A famous American author of thrilling mysteries named Dan Brown wrote, “Telling someone about what a symbol means is like telling someone how music should make them feel.” In the same way, discussing the motives of an author is nearly impossible, for the meaning varies with every reader. However, The Inferno is unique and stands as an exception to this observation. Dante Alighieri, the author of The Inferno, created a picture of hell with a specific structure and order that still stands today. Not only did Dante invent this world, but he also left a trail of information for experts to interpret like the bread crumbs of Hansel and Gretel. In The Inferno, Dante’s vision of an orderly hell is significant because it reveals his background, …show more content…
This narrative reveals that hell is divided into nine circles which are then divided into smaller subsections called pouches, rings or regions. Each area holds a specific kind of sinner, and each section also has a specific punishment for its inhabitants. As Dante and his guide, Virgil, descend further into hell, the sins and punishments get more horrific, and this directly reflects Dante’s views. For example, Dante places the lustful, blown forever by stormy winds, in Circle Two while the heretics, confined in burning tombs, are confined to Circle Six. The author’s organization of hell is important because it reveals the opinions Dante has about certain sins; this gives readers insight into the life of Dante. For example, in the early fourteenth century, Dante was actually accused of fraud and banished from his hometown of Florence, Italy. Therefore, Dante placed the sins of fraud even deeper in hell than all the other sins including violence. There are a multitude of examples of this throughout The Inferno, but there is another obvious illustration in Dante’s life. At a young age, Dante fell in love with a girl named Beatrice, but she died soon after. Probably due to his guilty conscious, Dante actually writes that the lustful are only in Circle Two, considered less evil than the gluttonous. So as one can see, the classification of The Inferno can actually reveal aspects of Dante’s life and