Inferno
Questions
The most common questions about Inferno, answered from the canticle.
- What is the summary of Dante's Inferno?Inferno tells of Dante's descent, while still alive, through the nine circles of the realm of the damned, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, to the...
- What does Dante's Inferno talk about?Inferno speaks of sin and justice: of how each sin receives the punishment that describes it, and of what a man learns to feel before the sin of...
- How is Dante's Inferno organized?Inferno is a funnel dug beneath Jerusalem, which descends in nine circles to the center of the Earth. It has 34 cantos in linked-rhyme tercets, the...
- Who is Virgil in Dante's Inferno?Virgil is the shade of the Roman poet, author of the Aeneid, who appears to Dante in Canto I and leads him through Hell. Dante recognizes him as his...
- What do the dark wood and the three beasts of Hell mean?The poem does not explain: it says that Dante, midway along the path of life, found himself in a dark wood, because he left the straight way without...
- Who is Francesca da Rimini in Dante's Inferno?Francesca is one of the souls of the second circle, that of the lustful, in Canto V. She tells Dante that love bound her to her companion and that a...
- Who is Farinata degli Uberti in Dante's Inferno?Farinata degli Uberti is a leader of the Ghibellines of Florence, whom the poem places in the sixth circle, among the heretics, in a tomb of fire. In...
- Why is Ulysses in Dante's Inferno?Ulysses is in the eighth circle, in the ditch of fraudulent counselors, inside a flame with a divided tip that hides the sinner. In Canto XXVI, at...
- What happens to Count Ugolino in Dante's Inferno?Ugolino is the count whom Dante finds in the ice of Antenora, in Canto XXXIII, gnawing the skull of the archbishop Ruggieri. He tells Dante, weeping,...
- Who is Lucifer in Dante's Inferno, and how does the journey end?Lucifer is the emperor of the dolorous kingdom, held in the ice of Cocytus, at the center of the Earth, in Canto XXXIV. He is described as a creature...
- What is the contrapasso in Dante's Inferno?Contrapasso is the correspondence between the punishment and the sin: the punishment describes what the condemned did in life, instead of punishing...
- Are there popes in Dante's Inferno?Yes. Dante places popes in Hell and is harsh toward the Church of his time. The clearest case is that of the condemned man in a hole in the ditch of...
- What is the most famous line in Dante's Inferno?The most famous is "Give up all hope, you who enter," the last verse of the inscription over the gate of Hell, in Canto III. It comes from a gate...
- Is Dante's Inferno hard to read?Inferno is the easiest of the Comedy's canticas to enter, but it asks for help. The poem is short, a little over 4,700 lines, and has a clear plot, a...
- How many pages does Dante's Inferno have?Inferno runs to about 125 pages in an ordinary edition, divided into 34 cantos in linked-rhyme tercets. The number varies with the format and the...
- Why does Beatrice send Virgil to Dante in Hell?Beatrice sends Virgil out of love. In Canto II, Dante hesitates before entering the path, not because he doubts the journey, but because he doubts...