One Hell of an Epic!

I never thought that my 21st-century college literature students would have fun with a medieval guy named Dante Alighieri.

The truth is, I even thought they'd be bored to a coma when we took up Dante's Inferno in our English 5W class. But there's something about this medieval epic allegory that is so universal and so real. It's our common fear: fear of eternal damnation. Fear of hell.

When we talked about how a certain Italian woman named Francesca is being "smitten and whipped about endlessly by violent winds," while "eternally stuck" to her contrapasso partner, Paolo, I saw my students cringe and grimace at the thought of such grim punishment. Carnal sinners, in Dante's Inferno, end up in the Second Circle of hell, where they rub elbows with Cleopatra, Semiramis, Dido, Helen of Sparta, and a host of other "cheaters." Of course, for the rest of the sinners there are eight more "circles" waiting to be filled.

This, to Dante, is God's perfection of Divine Justice. The contrapasso is a manifestation of the justice system in the afterlife. Much has been said about The Inferno, which is the most popular of the three books comprising The Divine Comedy, but whatever critics say, it's still the students' impressions and insights that matter most to me. That is why I felt elated when I read an article in the school paper, where the author, a student of mine in one of my English 5 classes, made an allusion to Dante's Inferno by mentioning "the 5th Ditch in the Eighth Circle of Hell" where hypocrites go. These hypocrites happen to be some of my colleagues. Talk about Irony of Situation!