The historical accuracy of ‘Hell’ can be analyzed by the timeless Christian allegory through the lens of which Dante has envisioned the fate of religion and has unlocked the mystery of its own false identity. The identity which is based upon false Christian beliefs and have only smudged Christianity. Many people view Inferno as a religious comedy highlighting the loopholes of religion, what I believe is that Inferno is the true picture of religious castings envisioned by Dante.
On a evening of Good Friday, when Dante lost his way in dark, the ghost of Virgil (Roman poet) offered to guide him to heaven, but through a journey of Hell. This way Dante in this historical magnum opus has explored the moral of three kingdoms, known by the name of hell, purgatory (place in between hell and heaven) and heaven. Dante’s Hell reveals the terror which the reader experiences as if he is a part of those various level of sins which are elaborated in the form of nine circles. The encounter of the author Dante with Virgil in hell is inextricably linked to a diachronic mode that is defined not by the influence of literary history but by the actual situation of reading. What Dante has tried the reader is to visualize the mother nature through Medieval Christian point of view.
Hawkins (2007) mentions that Inferno in the context of hell provides a perfect case in nature when Dante provides a universe of souls, all of whom have fictive bodies that enable them, before the general resurrection, to experience the physical sensation of pain in hell (Hawkins, 2007). Though Dante’s Hell is created with utmost sins, but readers find it amusing to know how little is the contribution of fire in Dante’s Hell. This is what Dante illustrates as “the meaning of fire is incompatible with the punishment of most sins” (Esolen, 2002: xvii).
Johnson (2001) criticizes Dante’s Hell by claiming that Dante has created Inferno in a manner which seems ridiculous to the reader when he analyzes that Dante is trying to blame Christian history. This is revealed when Dante places the ‘virtuous unbaptized’ souls in the outermost circle of hell, called limbo (Johnson, 2001). The amusing aspect is that all these virtuous souls have led good earthly lives and though they never deserve any pain, but still they are unable to enter heaven just because because they were never baptized. Such a concept presented by Dante is itself an illustration of how Christianity is misunderstood and perceived doubtful when many unbaptized people were considered saints. Thus Dante has pointed out in Inferno the real problem behind Hell, which is not limited to the question that why even those good people who remain good to us in our lives can be subjected to such excruciating experience.
Dante himself answers the question in a unique critical manner by pointing out the history responsible for this concept. History reveals to us that one of the most uncontrollable difficulties confronting traditional theism has been the problem of evil, according to which the condition or belief that God is all powerful is problematic. It is problematic because if according to our belief God is powerful enough to capture and get hold of evil, why evil is set on loose by Him? A different concept is assumed in tradition of Christianity which suggests that usually we experience the problem of evil because that special kind of evil that regards the afterlife, is set on loose by the God, therefore, in this world some humans are with God forever and some are in hell. Now, if God has set evil on loose, why is that good humans suffer without any logical justification? The theological portrayals of Dante’s hell has questioned this issue in a amusing manner and which is revealed when Dante visits some very good people in hell, just for the reason that they never were baptized. In other sense, Dante raises the question that it seems God is limited and has drawn certain boundaries, after which He Himself is helpless, because He cannot help even those who are in His good books. Does that indicate that God is Christian or has adopted a particular caste or religion?
Kvanvig (1993) points out that the problem of evil comes in two varieties, logical and philosophical. Now from both point of views Dante has proven God’s epistemology to be wrong, in the manner that logically the problem of evil claims some logical inconsistency between the claim that God is perfectly all powerful and the claim that evil exists (Kvanvig, 1993: 4). The philosophical version of the problem of evil claims that if there is existence of evil why Dante saw only the good persons in hell? Paolo and Francesca da Rimini were among one of the sinners whom Dante saw in the Second Circle of Hell for the only reason that they were engaged in a love affair.
In such conditions, Dante came to this point to decide that Hell is no more than how a person perceives it. What he wants the reader to analyze is that the existence of evil provides evidence that there is no God, because if there were any, He must have traced good people not only on the basis of their deeds but on judging their intentions and souls.
Works Cited
Esolen Anthony, (2002) Dante Inferno: Poetry, Illustrations by Gustav Dore.
Hawkins Peter, (2007) ‘Still Going Strong: Dante Now’, Christianity and Literature. Volume: 56. Issue: 3, p. 489.
Johnson M, Eric, (2001) ‘Talk of the Damned Fires ‘Inferno”, The Washington Times, p. 3.
Kvanvig L. Jonathon, (1993) The Problem of Hell: Oxford University Press: New York.