A Personal Interpretation of Dante's Inferno, a Poem by Dante Alighieri

In the Inferno, we learn all about hell including the different layers of hell and the different punishments that go along with each layen Dante goes through hell with Virgil to learn all about it. He is timid to go, fearing that he may not make it out alive, but Virgil insists he will be ok with him as his guide as he was sent to guide him through. When Dante gets to the second circle of hell, he finds that in this circle the souls of the damned swirl around helplessly in the air.

These are the lustful people in the world who let their lust lead them to make a poor decisions. While they are still in hell. it seems as though Dante is inferring that lustfulness is not so serious of a crime and does not deserve too much punishment.

In this circle, dante speaks to a woman named francesca who tells him her story of what landed her there.

She reveals she cheated on her husband with his younger brother when they fell in love francesca is doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the second circle of hell, but get a sense that Dante feels a bit of pity for her and her love story. Almost as though she doesn’t really deserve to be punished for falling in love again. This is revealing about Dante in that these lustful individuals are only sent to the second circle of hell and not punished much more for such a horrible act.

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It tells me that he does not view this act as bad as one in which an individual is harmed.

However, I find it ironic that the ninth circle of hell, the deepest level, is held for betrayers are those who act lustfully not also betraying their loved ones? This is a challenging topic and certainly one I struggle to completely comprehend, but it seems as though Dante has a soft spot in his heart for these individuals as though they are not doing something that is too wrong in his opinion. While this act seems to get a lighter punishment, these individuals are still set to a life of misery in hell and that is somewhere no individual would ever want to end up. One feeling I got that could be completely wrong is that these individuals are sent here to be helplessly swept through the stormy air to represent how their companions felt after being cheated on, helpless. This is a very minor connection but one thing I considered trying to find a reason for the light punishment of the lustful.