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Figurative Language In Dante's Inferno

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In Dante’s The Inferno, each part of his journey through Hell is broken up into different cantos, often according to which circle or sin he is choosing to focus on. The Dante that is being written about needs Virgil, Dante’s beloved hero of a poet stuck in Limbo, to guide him. Ultimately, Virgil also guides us by teaching a lesson both Dante and the reader in every canto. One of Virgil’s biggest explanations to Dante takes place in Canto II when he tells Dante why he’s so special to be able to journey through Hell alive. What makes Canto II so intriguing is not only the abundance of backstory and context given for the purpose of Dante going through Hell, but the eloquent and poetic language used to tell the story and give us our first impression of Dante’s old love, Beatrice. Similar to how Dante is feeling, it is unclear to readers why this man is about to get a personal tour of Hell, so Virgil’s explanation acts as a hook to introduce us to what’s to come. Canto II begins with Dante voicing his apprehension about the upcoming journey, telling Virgil that “‘I am no Aeneas or Paul:/Not I nor others think me of such worth,/And therefore I have my …show more content…

By incorporating poetic language from both Virgil and Dante, the canto is able to come to life in one’s mind. Beatrice’s description are so simple, yet so beautiful that they manage to stick out, making her heavenly impression even more prominent. The images readers get are almost their last taste of the goodness of the outside world before descending into Hell along with Dante. First there is this beautiful pair of eyes shinier than the stars, and then a field of flowers blooming in the sunlight. Canto II fuels both Dante and readers to have the confidence to make their way through Hell with the comfort of extremely expressive

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