By Sara Tehilla Goldstein, Staff Writer
Why do people refer to Dante’s ‘The Inferno’ as his masterpiece? Bookstores will sell special-edition copies of The Inferno, relegating the other two sections of The Divine Comedy to the back shelf. In literature classes, teachers will assign a reading of The Inferno without requiring any study of the rest of the poem. And colloquially, people refer to the entire book by its best-known first section, rather than by the actual title.
For those previously limited to this truncated exposure, Dante’s Divine Comedy is the journey of Dante the Pilgrim, who is unable to escape from sin. To rectify this, his divine guide Beatrice sends him the poet Virgil to lead him through the underworld. Their journey begins in Hell, but continues through Purgatory, with the eventual aim of reaching Paradise. The epic poem is divided into three parts, all within one framework, the first part being The Inferno, followed by Purgatory and Paradise. Each section mirrors the other two structurally, and on each leg of the journey, Dante grows as a character as the theme of the book is further developed.
The average person who has bothered to read Dante at all, for school or otherwise, will have only read The Inferno. It’s what people immediately think of — Dante’s nine circles of Hell and the creative and often graphic tortures devised within them, each associated with a specific sin. The Western cultural understanding of the concept of Hell is undoubtedly shaped by Dante’s depiction. However, this incomplete understanding of Dante’s works seems completely contrary to how we typically engage with art. It’s not generally acceptable, for example, to leave a play at intermission, to stop watching a movie before the point is made, or to read only the first part of a book.
The truth is, The Comedy becomes more difficult to read after The Inferno. In Purgatory, there is a greater focus on Dante than just the sufferers. The metaphysical philosophy of Paradise is certainly more challenging to get through and the imagery is harder to visualize. But much of it is just as well-written, vivid and even shocking.
Despite the fantastical construct, the chief focus of The Divine Comedy is not just worldbuilding. Classically, while tragedies started positively but ended in disaster, Comedies generally started off with a conflict and ended with a peaceful resolution. Without reading The Divine Comedy all the way through, a reader cannot see how it resolves the conflict it sets up — namely, Dante’s struggle with sin.
The Comedy is also a story that is supposed to represent the human journey. The quest to Beatrice, who represents a guiding divine principle, is a depiction of a universal struggle. This is why Dante pluralizes the opening line: “Midway along the journey of our life.” This theme, without reading Paradise, is not a story of triumph at all. At best, it is an ambiguous ending at the edge of The Inferno, where Dante and Virgil succeed in climbing Lucifer’s legs and gazing towards the starry sky of Purgatory, a far cry from reaching purity.
In addition, The Divine Comedy encompasses a complete worldview. Any religion that includes a hell but no heaven is extremely bleak. The Comedy is not supposed to be cynical, it’s a story of triumph. The same kinds of sinners that are penalized in Hell are seen again in Purgatory and even Paradise. To someone who only reads The Inferno, the message seems to be ‘if you sin, you will be punished’. But the complete message is that people can do the exact same sin with different outcomes. If a person repents of sin and strives for good even in their last moments before death, they can be forgiven and eventually achieve divine reward.
Although the unchaste suffer in The Inferno, some committed the same sin in Purgatory, and Dante comes across Rahab of Jericho in Paradise. It’s not the sin itself that consigns a person to Heaven or Hell, it’s whether they continually indulge in it or eventually bemoan it.
In addition to the logical and thematic reasons for completing The Comedy, it is also just a great book. The prose is riveting and beautiful from start to finish, and while certain segments can be difficult to get through, it’s a fun and rewarding experience to read the iconic work yourself. I recommend an edition that contains the entire text, values accuracy over florid prose, and interprets the meaning of the poem rather than being so firm about the rhyme. An edition with footnotes will help explain the many cultural references that are no longer common knowledge, as well as the vast cast of Dante-era celebrities. Mark Musa’s The Portable Dante from Penguin Classics is my personal recommendation, with extensive footnotes, a summary before each canto, and a clear and unpretentious translation style. But whatever you pick, I hope you make it all the way to Paradise.
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