Summary Dante and Virgil enter the fourth circle and are stopped by the raging Plutus, but Dante then chastises Plutus as he has chastised the monsters in previous circles. Plutus collapses, falls to the ground, and the poets pass. Dante gets his first glimpse of Circle IV, the circle for […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto VIISummary and Analysis Canto VI
Summary Dante awakens in the third circle of Hell, the circle of the Gluttons. A stinking slush falls from the sky and collects on the ground where naked shades howl and roll in the mire. Cerberus, the three-headed monster, stands over those sunk deep in the slush. He barks furiously […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto VISummary and Analysis Canto V
Summary Dante and Virgil descend to the second circle, this one smaller than the first. This is the actual beginning of Hell where the sinners are punished for their sins. Dante witnesses Minos, a great beast, examining each soul as it stands for judgment. Minos hears the souls confess their […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto VSummary and Analysis Canto IV
Summary Dante wakes to a clap of thunder. He has been in a deep sleep for some time, so his eyes are rested. He finds himself across the Acheron and on the brink of a deep abyss from which he hears the “thunder of Hell’s eternal cry.” Virgil asks Dante […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto IVSummary and Analysis Canto III
Summary Canto III opens with the inscription on the gate of Hell. Dante does not fully understand the meaning of the inscription and asks Virgil to explain it to him. Virgil says that Dante must try to summon his courage and tells him that this is the place that Virgil […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto IIISummary and Analysis Canto II
Summary It is now the evening of Good Friday, as the two poets approach the entrance to Hell. But Dante wonders if he is truly worthy to make the journey: He recalls that Aeneas, and also St. Paul, made the journey, and he feels unworthy to be included in this […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto IISummary and Analysis Canto I
Summary In the middle of the journey of his life, Dante finds himself lost in a dark wood, and he cannot find the straight path. He cannot remember how he wandered away from his true path that he should be following, but he is in a fearful place, impenetrable and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto ICharacter List
Dante A thirty-five-year-old man, spiritually lost and wandering away from the True Way — the path of righteousness and of God. Dante has become weak and is in need of spiritual guidance. Luckily, a guide is sent to him and he embarks on a spiritual journey to learn the true […]
Read more Character ListAbout The Divine Comedy: Inferno
Background of The Divine Comedy: Inferno Throughout the Middle Ages, politics was dominated by the struggle between the two greatest powers of that age: the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire (HRE). Each claimed to be of divine origin and to be indispensable to the welfare of mankind. The cause […]
Read more About The Divine Comedy: InfernoPoem Summary
At the age of thirty-five, on the night of Good Friday in the year 1300, Dante finds himself lost in a dark wood and full of fear. He sees a sun-drenched mountain in the distance, and he tries to climb it, but three beasts, a leopard, a lion, and a […]
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