Dante's Influence On The Divine Comedy

Dante’s Divine Comedy may have been produced in the 1300s, but references to the story have appeared throughout history. Dante’s Inferno influence has appeared in literature whether in the form of criticism or poetry. Influence has emerged in art and modern culture as well. First, is Dante’s influence on writers and their writings. The Divine Comedy influenced different writers and poets throughout the centuries. The writers saw different meanings behind the work of fiction. Some focused on the poetry and how it represents human nature. For example, Ezra Pound found it to focus on the moral flaws of humans and his poem, Cantos, works with Hell and Purgatory only(Lummus 7). Others argued that Inferno was the truth on the workings of Hell. Erich Auerbach wrote in his essay, Figura, that the Divine Comedy fulfilled the christian beliefs by connecting the idea behind the Old testament and the New testament(Lummus 10). There has also, been some who wanted to distance themselves from both the allegory and theology side of Inferno. Benedetto Croce, an Italian philosopher, wrote that each canto of the Inferno stands
Recently, a movie came out called Inferno that is based off the book written by Dan Brown. It is about a man named Robert Langdon that wakes up in a hospital with amnesia and ends up on the run with his doctor(Overview). He must solve a set of codes based around Dante’s Inferno, that was given to him by a man who wants to unleash a deadly virus. Another influence is the famous quote “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”, which appears throughout modern culture. It appears in the film “As Above, So Below”, the book Gone Girl, and the tv show “Jessica Jones”(Dante Today). The imagery and the poetic side of Dante’s Inferno is what seems to appear in modern culture. Either the idea of hell is referred to or the meaning behind the story of