What Does Virgil Symbolize In The Inferno

In great stories, there is always an abundance of symbolism that helps enhance the reader's view of the world and characters that will appear. Without this, the book can begin to feel bland and unrelatable. Therefore, one would assume that it is easy to find a great abundance of symbolism in Dante’s The Inferno. Throughout the entirety of Dante’s The Inferno, Dante the poet uses symbolism, both in his characters, and the environment, to make the story more relatable to the reader. The first major example of symbolism is seen through the character Virgil as a whole. Alighieri uses Virgil to represent human reason, and since Virgil is a main character, he is seen a lot through the text as a whole and Alighieri uses him extremely well to

Going back to canto 20, it says the sinners were “Hideously distorted between the top of the chest and the lines of the jaw; for the face was reversed on the neck, and they came on backwards…” (Alighieri 175) The symbolism of the punishment is clear, since the sinners of this circle had attempted to see into the future, they are now only able to go backwards, as shown through their heads being turned around, and only being able to walk backwards. Also, the distortion is a symbol of the fortune tellers attempting to see a distorted vision of the future, thus their heads are disfigured. Alighieri perfectly uses the symbolism here to show how each person is suffering, and every suffering is symbolic of the sin that they committed during their life. Another example of this is seen in canto 24, where it describes the thieves fate as “Their hands were bound behind coils of serpents which thrust their heads and tails between the loins and bunched in front, a mass of knotted torments.” (Alighieri 209) This a deeper symbolic meaning than most of the other punishments, because at first, it is not clear why the thieves would be bound by serpents for their actions. However, upon deeper examination, it is clearly seen that it is because the action of thievery is considered by many to be slimy and snake like. Alighieri uses this well, as his symbolic representation of the thieves having them bound up by

First is in the appearance of the Greek myth character Jason. The quote reads “It is Jason, who by courage and good advice made off with the Colchian Ram. Later it fell that he passed Lemnos, where the women of wrath, enraged by Venus’ cuse that drove their lovers out of their arms, put all their males to death.” (Alighieri 160) Jason is a great example of symbolism since he is used here as the physical embodiment of the sinners in bolgia 1 of the 8th circle, the seducers. The myth goes that Jason used Medea to get the Golden Fleece, and then later abandoned her for another woman. Alighieri uses Jason as a well known character to symbolize the sins of the other souls in this bolgia. Another showing of this is in canto 28. A quote about Bertrand de Born says “When you return to the world, remember me: I am Bertrand de Born, and it was I who set the young king on to mutiny, son against father, father against son…” (Alighieri 239) This quote shows that Bertrand was the person who caused Prince Henry to rebel against his father. Yet again, Bertrand is the perfect embodiment of a sower of discord, what the 9th pouch is for. Alighieri uses him to symbolize what some of the other souls may have done to deserve the fate that they are currently receiving. Also Bertrand is the best example of a sower of discord, since he mentions that he