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Inferno: Canto II From a structural viewpoint, the first two cantos of Inferno serve as an opening, presenting the major dramatic situation and maneuvering Dante and Virgil to the doorway of Hell, the voyage through which will represent the main plot of the poem. In a larger sense, though, the opening cantos help reader to establish the relationship between Inferno and larger literary, political, and religious tradition, demonstrating their points of conjunction and divergence. Here is a brief summary of the canto II. It was evening. Dante raises the Muses to help him tell his story. He began to hesitate his merit to make the great journey through Hell, and compared his fault to the strength of "he who fathered Sylvius" (Aeneas) and "the Chosen Vessel, " (St.
Paul) who had come down to Hell and came back from there with a victory. He asked Virgil for supervision, and Virgil told him not to give up before fear. In order to give him heart, Virgil said Beatrice herself had descended from Heaven to Limbo to find him (Limbo is the place in Hell for worthy Pagans who lived before Christ). Worried about Dante, she asked Virgil to guide him to safety. Graciously, Virgil had agreed. He revealed that not only Beatrice, but two other blessed ladies, Lucia and Rachel, were also troubled for Dante, having been warned by "a gentle lady" that he risks damnation.
Hearing that his love had not forgotten him, Dante became much optimistic, and he determined to courageously follow Virgil no matter where he would lead him. The combination of dissimilar literary genres and themes is mainly evident in the second canto, though it happens all the way through the poem. The Inferno is partially epic, modeled in some ways on Virgil's Aeneid. It is also an intensely Christian poem full of customary symbolism, depicting a Hell rather different from that of the Ancients.
Hell is not just the underworld where the dead live, but is exclusively the place where the evil people are punished, each according to his sin. The crucial goal is to reach God. The third theme is that of chivalrous love: a lot of medieval literature deals with the love of a knight for an unachievable and beautiful lady. In the literature of chivalrous love, the knight's desperate devotion urges him on to chivalric feats which he completes in order to honor his chosen lady. In some of the lyrics of courtly love, the excellence of the desired lady destabilizes the religious morality of the poetry: a Christian should love God above all else. However, Dante skillfully joins the two genres by loving a lady who is dead: there is no risk of bodily sexuality, and since Beatrice is a blessed soul, she can be conceived as a link between Dante and God: by striving to Beatrice in the chivalrous manner, Dante becomes all the more Christian.
This validation would not have been accepted by the more demanding Protestant sects, but in the courtly early 14 th century, no one could find error with it. Dante's expedition through Hell is therefore an epic adventure, a mystical religious practice, and a way to honor his dearly loved. Dante's appreciation for Virgil and his recognition of himself with Aeneas and St. Paul should be interpreted in the context of his pro-Imperial politics. The Aeneid was written in order to produce a heroic past for the Roman Empire; Dante had a hope to foresee the triumph of the Holy Roman Empire, which combines the martial virtues of the Romans with the Christian virtues. (The Holy Roman Empire, by the way, is the name given to an erratic dominion including big part of Germany and some of Italy. It was never as influential or as rational as the true Roman Empire, and its magnificent name says more about Imperial goals than realities. ) Dante depicts divine justice in terms of a severe judgment, most probably that of God-the-father and Christ, angered by the compassionate pleas of the Virgin Mary (the "gentle lady") and other female saints and saintly creatures.
Justice is then a male attribute, and compassion is female.
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