Week 3: Keagan Tice

“The High Creator

scourged them from Heaven for its perfect beauty,

and Hell will not receive them since the wicked

might feel some glory over them.”

-Dante, The Inferno, Canto III, 14, Lines 33-37.

In this short passage from Inferno by Dante Alighieri, identity has a strong theme that echoes throughout the book. Identity is covered from the self; Dante, the characters he interacts with; Virgil, and those who are observed in the text; the damned. By using Culler’s A Very Short Introduction on literary theory as reference to the main points of identity the audience can make several connections from this short passage and apply it to the book as a whole.

Culler begins his chapter on identity with the question, do characters make their fate or do they suffer it? Dante it would appear is a character who is making his own fate, as those he observes are foils to him as those who suffer their own fate. This is perfect for The Inferno as well as the entire Divine Comedy for it encompasses Dante trying to find out his true identity by traveling through the levels of hell in order to gain access to Heaven and achieve bliss. By doing this Dante learns about all that is evil through all levels of hell, this could possibly illustrate what not to be in order to escape eternal damnation. For example in this passage Virgil is describing to Dante what he is observing, the greedy and their fate, removed “from Heaven for it’s perfect beauty, and Hell will not receive them…” (Canto III, 34-35). To find Dante’s identity he must be compared to others.

Dante’s purpose is to gain access to Heaven by discovering how to be the best human he can be, he is shaping his identity. A major factor involved is not only what he should do, but what he shouldn’t do. The damned that are observed in The Inferno illustrate a clear picture of what a human being would not want to endure in after life. The identities of the damned in this short passage are those who suffered from greed. They didn’t choose to align with God or Satan, therefore neither good nor evil and were as some might argue, aptly punished for it, “…Hell would not receive them since the wicked might feel some glory over them.” (Canto III, 36-37). Now what I believe is the true purpose of the greed’s identities are, as stated before, from the standpoint of a close reading on identity are to give Dante a foundation to build on as what not to be identified as.

In closing, Culler also mentions that one’s identity in constantly being formed and therefore is never truly complete. Perhaps this is possible with Dante, even in the afterlife traveling through Hell he is still discovering who he is. However does this apply to everyone in the afterlife or is Dante just special?