Dante Inferno Analysis

In this excerpt, Dante ventures through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven in his quest for God. He is led by the soul of a poet, Virgil. Now they enter into the circle of those that have died in the sin of lust. Dante enters feeling sorrow for the ones in this circle, those that died in the sin of lust. They live helplessly in this vacant world of despair. Light is hope that compels each living being onward, but his world holds no hope; it is mute of light. Contrasting to this, the infernal hurricane's cold, directionless winds blow the dwellers of this world around aimlessly, never to feel the comforting hope of rest. Instead, they are taken over by a void of feeling which won't allow even the comfort of pain. They come into this world wailing in sorrow, making a long line of their sheer numbers in the air. Dante speaks of those arriving as cranes singing their songs, signifying beauty. He asks Virgil of them, who begins to tell Dante of each individual's sinful story, begging with the first who lived in luxury but felt so abandoned that she made lust licit in her morals. The second was unfaithful to her spouse and killed herself. They have been deceived by lust, disguised as the love they seek. Just as they are are blown by the winds in this world of eternal hopelessness, lust has whisked them astray in deceit. The component of desire is the thin line between lust and love; this line becomes blurred when those led by love are compelled by primal human vices, when the desire for love takes over. Virgil continues with each one's humanly stories of which love departed from their lives, pointing to the thousands of shades in the air. Dante is overcome with pity and asks that he may speak to the two that seem so light upon the wind; the ones that have not yet succumb to the magnitude of this world's tiresome loneliness. They come as doves, souring through the air with the desire which has lead them astray. They speak to Dante because the wind has slowed down for them, maybe because of this temporary hope. And so they sit upon their nest of will which has filled the void for this moment because they were called upon by love. As they speak to Dante with sweet love, he begins to weep in sorrow. He weeps for love that is so sweet and pure, the love which brought all these dwellers to their eternity. He speaks