Week 14: Essay- What the Hell?

This week I read the story from Dante's Inferno. This was probably my favorite reading unit of the semester. For some reason that I don't really understand, I have always enjoyed reading excerpt from the Inferno. I also really enjoyed learning about the other two parts of Dante's Divine Comedy, where he discusses Purgatory and Heaven. Obviously, I am not alone in my love for Dante's work, because the Divine Comedy is so widely and totally loved. It is still taught in high school, and I'm sure there are whole courses that are devoted to it at colleges all across the country. Why, though, does it capture our attention in such a profound way?

Certainly Dante's writing must have something to do with his popularity, but I think, even more than that, it is the subject that he is writing about: Hell. I think humanity has always been concerned with what happens to us to when we die. It seems like every civilization of all-time has its own ideas of what happens to us when we die. The ancient Egyptians, the ancient Greeks and many other ancient civilizations are extremely concerned with the after-life. In fact, they all have ways in which souls are judged for their time on earth. The good souls, or those who lived virtuously on earth, receive some kind of eternal reward in Heaven. On the other hand though, are those bad souls, who lived life selfishly or violently on earth. These souls, unfortunately, receive some kind of eternal punishment. Thus, Dante is so successful with Inferno, because he gives us all a story that we naturally seem to care about: our eternity. We love his description of Hell and all of the specific punishments for all the different sinners, because, sub-consciously, I believe that we judge ourselves, and imagine where we would go: Heaven or Hell. 

Dante and Virgil face some Demons, source: Wikipedia