This paper reads Dante's Inferno as a historical reference to the characters of human beings. Dante believes that humans need to surrender their own will to the will of God, and that humans cannot help but commit sins because it is their nature to do so. As such, the sin itself is not what condemns any person to Hell, but the refusal to ask for God's forgiveness, and to surrender their will to God's will. Dante makes many political references as a way to critique his won historical era; however, much of the poem refers to historical persons, as a way to produce metaphors about his own time. 5 pgs. Bibliography lists 1 source.
