Summary of the cantos
These four cantos cover the circles that Virgil, in Canto XI, calls incontinence, the one in which appetite overcame reason: lust (V), gluttony (VI), avarice and its opposite, prodigality (VII), and wrath (VII and VIII), in the marsh of the Styx. In each one Dante encounters a voice that moves him (Francesca, Ciacco) or that he hates (Filippo Argenti), and the part ends before the gates of the city of Dis, closed to Virgil. The question that runs through them is what Dante feels before each punishment, and whether the poem approves of what he feels: from the pity that makes him faint in V to the desire to see Argenti sunk in VIII, the pilgrim's reaction changes from circle to circle, and it is that, more than the catalogue of punishments, that gives shape to the part.
Canto V: Minos and Francesca
Summary of the canto
Dante descends to the second circle, where Minos, snarling, judges the souls and sends them to the circle that is theirs; Virgil stops him from barring Dante, with the same formula he used with Charon. In the air without light, a storm that never stops drags the lustful, sinners who submitted reason to desire, and Virgil points out Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris and Tristan. Dante, out of pity, asks to speak with two who go together, and Francesca da Rimini tells that love held them, that they read together the story of Lancelot and that a kiss overcame them; the other weeps while she speaks, and Dante falls faint, like a dead body.
Analysis
Minos, seeing Dante, warns him not to be deceived by the width of the entrance, and Virgil cuts him short:
Non impedir lo suo fatale andare: / vuolsi così colà dove si puote / ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare
, do not hinder his fated going: it is so willed there where what is willed can be done, and ask no more.
Subscription
The complete analysis of every section of Inferno comes with a subscription, along with the explanation of each quote, the quiz, the PDF guide, and the study workbook.
Canto VI: Cerberus and Ciacco
Summary of the canto
In the third circle, the eternal rain, cold and heavy, falls on the gluttons, whom Cerberus flays and dismembers; Virgil silences him by throwing earth into their hungry throats. A shade sits up when Dante passes and asks to be recognized: it is Ciacco, a Florentine, punished for gluttony. Dante asks what will become of Florence, torn between white and black Guelphs, and Ciacco prophesies that, after a long strife, the wild party will drive out the other and, within three suns, will itself fall, while the other rises; and that there are only two just men, and they are not heeded, because pride, envy and avarice kindle hearts. Dante asks about Farinata and other good Florentines, who are among the blackest souls, and Ciacco asks to be remembered in the world. Then Virgil answers a question of Dante's about the punishment after the Last Judgment, and the two reach the point where one descends, where Plutus is.
Analysis
Canto VII: Plutus, Fortune and the Styx
Summary of the canto
Plutus shouts a formula the poem does not translate and collapses when Virgil orders him to be silent. The poets descend to the fourth circle, where the avaricious and the prodigal roll weights with their chests, collide, and accuse each other, and Virgil says that all of them were blind in mind, without measure in spending or keeping. Dante asks about Fortune, and Virgil describes her as a minister set by God to shift the goods of people from one to another, reviled by those who ought to praise her. They descend to the Styx, where those whom wrath overcame strike each other in the mud, and beneath the water sigh those who, sad in the sweet air, now grieve in the black sludge. They skirt the pool and reach the foot of a tower.
Analysis
Canto VIII: Phlegyas, Argenti and the Gates of Dis
Summary of the canto
A small boat, under the boatman Phlegyas, carries the poets across the mud of the Styx. On the way, a man covered in mud, Filippo Argenti, asks who comes before his time; Dante curses him, Argenti reaches his hands toward the boat, and Virgil pushes him away, kisses Dante, and praises his indignation. Dante asks to see him plunged in the mud, sees the muddy folk tear him apart, and gives thanks to God. They reach the city of Dis, where more than a thousand fallen from heaven shut the gates against Virgil, who returns with lowered eyes, tells Dante not to lose heart, and says that help is already coming down the slope.
Analysis
Reading of the Canto Block
Analysis