The reasons for its survival through the centuries are many. The book has many levels a reader can enjoy, starting simply with its poetic worth. The whole book is written as a poem, full of word-play, and full of beauty also.
At the same time, the book is deeply allegorical. Many of its lines have double meanings, making it clever, but at times difficult to understand.
To Get To Heaven, One Must First Go Through Hell
Dante makes himself the main character of his book. It begins with Dante in a difficult point in his life. He understands he has lost his way, and finds himself in a dark wood. He wants to find a higher road, but is unable to. As he struggles, he is found by Virgil, the dead poet. Virgil tells Dante that he was sent to help him find that higher road, but that to get to Heaven, they must first go through Hell.
At first Dante doubts that he is worthy to go to Heaven, but Virgil explains that he was sent to get him by Dante´s lost love, Beatrice, and by the Virgin Mary herself.
Hell
The poets enter Hell, which Dante describes as a cave lying below the Northern Hemisphere with its deepest point at the Earth´s center. In their descent through Hell the poets find ledges, called circles. It is in these circles where people are punished.
The Punishment Is Equivalent To The Sin
In Dante´s Hell all punishment is equivalent to the sins committed on Earth. For example, in the eighth circle they find the hypocrites, who although outwardly act with a pleasing, beautiful attitude, in reality they are deceitful. Their punishment is to march, wearing beautiful golden robes, that shine as the hypocrites outward attitude shines. But inside the robes are lined with heavy lead, as heavy as the hypocrites deceit.
A List of Sinners
"The Inferno" is filled with historical figures, and people from Dante´s time that he believed sinned against the Catholic church or against God. One of them is Caiaphas, who advised the Pharisees to crucify Jesus. He is the biggest hypocrite, and his punishment is to lay naked, crucified to the floor. All the other hypocrites walk on top of him with their leaden robes as they march.
Some of the other historical figures Dante sees during his journey are Cleopatra, Helen, and Paris among others.
The Poets´ Descent
As the poets descend they find a myriad of sins, each worse than the one before, and each punished in a more horrifying way. They also find mythological characters such as Cerberus, that guard Hell in some way or another.
In his descent, Dante´s heart becomes hardened against sin, showing the readers that in the writer´s opinion, sin of any form is unacceptable.
Out of Hell and Into Purgatory
Although at times Dante wonders whether he´ll make it out of Hell, the poets arrive to the center of the world, and deepest pit of Hell itself. There they find Satan, a three headed monster forever frozen in ice. They climb over him and emerge on the other side of the world. From there they will go onto "Purgatory", which makes the second book of Dante´s Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy is formed of "The Inferno", "Purgatory", and "Paradise."
Although at times complicated, readers can learn a lot from The Inferno. The book has everything, poesy, politics, religion, history, and more importantly, imagination.
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