Dantes Purpose in Writing The Divine Comedy as Expressed in Cantos I through III of Dantes Inferno

Mid-way through his life and faced with an ignominious end, Dante Alighieri wrote his greatest work, The Divine Comedy. We can understand Dante's motive in writing this epic by reading Cantos I through III of Dante's Inferno. The Divine Comedy was a self-analysis by a man who found himself spiritually lost. Immediately in Canto I we see that Dante "the character" is lost on a spiritual level. He awakens mid-way through his life in a dark woods severed from both light and human connections. Dante is in the dark because he is guilty of one of the seven deadly sins, Acedia. Some dictionaries give "sloth" or "laziness" as a meaning for acedia, but it is more than physical laziness to the Christian. Acedia is moral laziness, inertia of the soul and will. This sin was evident when Dante said, "I was so full of sleep just at the point where I abandoned the true path" (ll. 11-12). Upon his awakening he is threatened by three beasts, the leopard, lion and she-wolf. The three beasts can be interpreted to represent the three major sins found in Hell fraud, violence and incontinence. Dante loses hope when, after seeing the leopard and the lion, he is confronted by the she-wolf. As the she-wolf is the living embodiment of incontinence, Dante alludes to the temptation with which he finds himself most dangerously confronted. Because Dante was being supported by a wealthy patron it was easy for him to become complacent. Having all his needs provided for, while not doing anything for either Church or State, was beginning to cause a malaise. This was, of course only one of his beasts. Dante, faced with the Herculean task of passing the three beasts, descends the hill, thereby saying that he did not have the strength to pass the three beasts without assistance. Just as all hope seems lost, Virgil appears.

Virgil is a poet who served his empire with his poetry. He is the first character in the Comedy to speak and he identifies himself by region, city, period, government and role, bringing to the poem a political dimension. It was not, however, the political introduction which makes Virgil's appearance so apropos but his value as a pagan writer who was able to further the Christian ethic. His prediction of the Wonder Child, believed to be Christ, in Virgils Fourth Eclogue and his epic the Aeneid, in which Rome was founded and Hell portrayed, were important works to Dante on a spiritual level. In Dante's spiritual uncertainty a guide blessed with religious insight, regardless of the fact that he was (by Christian standards) a sinner, would be a sign of hope to the despairing Dante. Virgil's ability to predict the coming of Christ was a sign of divinity in his work. Additionally, Virgil's Aeneid gave the people an up close look at Hell. Additionally, Virgil lived under Augustus who established the peace in which Christ was to be born. This was considered a spiritual time to Christians and Virgil's living in that time only adds to Dante's belief that Virgil is spiritual himself. Virgil's guidance through Hell is of paramount importance because Dante's loss of faith has left him in a precarious spiritual position. Dante's choice of Virgil rather than a heavenly being is indicative of his inner turmoil.

In Canto II Dante protests that he is not worthy of the kind of journey Virgil promises, "I am not Aeneas, am not Paul" (1.32). Virgil then explains to Dante that the Virgin Mary had taken pity upon him and went to Lucia, who then went to Beatrice, who personally came to Virgil. Here we see the hierarchy in the chain of command. Mary had, by the High Middle Ages, become considered "mediatrix of grace," the mother of mercy. She selected Saint Lucy, a third-century martyr and the patron saint of sight. Using the patron saint of light is indicative of Dante's loss of sight of what is important, the path of righteousness. Lucy then decided to go to Beatrice, Dante's private saint, whom she believed most able to effect the desired change in Dante. Apparently knowing that Dante would not respond to divine intervention, Beatrice sends Virgil, the only call to virtue to whom Dante will respond. This display of concern from Beatrice, as evidenced in her plea to Virgil after having spoken to St. Lucy, moves Dante to undertake this journey.

No one within this world has ever been

so quick to seek his good or flee his harm

as I when she had finished speaking thus

to come below, down from my blessed station;

I trusted in your honest utterance,

which honors you and those who've listened to you.

When she had finished with her words to me

she turned aside her gleaming, tearful eyes,

which only made me hurry all the more. (1. 109-117).

Dante's response to Virgil's explanation indicates that his denial of love for Beatrice was one of the sins which were keeping Dante in the dark woods.

and such warm daring rushed into my heart

that I as one who had been freed- began:

"O she, compassionate, who has helped me?

You, with your words, have so disposed my heart

to longing for this journey I return

to what I was at first prepared to do.

Now go: a single will fills both of us: (1. 131-139).

Dante had set his love for Beatrice aside after her death. Although much was written of her during her lifetime, after her death Dante merely assembled those previously written poems and had them published in the Vita Nuova. Thus, his sin may be hardness of heart. Only after achieving forgiveness through her intervention in his peril in the dark woods could Dante face the journey to spiritual awakening. This hardness of heart had crippled Dante's growth; however, the affirmation of the love of Beatrice softened his heart. Having achieved this milestone in his spiritual growth Dante resolved himself to the perilous journey which lie ahead. This release of his "sin" allowed Dante and Virgil to continue their journey to the Gates of Hell.

In Canto III Dante is faced with the realization that once you cross the threshold of sin, you are condemned forever. Standing before the Gates of Hell, Dante and Virgil read the inscription: "ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE" (1. 9). This warning is a dramatic reminder that entering Hell is easy, but once in there is no hope of leaving. Dante's sin of acedia, inertia of the soul and will, is waiting on the other side of the Gate. Virgil desribes the trimmers as "the miserable people, those who have lost the good of the intellect." (II. 17-18). This strikes a chord with Dante; therefore, he pauses outside the gate. Sensing Dante's self doubt, Virgil smiles at Dante and places his hand upon Dante's to lead him through the Gates. By smiling at Dante, Virgil reassures him and gives him strength to enter the Gates where he first sees those sinners most like himself:

This miserable way

is taken by the sorry souls of those

who lived without disgrace and without praise.

They now commingle with the coward angels,

the company of those who were not rebels

nor faithful to their God, but stood apart. (II. 34-39).

Dante is further frightened when he realizes how many people are in Hell.

. . so long a file

of people I should never have believed

that death could have unmade so many souls. (II. 55-57).

Seeing the number of dead reminded Dante of the imminence of death. This reminder of mortality makes the journey to a higher spirituality a more imperative mission.

This is where the journey through Hell begins, but in reality, the journey began when Dante woke in the dark woods and looked for the light. Through his efforts to reach salvation by the utilization of his intellect and his creativity, we the readers have obtained, for all time a great piece of literature and a roadmap to a methodology of self-discovery. The Divine Comedy continues to describe, in rich detail, the decline that would result from ignoring the seeds of sin; however, in writing the Divine Comedy Dante was able to recognize and stop his own spiritual decline down the hill and away from the light.