words were actually introduced to Italian through Inferno, some of which words are still used in the modern language in Italy. This is just like how “catch a cold” and “it’s all Greek to me” are common English expressions that came from Shakespeare. In fact, we can say that Dante is Italian’s Shakespeare, both men considered among the greatest poets/writers for their language.

Introduction

In a nutshell, Inferno is an epic poem in which Dante, the writer of the story, is forced to travel through Hell, taking an elaborate tour, with the ghost of another ancient poet for a tour guide. It’s the first of a trilogy, the Divine Comedy. In the other two parts of the Comedy, Dante must continue through the other two divine realms before he can go home—Purgatory and Heaven.

The word Comedy in the title doesn’t mean the epic poem is meant to be funny. It means it’s not a tragedy. In other words, in classical literature, the word comedy means the story has a happy ending.

That said, a lot of Inferno is very tragic. We see all kinds of sinners being tormented and tortured throughout the poem, many of whom are famous people from history or myth. But, when Inferno ends, Dante moving on to Purgatory, There is a feeling of things getting better and better with each installment. That’s why it can be called a comedy.

Before we look deeply into the characters and individual “cantos” of this poem, let’s take a broad look at Inferno with a general summary of the plot.

About the Author

As we said, Dante was the Shakespeare of Italian literature, a major Italian poet of the middle ages. The Divine comedy is often considered the greatest literary work in the Italian language, it’s even considered a masterpiece of world literature.

Dante was born in Florence, Italy, around the mid-to-late 1600s. His family was part of the Whites, a political faction. During a time of political turmoil, Dante actually fought in the Battle of Campaldino.

All in all, Dante was an extraordinarily philosophical and religious man, a man that stood behind his political and moral convictions, no matter who didn’t agree with him.