Your Score: Dante's Inferno

You are 79% Great Book

Both lengthy and gripping, Dante's Inferno is something of a masterpeice. It's fluency is extraordinary, especially when such beautiful language and form is turned to such a grim and horrific subject. Something of a duality; both inredibly beautiful yet carrying a capacity for great and terrible darkness, you are Dante's Inferno. You are beautiful. This may manifest itself physically, but it certainly manifests itself in your heart and mind. Despite this, you often entertain or are exposed to examples of dark evil. You seem almost plagued with the horros of your situation, despite being of heavenly mind and soul. There is also a deep sense of discovery about you, as if you have lost your way at some point and are looking for the right path again. You are capable of superhuman endurance, and will brave the worst perils life can throw at you to eventually find your way into your own personal paradise. Thirty-five years old at the beginning of the story, Dante�the character as opposed to the poet�has lost his way on the �true path� of life; in other words, sin has obstructed his path to God. The Divine Comedy is the allegorical record of Dante�s quest to overcome sin and find God�s love; in Inferno, Dante explores the nature of sin by traveling through Hell, where evil receives punishment according to God�s justice. Allegorically, Dante�s story represents not only his own life but also what Dante the poet perceived to be the universal Christian quest for God. As a result, Dante the character is rooted in the Everyman allegorical tradition: Dante�s situation is meant to represent that of the whole human race. For this reason, Dante the character does not emerge as a particularly well-defined individual; although we know that he has committed a never-specified sin and that he participates in Florentine politics, we learn little about his life on Earth. His traits are very broad and universal: often sympathetic toward others, he nonetheless remains capable of anger; he weeps at the sight of the suffering souls but reacts with pleasure when one of his political enemies is torn to pieces. He demonstrates excessive pride but remains unsatisfied in many respects: he feels that he ranks among the great poets that he meets in Limbo but deeply desires to find Beatrice, the woman he loves, and the love of God. Dante fears danger but shows much courage: horrified by Hell, he nevertheless follows his guide, Virgil, through its gates. He also proves extremely emotional, as shown by his frequent fainting when he becomes overly frightened or moved. As the story progresses, Dante must learn to reconcile his sympathy for suffering with the harsh violence of God�s justice; the deeper he proceeds into Hell, the less the agonies of the damned affect him. Virgil encourages him to abhor sin and not pity the justice meted out to sinners; Dante must achieve this level of stringent moral standards before he may begin his journey to Heaven, played out in Purgatorio and Paradiso.