Dante's Inferno: A Study Of Social Psychology

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A forest fire has the power to engulf every square inch of life. However, within these flames, the fibers of pre-existing life break down to give rise unto new ones; one day, soot and ash blankets the ground and the next, a new generation of flowers. This event can parallel the human mind. Troubles face people constantly, such as divisions within the family or the loss of a job. These problems exist ubiquitously to the common person. Only perhaps a handful of times in a person’s life, however, do they encounter a life-altering dilemma. A plight like this transcends age. Likewise, this scourge can affect the entire spectrum of human intelligence—ranging from fools to those who many would consider incomparably wise. Often, the subject of this …show more content…
Religion solely constituted a person’s social requirement in fourteenth-century Italy. If Man deviated from the Church’s pre-determined “path of salvation,” he or she faced an immense obstacle to overcome in order to regain themselves. However, in the twenty-first century, human psychology can simply explain many of these deviations. Dante knew the consequences that came along with leaving “the path of truth” (Alighieri, Canto I/line 12)—or, more modernly-coined, becoming depressed—and so he sought for answers anywhere he could find them. In any time period, this alone embodies the meaning of a dilemma. Dante loses himself and, in an almost The Persistence of Memory-like (Dalí) landscape, finds himself at a loss for reason or understanding. Much like his current life, Dante becomes disoriented and completely unaware of his surroundings. For, Dante exists no longer as a man but as a wandering spirit whose sole purpose is to find the answers it needs to return to its former self. Dante does, however, see the place of which he thinks he needs to go, only to realize that his path is blocked by three beasts. And, as so it would go, the dilemma of denying God exists in three forms: incontinence, violence, and fraudulence. Like many enveloped in darkness, Dante found a guide, Virgil, to become his eyes. Virgil could now serve as a hope—a “light and honor” …show more content…
Even in all his intellect, Dante proves that knowledge and strength do not always mean the same thing. Nevertheless, this shadow of a man did not always define Dante. Like many facing a life-altering dilemma, Dante found himself at a complete lapse of all senses, like a fish thrust out of water. Dante presents himself as a weak person so much so that it takes his own love, Beatrice, to set himself “free of fear” (Alighieri, Canto II/line 132). In fact, Dante can never sincerely commit to anything without external pressures. Perhaps Dante recognized himself turning into a sorry man because almost immediately after his promise to Beatrice, he embarked on this journey of self-revelation. Much like any other inspirational story, Dante encountered countless sights and experiences that slowly changed him as a man ranging from his rebuke from Charon of the River Styx to the menacing Minos to how “chilled and nerveless” (Alighieri, Canto XXXIV/line 22) he felt in the presence of Lucifer himself. Each of these singular events taught Dante a lesson he could take with him. This trek, however unusually intense, allowed Dante to experience something no living man has ever had the capability of: death. And with this, Dante could now undergo a personal renaissance, or metamorphosis, in his life like never before. No more grey area existed—only life or death; sin or virtue; weakness or strength. Now having received the
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