Dante the Pilgrim's Evolution

The Evolution of Dante the Pilgrim-Drew Hussung

One of the aspects of Inferno that I find to be the most fascinating is the development of Dante the Pilgrim.  Over the course of the poem, Dante is constantly growing and changing and gaining a deeper understanding of his God's awesome power and wisdom. When we first meet Dante, he is a man racked with indecision and cowardice.  In Canto 3, Dante becomes so overwhelmed with the dreadful sight of hell's landscape that he "trembled so violently that in terror my memory bathes me with sweat" and even faints because of his fear.  (Lines 130-136)  This happens at the very entrance of hell, he hasn't faced even a fraction of the hopelessness and horror that will await him in the later Cantos.  His own fear and self-doubt are one of his biggest obstacles in making his way through hell and returning back to his home.  Several times, as in Canto 20 Lines 25-30, Dante pities the sinners so deeply that Virgil must reprimand him and remind him that God's judgment is absolute and unquestionable, asking him, "...who is more wicked than one who brings passion to God's judgment?"

However as we get further and further along in the tale, Dante begins growing more and more resolute and self-assured.  In Canto 24, Dante masters terror and exhaustion in order to climb the ridge of the Seventh Pouch of the Eighth Circle of Hell.  This resolve and bravery is something that had been growing inside of Dante for a long while, and is a change that he must take in order to complete his journey and master his sins and flaws.  Dante's pity for the sinners he encounters, which was so deep in Canto 20, becomes replaced with something sterner, bordering on satisfaction.  In Canto 25, after witnessing Fucci make explicit gestures toward god,  Dante feels enough resentment and disgust to take pleasure in a serpent strangling the man afterwards (Lines 4-9).  Beyond this hardening of emotions, Dante's self-assurance even grows enough to disregard the advice of his beloved leader Virgil.   In Canto 29, Virgil urges Dante to quit staring at the line of people being repeatedly wounded by sword and to continue moving.  Dante ignores this and finds a blood relative of his in this line.  In Lines 13-15, Dante even grows so bold as to scold Virgil for not paying closer attention.

The pilgrim that serves as our narrator in the Cantos assigned for this upcoming week is an entirely different person than the one who led us in the first Cantos.  Some of these changes, such as a loss of pity, could be perceived as negative when looked at from a non-religious perspective.  However as the goal of Dante is to save his eternal soul from damnation and to return from hell to his beloved home, these changes were absolutely essential to him.