Free Will And Heavil In Dante's Inferno

According to the Online Oxford Dictionary, growth is defined as “the process of developing physically, mentally, or spiritually.” (Online Oxford Dictionary) Dante’s Inferno, the literary text under examination, was written as a comedy in the sense that it was considered to be wildly impossible for man, in his folly, to attempt to achieve a divine understanding of God’s will. However, in spite of impending failure, Dante tackles the controversial topic of the existence of an afterlife and the effects of one’s actions in life after death. In context, the book was written during Dante’s exile from Italy when he had begun an intensified study in philosophy. Furthermore, the Church and State Government in Italy was concurrently struggling for power in Florence and served as one of the main influences as to why Dante wrote the Inferno. Dante
The revealing of God’s will to perfect all of creation, including those being punished in Hell, and the recognition that God had created Hell allows Dante to resist succumbing to irrational emotions, like pity for sinners, by replacing them with faith that God will prevail and with a reassurance that it is not Dante’s duty to intervene with the condemned but rather it is the Lord’s. As Dante and Virgil exit the Third Circle of Hell where those condemned of Gluttony lie in their own filth, Dante asks Virgil about the Lord’s will pertaining to Judgement Day. Virgil responds:
“And he to me: ‘Return unto thy science, which wills, that as the thing more perfect is, the more it feels of pleasure and of pain. Albeit that this people maledict to true perfection never can attain, hereafter more than now they look to be.’” (Dante