Darkness in Dante’s Inferno

Darkness in Dante’s Inferno

In the book, The Inferno by Dante darkness is used to symbolize ways away from God. God is considered as the source of light. Dante takes on a journey in the dark forest because he has strayed away from God, who is the right path. The more he walked along is, the darker the path gets and hence descends into deeper into hell.

In Inferno, there is the use of symbolism in almost all aspects, especially the difference between light and dark. Generally, hell is always perceived as the dark and often associated with it. Dante says how some parts of hell are fully dark and also remarks on the darkness of hell. However, God is always believed to be the light, and thus, heaven is the light, according to Dante. When he gets to hell, he notices the sight of stars that he couldn’t see when he was underground. He then confirms that darkness has started manifesting itself, as it meant that he was in the dark world of sin (hell).

Dante says that darkness is not only associated with evil but also uncertainty. It is because one is unable to make a decision or a choice from the existing options due to blurred vision in the dark. Due to impaired sight in the dark, Dante thinks that the giants are towers. The poem begins in a dark forest.  The forest is not necessarily associated with seen, but then this only depicts that Dante is lost. He was mentally confused and lack of vision in the dark wood. He then starts to climb up a mountain as he sees a shade of light from there, but the Virgil tells him that to get to the light to have a good vision, he has to use the most challenging path, which is the path of darkness.

In Canto 1, “Midway this way of life we’re bound upon, I woke to find myself in a dark wood, Where the right road was lost and gone” (5). Dante woke up in a dark wood where the correct path was nowhere to be seen. The first symbol of darkness is the dark forest. Dante being the main character of the story makes the critical decision, which in turn affects him. As he walked through the dark forest, he was confused, not knowing where to go and what to do. The behavior of Dante in the dark woods simple depicted traditions as at the moment he was disturbed spiritually, mentally, physically, and psychological.

The second symbol showing the darkness is the three beasts. The leopard, which symbolized lust, the lion which showed pride and she-wolf, which represented avarice and greed, which in other explainable terms, depicted a shadowy and dark environment. As it is known that animals like she-wolf are only seen in the night.  The three animals meant actions such as envy, politics, and other traits. Still, Dante perceived these animals as it was in the bible quoted on Jeremiah 5:6, where the three animals are to mean that transgressions are multiplied. Everyone was supposed to strengthen their rebellion.

After seeing the animals, Dante decides to return from where he came from, but in disguise, he meets a human figure, and he is not sure whether the figure is a real human or a shadow. In disguise, the shadow tells him that he was also a human back then, a roman. Dante requests the shadow to rescue him from the dark forest and the danger of the wild animals. Virgil tells Dante that he has to move to a different path because the animals, especially the wolf, are very ruthless and will kill him.

Virgil informs Dante that evil will continue reigning the earth until the savior comes to rescue his people. To get through and past the dark forest, he has to pass through hell, which only brings it to the point that if Dante wanted to go to heaven, he would have to go with someone who is a Christian, and that would be Beatrice. Dante was born in the age where Christ had not spread to their area, and so he was the right person but a pagan. Virgil also takes up the responsibility to guide Dante through the forest, and they begin their journey to rescue.

In the second canto, Dante follows the Virgil but is having second thoughts about his decision. The Virgil says that Beatrice sent him, and he was moved by the Virgin Mary, who symbolized compassion and Saint Lucia, who expressed illuminating grace. “It’s now evening, as Dante begins his journey. As narrator, Dante invokes the muses and the personification” (45) Dante says. In canto 7, Dante and Virgil moved through the dark and flooded water body, which was also swampy as it formed the end of the river.

In canto 4, the gradual move to the nine circles of hell. As they jump through the hoops, it symbolizes increased wickedness on earth, which is the place where Satan was in bondage. In each circle, some sinners are punished for their actions for a lifetime. All the punishment being put on the sinners is called a contrapasso, which symbolizes poetic justice. As they continue with their journey in the nine circles they see a wavering banner which meant the vice of self-interest without thinking about others and what they feel, they are also followed by a swarm of wasps and hornets which stung them and even maggots which invaded their feet all to symbolize the guilty conscience

The deeper they get, the more violent it becomes, which signified that the deeper circles were revolving around violence that goes on earth. He then goes on to say that the people who repented their sins right before they die are not in hell, but instead, they go to purgatory where they work to get the sins of them. The people in hell are unrepentant and always try to justify their actions. In the second circle, the 5^th canto Dante says, “…but to that second circle of sad hell, Where ‘mid the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw of rain and hailstones, lovers need not tell their sorrows. Pale were the sweet lips I saw, pale were the lips I kissed and faired the form I floated with, about that melancholy storm” (38). At the end of canto 3, Dante had come to terms with pity and sadness. He says,” I fainted as if I had met my death. / and then I felt as a dead body falls” (39).

In canto 6, they encounter a great storm, which symbolized punishment that befalls in the earth due to voracious appetite. They met the monstrous three-headed beast of hell, which watches over the greedy and lies in the freezing mire. With the help of Virgil, Dante manages to go past the monster. Virgil filled the three mouths of the beast with mud and thus distracting the creature and making it uncomfortable.

In canto 7, Dante meets Pluto, who is the leader of wealth. This was the section where all people who are gluttons for natural materials and wealth are punished.  Dante says, “Here, too, I saw a nation of lost souls, far more than were above: they strained their chests against enormous weights, and with mad howls rolled them at one another. Then in haste, they rolled them back, one party shouting out: “why do you hoard?” and the other: “why do you waste?” (46) they go through all the circles, and now Virgil explains to Dante how the southern side was always dry.