Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) remains Italy's greatest poet.

He was born in the city of Florence, in the

region of Tuscany, Italy in the spring of 1265. He was betrothed in marriage to Gemma Donati and they
were blessed with five children. He wrote La Commedia, the Divine Comedy, from 1308 to 1320,
completing the work the year before he died. The Divine Comedy is one of literature's boldest
undertakings, as Dante takes us through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and then reaches Heaven
(Paradiso), where he is permitted to partake of the Beatific Vision. Dante's journey serves as an allegory
of the progress of the individual soul toward God. The work is arranged in 100 cantos in 3 parts, 34 for
the Inferno, 33 each for Purgatorio and Paradiso. The work is written in groups of 3 lines, or tercets,
reminiscent of the Trinity. While Dante was critical of the Catholic Church as an institution, his writings
remained faithful to his schooling by the Dominicans, where he learned the theology of St. Thomas
Aquinas (1224-1274). The Divine Comedy signaled the beginning of the Renaissance. Rather than Latin,
Dante wrote La Commedia in the Tuscan dialect of Italian, which had an everlasting impact and became
the national language of Italy. He died in political exile in Ravenna, Italy in September 1321.

INFERNO

"Midway in our life's journey, I went astray

from the straight road and woke to find myself

alone in a dark wood. How shall I say

what wood that was! I never saw so drear,

so rank, so arduous a wilderness!

Its very memory gives a shape to fear.

Death could scarce be more bitter than that place!

But since it came to good, I will recount

all that I found revealed there by God's grace."

Inferno, Canto I, lines 1-9

So begins the Inferno. Dante realizes he has wandered from the "True Way" in mid-life, and finds himself
in the Valley of Evil. He is rescued by the spirit of Virgil (author of the Aeneid), who tells him he has been
sent to guide him out of Hell because of prayers by Beatrice, the woman whom Dante admired all his life.
To leave Hell, they must go through all nine circles of Hell, the deeper the circle, the more grave the sin
and its appropriate punishment. Perhaps the worst punishment is that no one helps or cares for another
in Hell. By going through Hell, Dante - and the reader - learn to recognize and detest man's sinful nature
and the power of evil, and the need to guard against it. Dante learns those in Hell choose to go there by
their unrepentance. Dante enters Hell on Good Friday and reads the following posted above the gates of
Hell as he is about to enter (Canto III, line 9):

"Abandon all hope ye who enter here."

PURGATORIO

Dante and Virgil emerge from Hell just before the dawn of Easter Sunday, and in Purgatorio Dante begins
the difficult climb up Mount Purgatory. Souls that are repentant of their sins against God and man go to
Purgatory and become free of temptation, and know that they will eventually be with God. Purgatory is a
Mountain with seven ledges or cornices, one for each of the seven deadly sins (pride, envy, anger, sloth,
greed, gluttony, and lust). The renunciation of sin occurs in Purgatory, as one begins his ascent to Purity
by practicing virtue. A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good (Philippians 4:8). For each
cornice, Dante first offers biblical and classical examples of the particular virtue to encourage the
penitents, and after they are reformed, examples of the sin to remind them of its destructive nature. On
the first cornice (just above Hell) one is purified of pride, inordinate self-love or conceit, by learning the
contrasting virtue, Humility. When one is cured of pride, he moves up to the second cornice, envy,
resentful awareness of another's good fortune and the desire to obtain the same advantage. Envy is
purified by the virtue of Caritas, love of others. Anger is offset by Meekness and Patience, which leads
one to become a peacemaker. Sloth, spiritual apathy and inactivity, is cured by Zeal and Diligence.
Generosity is the virtue that overcomes greed. Gluttony, an excessive appetite for food and drink, is
controlled by Temperance through Fasting and Abstinence. On the seventh and last cornice, lust is
overcome by the virtue of Temperance through Chastity. Dante offers the following Biblical examples of
the Virtues that offset the seven deadly sins as well as the sins themselves:

Dante gives Biblical Examples of the Virtues that offset the Seven Deadly Sins and the sins themselves.

Virgil, the voice of Reason, takes Dante step-by-step up the mountain of Purgatory to the Garden of
Eden, where man resided before his fall, and releases him in Canto XXVII (27) to himself, as he is now
purged from sin. He meets Beatrice, the unrequited love of his earthly life, in Canto XXX (30), and she
leads him to Heaven. Repentant souls, even those with great sin, and even if they repent just prior to
death, still go to Purgatory, as we learn from Canto V:

"We are souls who died by violence,

all sinners to our final hour, in which

the lamp of Heaven shed its radiance

into our hearts. Thus from the brink of death,

repenting all our sins, forgiving those

who sinned against us, with our final breath

we offered up our souls at peace with Him

who saddens us with longing to behold

His glory on the throne of Seraphim."

Purgatorio, Canto V (5), lines 52-60:

PARADISO

Paradiso is Dante's imaginative conception of Heaven. The more one loves on earth, the closer in Heaven
one is to God, who is All-Love. The Seven Primary Virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, Justice,
Temperance, and Fortitude are fully displayed in Paradiso. Beatrice takes Dante through the 9 Spheres of
Heaven to Canto XXXI (31), where Beatrice turns Dante over to St. Bernard, who leads him to the Beatific
Vision of God. The passages are from the poetic and readable translation by the late John Ciardi
(copyright John Ciardi 1970, Publisher, WW Norton Company, New York and London). The following is
Canto XXXIII (33) of Paradiso, the final Canto of the Divine Comedy. The canto begins with a unique
expression referring to the Blessed Virgin Mary, "O Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son."
St. Bernard offers a Prayer to the Virgin so that Dante is permitted the Beatific Vision of God.

The vision passes and Dante is once more mortal and fallible.

Yet the truth is stamped upon his soul, which he now knows will return to be one with God's love.

"O virgin mother, daughter of thy Son,

humble beyond all creatures and more exalted;

predestined turning point of God's intention;

Thy merit so ennobled human nature

that its divine Creator did not scorn

to make Himself the creature of His creature.

The Love that was rekindled in Thy womb

sends for the warmth of the eternal peace

within whose ray this flower has come to bloom.

Here to us, thou art the noon and scope

of Love revealed; and among mortal men,

the living fountain of eternal hope.

Lady, thou art so near God's reckonings

that who seeks grace and does not first seek thee

would have his wish fly upward without wings.

Not only does thy sweet benignity

flow out to all who beg, but oftentimes

thy charity arrives before the plea.

In thee is pity, in thee munificence,

in thee the tenderest heart, in thee unites

all that creation knows of excellence!

Now comes this man who from the final pit

of the universe up to this height has seen,

one by one, the three lives of the spirit.

He prays to thee in fervent supplication

for grace and strength, that he may raise his eyes

to the all-healing final revelation.

And I, who never more desired to see

the vision myself that I do that he may see It,

add my own prayer, and pray that it may be

enough to move you to dispel the trace

of every mortal shadow by thy prayers

and let him see revealed the Sum of Grace.

I pray the further, all-persuading Queen,

keep whole the natural bent of his affections

and of his powers after his eyes have seen.

Protect him from the stirrings of man's clay;

see how Beatrice and the blessed host

clasp reverent hands to join me as I pray."

The eyes that God reveres and loves the best

glowed on the speaker, making clear the joy

with which true prayer is heard by the most blest.

Those eyes turned then to the Eternal Ray,

through which, we must indeed believe, the eyes

of others do not find such ready way.

And I, who neared the goal of all my nature,

felt my soul, at the climax of its yearning,

suddenly, as it ought, grow calm with rapture.

Bernard then, smiling sweetly, gestured to me

to look up, but I had already become

within myself all he would have me be.

Little by little as my vision grew

it penetrated faintly through the aura

of the high lamp which in Itself is true.

What then I saw is more than tongue can say.

Our human speech is dark before the vision.

The ravished memory swoons and falls away.

As one who sees in dreams and wakes to find

the emotional impression of his vision

still powerful while its parts fade from his mind -

just such am I, having lost nearly all

the vision itself, while in my heart I feel

the sweetness of it yet distill and fall.

So, in the sun, the footprints fade from snow.

On the wild wind that bore the tumbling leaves

the Sybil's oracles were scattered so.

O Light Supreme who doth Thyself withdraw

so far above man's mortal understanding,

lend me again some glimpse of what I saw;

make Thou my tongue so eloquent it may

of all Thy glory speak a single clue

to those who follow me in the world's day;

for by returning to my memory

somewhat, and somewhat sounding in these verses,

Thou shalt show man more of Thy victory.

So dazzling was the splendor of that Ray,

that I must certainly have lost my senses

had I, but for an instant, turned away.

And so it was, as I recall, I could,

the better bear to look, until at last,

my Vision made one with the Eternal Good.

Oh grace abounding that had made me fit

to fix my eyes on the eternal light

until my vision was consumed in It!

I saw within Its depth how It conceives

all things in a single volume bound by Love,

of which the universe is the scattered leaves;

substance, accident, and their relation

so fused that all I say could do no more

than yield a glimpse of that bright revelation.

I think I saw the universal form

that binds these things, for as I speak these words

I feel my joy swell and my spirits warm.

Twenty-five centuries since Neptune saw

the Argo's keel have not moved all mankind,

recalling that adventure, to such awe

as I felt in an instant. My tranced being

stared fixed and motionless upon that vision,

even more fervent to see in the act of seeing.

Experiencing that Radiance, the spirit

is so indrawn it is impossible

even to think of ever turning from It.

For the good which is the will's ultimate object

is all subsumed in It; and, being removed,

all is defective which in It is perfect.

Now in my recollection of the rest

I have less power to speak than any infant

wetting its tongue yet at its mother's breast;

and not because that Living Radiance bore

more than one semblance, for It is unchanging

and is forever as it was before;

rather, as I grew worthier to see,

the more I looked, the more unchanging semblance

appeared to change with every change in me.

Within the depthless deep and clear existence

of that abyss of light three circles shown -

three in color, one in circumference;

the second from the first, rainbow from rainbow;

the third, an exhalation of pure fire

equally breathed forth by the other two.

But oh how much my words miss my conception,

which is itself so far from what I saw

than to call it feeble would be rank deception!

O Light Eternal fixed in Itself alone,

by Itself alone understood, which from Itself

loves and glows, self-knowing and self-known;

that second aureole which shone forth in Thee,

conceived as a reflection of the first -

or which appeared so to my scrutiny -

seemed in Itself of Its own coloration

to be painted with man's image. I fixed my eyes

on that alone in rapturous contemplation.

Like a geometer wholly dedicated

to squaring the circle, but who cannot find,

think as he may, the principle indicated -

so did I study the supernal face.

I yearned to know just how our image merges

into that circle, and how it there finds place;

but mine were not the wings for such a flight.

Yet, as I wished, the truth I wished for came

cleaving my mind in a great flash of light.

Here my powers rest from their high fantasy,

but already I could feel my being turned -

instinct and intellect balanced equally

as in a wheel whose motion nothing jars -

by the Love that moves the sun and other stars.

The Divine Comedy

1308-1320

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The Inferno (Dante Alighieri): The Immortal Drama of a Journey through Hell

John Ciardi

The Inferno (Dante Alighieri): The Immortal Drama of a Journey through Hell

Poet and literary critic John Ciardi reads an English-language translation of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno
(Hell), an allegory telling of Dante’s journey through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem,
Hell is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. The Inferno is the first part of Dante’s
epic three-part work The Divine Comedy. The other two parts are Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso
(Heaven).

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Inferno

Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Events Inferno Canto III

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INFERNO INFERNO CANTO III SUMMARY

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Dante and Virgil stop to look in awe at the Hellgate, on which encouraging words like "ABANDON EVERY
HOPE, [YOU] WHO ENTER HERE" appear.

There is more to the inscription, which describes the origins of Hell—how it was made by "Justice," "the
Highest Wisdom," and "Primal Love."

Dante tells Virgil he doesn’t understand the inscription.

Virgil, in his sage way, doesn’t really answer Dante’s question, but tells him to be brave. He also describes
Hell’s sinners as people who have "lost the good of the intellect." (This is a good place to stick a big
bright sticky note because this is an Important Concept.)

Dante’s first impression of Hell: it’s noisy. It’s full of "strange utterances, horrible pronouncements, /
accents of anger, words of suffering, / and voices shrill and faint, and beating hands…"

Horrified, Dante asks Virgil who these people are that scream so loudly.

Virgil explains that they’re neutrals, people who failed to choose either good or evil in their lifetimes and
so are condemned to exist in a kind of ante-Inferno...pre-Hell, if you will. The "coward angels" are here
too—those that sided with neither God nor Lucifer in the great battle that created the Devil.

When Dante repeats his question, Virgil (slightly peeved) answers shortly:

These sinners have "no hope in death" and their entire existence is driven by envy for any other kind of
existence… even one in the true circles of Hell. Virgil says this so quickly and tersely that he implies that
these sinners aren’t even worth wasting many words over.

While sightseeing, Dante notices the neutrals’ punishment: various insects sting their naked bodies,
irritating them and making them run around in big circles under a long banner. Dante is blown away by
the sheer number of them; in other words, there are a lot of neutrals.

Among the horde, Dante recognizes the one "who made […] the great refusal." Scholars have interpreted
this sinner as Pope Celestine V, who abdicated his papal seat just five months after taking office. This
paved the way for the election of Pope Boniface VIII, whom Dante hates with a passion.

Dante observes a big crowd of people gathering on the banks of a big river and asks Virgil why they seem
so eager to cross the river.

Our wise man tells Dante to quiet down; he’ll find out why when they actually get there. "There" being
the banks of the river Acheron, one of the five rivers of the Greek Underworld.

When they do get there, Virgil doesn’t even get the chance to explain before an old man with a long
white beard comes up to them and basically says, "No chance the two of you are getting on my boat.
Only dead people allowed." This guy is Charon, the ferryman that takes people across the river.

Then Virgil gets all up in Charon’s face and one-ups him with "God sent us, so let us through." Or
something like that.
So Charon is forced to ferry them across, but he’s pouty and sullen about it.

Dante, in poet mode, compares all the dead souls gathering on the riverbanks to falling leaves in autumn
and later to hunting falcons returning to their masters when called. Dante is big on metaphors.

Virgil explains that only sinners ever have to undertake this crossing.

All of a sudden, an earthquake hits, complete with a tornado and a "blood-red light."

Dante loses consciousness.

Canto III The vestibule of hell: The opportunists

I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE.

I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE.

I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW.

SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT.

I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE,

PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT.

ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEAR

WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND.

ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.

These mysteries I read cut into stone

Above a gate. And turning I sad: “Master,

What is the meaning of this harsh inscription?”

And he then as initiate to novice:

“Here must you put by all division of spirit

And gather your soul against all cowardice.”

This is the place I told you to expect.

Here you shall pass among the fallen people.

Souls who have lost the good of intellect.”

So saying, he put forth his hand to me,

And with a gentle and encouraging smile

He led me through the gate of mystery.

Here sighs and cries and wails coiled and recoiled

On the starless air, spilling my soul to tears.

A confusion of tongues and monstrous accents toiled

In pain and anger, voices hoarse and shrill

And sounds of blows, all intermingled, raised

Tumult and pandemonium that still

Whirls on the air forever dirty with it

As if a whirlwind sucked at sand. And I,

Holding my head in horror, cried: “Sweet Spirit,

What souls are these who run through this black haze?”

And he to me: “These are the nearly soulless

Whose lives concluded neither blame nor praise.

They are mixed here with that despicable corps

Of angels who were neither for God nor Satan,

But only for themselves. The High Creator

Scourged them from Heaven for its perfect beauty,

And Hell will not receive them since the wicked

Might feel some glory over them.” And I:

“Master, what gnaws at them so hideously

Their lamentation stuns the very air?”

“They have no hope of death,” he answered me,

“and in their blind and unattaining state

Their miserable lives have sunk so low

That they must envy every other fate.”

No word of them survives their living season.

Mercy and Justice deny them even a name.

Let us not speak of them: look, and pass on.”

I saw a banner there upon the mist.

Circling and circling, it seemed to scorn all pause.

So it ran on, and still behind it pressed

A never-ending rout of souls in pain.

I had not thought death had undone so many

As passed before me in that mournful train.

And some I knew among them; last of all

I recognized the shadow of that soul

Who, in his cowardice, made the Great Denial.

Fig.Pope Celestine V

At once I understood for certain: these

Were of that retrograde and faithless crew

Hateful to God and to His enemies.

These wretches never born and never dear

Ran naked in a swarm of wasps and hornets

That goaded them the more the more they fled,

And made their faces stream with bloody gouts

Of pus and tears that dribbled to their feet

To be swallowed there by loathsome worms and maggots.

Then looking onward I made out a throng

Assembled on the beach of a wide river,

Whereupon I turned to him: “Master, I long

To know what souls these are, and what strange usage

Makes them as eager to cross as they seem to be

In this infected light.” At which the Sage:

“All this shall be made known to you when we stand

On the joyless beach of Acheron.” And I

Cast down my eyes, sensing a reprimand

In what he said, and so walked at his side

In silence and ashamed until we came

Through the dead cavern to that sunless tide.

There, steering us in an ancient ferry

Came an old man with a white bush of hair,

Bellowing: “Woe to you depraved souls! Bury

Here and forever all hope of Paradise:

I come to lead you to the other shore,

Into eternal dark, into fire and ice.

And you who are living yet, I say begone

From these who are dead.” But when he saw me stand

Against his violence he began again:

“By other windings and other steerage

Shall you cross to that other shore. Not here! Not here!

A lighter craft than mine must give passage.”

And my Guide to him: “Charon, bite back your spleen:

This has been willed where what is willed must be,

And is not yours to ask what it may mean.”

The steersman of that marsh of ruined souls,

Who wore a wheel of flame around each eye,

Stifled the rage that shook his woolly jowls.

But those unmanned and naked spirits there

Turned pale with fear and their teeth began to chatter

At sound of his crude bellow. In despair

They blasphemed God, their parents, their time on earth,

The race of Adam, and the day and the hour

And the place and the seed and the womb that gave them birth.

But all together they drew to that grim shore

Where all must come who lose the fear of God.

Weeping and cursing they come for evermore,

And demon Charon with eyes like burning coals

Herds them on, and with the whistling oar

Flails on the stragglers to his wake of souls.

As leaves in autumn loosen and stream down

Until the branch stands bare above its tatters

Spread on the rustling ground, so one by one

The evil seed of Adam in its Fall

Cast themselves, at his signal, from the shore

And streamed away like birds who hear their call.

So they are gone over that shadowy water,

And always before they reach the other shore

A new noise stirs on this, and new throngs gather.

“My son,” the courteous Master said to me,

“all who die in the shadow of God’s wrath

Converge to this from every clime and country.

And all pass over eagerly, for here

Divine Justice transforms and spurs them so

Their dread turns wish: they yearn for what they fear.

No soul in Grace comes ever to this crossing;

Therefore if Charon rages at your presence

You will understand the reason for his cursing.”

When he had spoken, all the twilight country

Shook so violently, the terror of it

Bathes me with sweat even in memory:

The tear-soaked ground gave out a sigh of wind

That spewed itself in flame on a red sky,

And all my shattered senses left me. Blind,

Like one whom sleep comes over in a swoon,

I stumbled into darkness and went down.

Summary:

Dante and Virgil arrived at the gateway of Hell, whose famous inscription ends with the words: “Abandon
hope, ye who enter here.” The damned shall suffer eternally and Hell will endure forever, in Dante’s
vision. Past the gate, Dante heard voices of suffering and despair that made him weep. Virgil told him
that he was hearing the laments of the morally neutral people, the “sorry souls of those who lived
without disgrace and without praise,” as well as the angels who sided neither with God nor with Satan in
Satan’s rebellion. These cowardly people were tormented by wasps, flies and worms. They are shut out
of both Hell and Heaven, disdained by the forces of good and evil alike.

Dante and Virgil approached the shore of the river Acheron, which forms the boundary of true Hell.
Charon, a demon in the shape of an old man, warned the waiting souls of the torments in store for them,
and told Dante that he, a living man, could not cross the river. However Virgil told him that God had
willed it, and Charon could not countermand that order. The exhausted, bitter and despairing damned
souls were forced by Charon across the Acheron on his boat. Even as the first group of the damned
crossed the river, more crowds assembled on the bank, waiting, unable to resist their fate. The earth
trembled and Dante, terrified, fell unconscious.

Analysis:
The inscription on the gate is the only text Dante reads in Hell. In it, different attributes are assigned to
different members of the Trinity: God-the-father is “divine authority,” Christ is “highest wisdom,” and the
Holy Ghost is “primal love.” Dante will very rarely refer to God directly: just as Mary is known as “a gentle
lady,” God is known as these different forces. The eternal things made before Hell are the heavens, the
angels, and primal matter, which were made on the first day.

Dante’s rejection of the lukewarm, neutral souls might seem overly harsh: although they did nothing evil,
their torments are great. This, and Dante’s lack of compassion for them, are evidence that he was no
believer in moderation or compromise. Just as he firmly and unrelentingly espoused his political
position, he expects others to do the same. The genuinely sinful souls may be more blame-worthy, but as
we shall see, Dante also finds them to be more worthy of compassion.

One of the neutral souls is singled out: he who made “the great refusal.” He is thought to be Pope
Celestine V, who was elected Pope in July 1294, and abdicated five months later, which allowed Pope
Boniface VIII (1294-1303), a bitter enemy of Dante, to come to power. There are unflattering references
to Boniface VIII in Cantos XIX, lines 52-57, and XXVII, line70.

Charon and the Acheron are both borrowed from Classical mythology: Dante uses Pagan characters and
geography in his Christian underworld. In the Italian Renaissance, there was great renewed interest in
Classical mythology and literature, which was sometimes at odds with Christian beliefs, since
theoretically even the greatest Greeks and Romans were all worthy of damnation. Dante is careful to
make sure that his veneration for Antiquity is kept within the bounds prescribed by Christianity, as we
shall see in the description of Limbo in the next Canto.
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 told him previously to expect: the place for the fallen
people, those who have lost the good of intellect.

The poets enter the gate and the initial sights and sounds of Hell at once assail Dante; he is moved
deeply and horrified by the sight of spirits in deep pain. The unending cries make Dante ask where they
come from, and Virgil replies that these are the souls of the uncommitted, who lived for themselves, and
of the angels who were not rebellious against God nor faithful to Satan. Neither Heaven nor Hell would
have them, and so they must remain here with the selfish, forever running behind a banner and
eternally stung by hornets and wasps. Worms at their feet eat the blood and tears of these beings.

Dante wants to learn more about these souls, but Virgil moves him along to the beach of Acheron where
the ferryman, Charon, tells Dante to leave because Dante is still living and does not belong there. Charon
tells Dante to take a lighter craft from another shore. Virgil reprimands Charon, saying that it is willed,
and what is willed must happen.

Charon speaks no more, but by signs, and pushing, he herds the other spirits into the boat. The boatman
strikes with his oars any soul that hesitates. The boat crosses, but before it lands, the opposite shore is
again crowded with condemned souls. Virgil tells Dante to take comfort in Charon's first refusal to carry
him on the boat, because only condemned spirits come this way.

As Virgil finishes his explanation, a sudden earthquake, accompanied by wind and flashing fire from the
ground, terrifies Dante to such a degree that he faints.
Analysis

While the inscription is over the gates of Hell, they first enter the vestibule, that place reserved for those
who did not use their intellect to choose God.

The inscription over the gate of Hell has a powerful impact: "Abandon every hope, all ye who enter
here." Dante naturally thinks this applies also to him, and in the first of many passages that cause Dante
anguish, Virgil smiles and reassures him.

The inscription above the gates of Hell implies the horror of total despair. It suggests that anyone may
enter into Hell at any time, and then all hope is lost. Dante cries out that this sentence is difficult for him
to bear. However, this condemnation does not apply to Dante, because, allegorically, he can still achieve
salvation, and realistically, he is not yet dead so it does not (necessarily) apply to him.

Dante, in this early canto, is moved to tears and terror at his first sight of Hell. He continues to be moved
until he learns, later, to be unsympathetic towards sin in any form. This is part of his learning process and
his character development throughout the poem. Dante learns that sin is not to be pitied; however, this
lesson takes him many circles of Hell to learn.

In Canto III, Dante sets up the intellectual structure of Hell. Hell is the place for those who deliberately,
intellectually, and consciously chose an evil way of life, whereas Paradise is a place of reward for those
who consciously chose a righteous way of life. Therefore, if Hell is the place for people who made
deliberate and intentional wrong choices, there must be a place for those people who refused to choose
either evil or good. The entrance of Hell is the proper place for those people who refused to make a
choice. People who reside in Hell's vestibule are the uncommitted of the world, and having been
indecisive in life — that is, never making a choice for themselves — they are constantly stung into
movement.

This explanation is the first example of the law of retribution, as applied by Dante, where the
uncommitted race endlessly after a wavering (and blank) banner. Because they were unwilling to shed
their blood for any worthy cause in life, their blood is shed unwillingly, falling to the ground as food for
worms.
Among the sinners are the fallen angels who refused to commit themselves to either God or Lucifer and
stayed neutral. However, a refusal to choose is a choice, an idea Dante uses that has since become
central in existentialist philosophy.

Dante spies Pope Celestine V, who "made the great refusal" of giving up the chair of Peter after only five
months, thereby clearing the way for Boniface VIII, to whom Dante was an implacable enemy. Celestine
preferred to return to the obscurity of non-commitment, rather than face the problems of the papacy.

When Charon refuses to take Dante across the river, he does so because his job is to take only the dead
who have no chance of salvation. Dante, however, is both a living man and one who still has the
possibility of achieving salvation.

Virgil's incantation, "Thus it is willed there, where what is willed can be done," is a roundabout way to
avoid the word "Heaven," which is repeated in Canto V. In later cantos, Dante uses other allusions of
various kinds.

The shore of the river Acheron that serves as the outer border of Hell is crowded with more souls than
Dante believed possible. These souls are propelled not by the anger of Charon alone, but by the sharp
prod of Divine Justice, until they desire to make the crossing. Choosing to cross the river is their final
choice, just as their desire for sin on Earth was also their choice.

Glossary

Acheron the River of Sorrow.

Charon the boatman who ferries souls of the dead across the river Styx to Hades; in Inferno, he ferries
on the Acheron.

spleen malice; spite; bad temper.