Week 3: Hailey Sherwood

From the start of “The Inferno”, by Dante Alighieri, Dante presents himself as a middle-aged man dealing with a middle-aged crisis. This crisis, is finding his identity. Wandering through a dark forest, Dante has lost his way from the true path in life. As he is about to approach a brighter hilltop, the Leopard of Malice and Fraud, The Lion of Violence and Ambition, and the She-Wolf of Incontinence drag him back into the dark abyss. But Dante’s symbol of Human Reason, Virgil comes to guide him. Dante must go through Hell in order to get to Heaven.

A pivotal moment occurs when Dante is about to emerge in the gates of hell and he recalls that only Paul and Aeneas have returned from the afterlife. Dante remarks, “There later came the chosen vessel, Paul, bearing the confirmation of that Faith which is the one true door to the life eternal”. Dante finds himself small in the face of this challenge, and questions if he deserves to make it to the afterlife. He questions, “But I- how should I dare? By whose permission? I am not Aeneas. I am not Paul. Who could believe me worthy of the vision? In this, Dante presents the universal questions, “Who am I?” and “What am I worth?”, establishing The Inferno as an identity piece.

Dante’s challenge of going through hell to get to heaven is probably the most extreme test in defining one’s identity. Every element of Dante’s obstacle upholds Culler’s perception of the subject of identity, provoking questions such as “What is this ‘I’ that I am?” Dante’s first-person perspective as both the author and subject of the epic makes him seem as if he could be anyone searching for their identity, and establishes credibility among listeners. Listeners may not be able to relate to the severity of going to the afterlife, but “The Inferno” serves as an allegory for finding oneself, providing the most extreme example for the most human question.