Dante Character Analysis in Inferno

Dante is the protagonist and narrator of The Inferno. He presents the poem as a true, autobiographical recollection of his miraculous journey. He is a good man who strays from the path of virtue, finding himself in the dark wood at the beginning of the poem. He is saved by his beloved Beatrice, who sends Virgil to guide him on his spectacular journey through hell. Dante is often terrified in hell and is moved by pity for the suffering sinners he sees there. However, he gradually learns from Virgil and becomes both more confident and less sympathetic toward those who have sinned against God. He is often interested in lingering to speak with sinners from Italy, particularly his native city of Florence. As the author of his own story, he wields the power to give both himself and others the immortality of fame through his work.

Dante Quotes in Inferno

The Inferno quotes below are all either spoken by Dante or refer to Dante. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Midway this way of life we're bound upon,
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
Where the right road was wholly lost and gone.

Related Characters: Dante (speaker)

Related Symbols: The Journey, Light and Dark

Page Number and Citation: 1.1-3

Explanation and Analysis:

Canst thou be Virgil? Thou that fount of splendour
Whence poured so wide a stream of lordly speech?

Related Characters: Dante (speaker), Virgil

Page Number and Citation: 1.79-80

Explanation and Analysis:

And greater honour yet they [Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan] did me—yea,
Into their fellowship they deigned invite
And make me sixth among such minds as they.

Related Characters: Dante (speaker), Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan

Page Number and Citation: 4.100-102

Explanation and Analysis:

Nay, but I tell not all that I saw then;
The long theme drives me hard, and everywhere
The wondrous truth outstrips my staggering pen.

Related Characters: Dante (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 4.145-147

Explanation and Analysis:

So we stirred
Our footsteps citywards, with hearts reposed,
Safely protected by the heavenly word.

Related Characters: Dante (speaker)

Related Symbols: The Journey

Page Number and Citation: 9.103-105

Explanation and Analysis:

Keep handy my Thesaurus, where I yet
Live on; I ask no more.

Related Characters: Brunetto Latini (speaker), Dante

Page Number and Citation: 15.119-120

Explanation and Analysis:

So may thy soul these many years abide
Housed in thy body, and the after-light
Of fame shine long behind thee.

Related Characters: Guido Guerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci (speaker), Dante

Related Symbols: Light and Dark

Page Number and Citation: 16.64-66

Explanation and Analysis:

Put off this sloth [...]
Sitting on feather-pillows, lying reclined
Beneath the blanket is no way to fame—

Fame, without which man's life wastes out of mind,
Leaving on earth no more memorial
Than foam in water or smoke upon the wind.

Related Characters: Virgil (speaker), Dante

Page Number and Citation: 24.46-51

Explanation and Analysis:

Florence, rejoice, because thy soaring fame
Beats its broad wings across both land and sea,
And all the deep of Hell rings with thy name!

Five of thy noble townsmen did I see
Among the thieves; which makes me blush anew,
And mighty little honour it does to thee.

Related Characters: Dante (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 26.1-6

Explanation and Analysis:

Who, though with words unshackled from the rhymes,
Could yet tell full the tale of wounds and blood
Now shown me, let him try ten thousand times?

Related Characters: Dante (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 28.1-3

Explanation and Analysis:

The self-same tongue that first had wounded me,
Bringing the scarlet blood to both my cheeks,
Thus to my sore applied the remedy.

Related Characters: Dante (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 31.1-3

Explanation and Analysis:

As ‘tis, I tremble lest the telling mar
The tale; for, truly, to describe the great

Fundament of the world is very far
From being a task for idle wits at play,
[...]

But may those heavenly ladies aid my lay
That helped Amphion wall high Thebes with stone,
Lest from the truth my wandering verses stray.

Related Characters: Dante (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 32.5-12

Explanation and Analysis:

How cold I grew, how faint with fearfulness,
Ask me not, Reader; I shall not waste breath
Telling what words are powerless to express.

Related Characters: Dante (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 34.22-24

Explanation and Analysis:

Each mouth devoured a sinner clenched within,
Frayed by the fangs like flax beneath a brake;
Three at a time he tortured them for sin.

Related Characters: Dante (speaker), Brutus and Cassius, Judas, Lucifer

Page Number and Citation: 34.55-57

Explanation and Analysis:

Dante Character Timeline in Inferno

The timeline below shows where the character Dante appears in Inferno. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Midway through the course of his life, Dante wakes up in a dark forest, having lost his way from the right road. He... (full context)

Dante sees a mountain with the sun shining above it. The sight comforts him, and he... (full context)

Dante is frightened by the animals and loses all hope of scaling the mountain. He reluctantly... (full context)

Dante tells Virgil about how he was turned back from ascending the mountain by wild beasts,... (full context)

Virgil says he will guide Dante on his journey. He says Dante will go through a terrible place with souls in... (full context)

It is now evening, as Dante begins his journey. As narrator, Dante invokes the muses and the personification of memory to... (full context)

Virgil chides Dante, telling him his anxieties arise from mere cowardice, which constantly "lays ambushes for men," (2.46).... (full context)

...that the Virgin Mary sent St. Lucy to her, to encourage her to help save Dante. (full context)

Virgil thus immediately sought out Dante after Beatrice visited him, and saved him from the wolf. Virgil chastises Dante for showing... (full context)

Dante takes this encouragement to heart, and his spirits are raised like a drooping flower that... (full context)

Dante and Virgil arrive at the gate of hell. Above the gate, there is an inscription... (full context)

As they enter hell, Dante hears shrieks, shouts, screams, and lamentations filling the air. He asks Virgil who these suffering... (full context)

Dante sees these neutral souls, who committed neither to evil nor to good, chasing after a... (full context)

...souls waiting by the river to despair and not hope for heaven. When he sees Dante, he tells him to leave, refusing to ferry across a living man. He tells Dante... (full context)

Virgil tells Dante that these souls are all the people who have died under God's wrath, and that... (full context)

Dante is reawakened by a loud peal of thunder. He looks around to try to figure... (full context)

Dante sees that Virgil is pale, and asks how he can be expected to go through... (full context)

Dante hears not loud, suffering groans, but constant sighing. Virgil tells him that the souls in... (full context)

Virgil identifies some of the souls for Dante: Homer and the Roman poets Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. These ancient poets come forward and... (full context)

Dante, now accompanied by these five ancient poets, comes upon a great castle, surrounded by walls.... (full context)

Dante also sees the great luminaries of ancient philosophy: Socrates, Plato, Democritus, Heraclitus, Cicero, Seneca, and... (full context)

Dante and Virgil descend to the second circle of hell, where there is more suffering and... (full context)

Minos sees the living Dante and stops him, but Virgil tells Minos that Dante is fated and willed by God... (full context)

Dante asks Virgil to identify some of the souls. Dante points out the Mistress of Babel,... (full context)

Dante is moved by pity for these souls, and asks Virgil if he can speak to... (full context)

One of the lustful souls tells Dante her life's story. Love was the downfall of her and the man she loved; both... (full context)

...that day," (5.138) summarizes Francesca. As Francesca tells her story, Paolo wails with grief and Dante is so overcome with pity that he swoons and faints. (full context)

Dante comes to and finds himself in the third circle of hell, where rain never stops... (full context)

When Cerberus sees Dante and Virgil coming, Virgil scoops up several handfuls of dirt and throws some in each... (full context)

...turmoil for Florence between its different political factions, spurred on by Avarice, Envy, and Pride. Dante further asks Ciacco about various famous men of Florence who have died and Ciacco tells... (full context)

Virgil tells Dante that when the final judgment comes, these souls will be reunited with their earthly bodies.... (full context)

At the entrance to the fourth circle of hell, Dante and Virgil encounter Pluto (the underworld deity associated with wealth in Roman mythology), who is... (full context)

Dante wonders if he can do descriptive justice to what he beheld in this area of... (full context)

...on earth, while the other half—with bald heads—were covetous popes and cardinals who hoarded money. Dante wonders if he knows any of these souls, but Virgil says that their suffering has... (full context)

Dante asks Virgil to tell him more about the nature of Fortune. According to Virgil, God... (full context)

Dante and Virgil walk along a dark, bubbling body of water and the marsh which forms... (full context)

Dante sees two lights at the top of the tower and sees a beacon far off... (full context)

As Dante and Virgil ride through the marshy Styx, a soul sits up through the grime and... (full context)

Virgil tells Dante that this spirit was arrogant on earth and that, "Many who strut like kings up... (full context)

Virgil announces that they are approaching the city of Dis, and Dante sees a city with buildings glowing red. Virgil explains that they glow from the endless... (full context)

...walking through hell. Virgil tries to speak with them, but they tell him to leave Dante behind and stay with them in Dis. Dante is terrified and begs Virgil not to... (full context)

Dante, though, is so terrified that he hardly hears Virgil's reassurances. The fallen angels slam the... (full context)

...He voices a worry that the angel coming to help them is taking too long. Dante asks him if anyone has made this journey past the gate before and Virgil tells... (full context)

Virgil keeps talking, but Dante stops following what he is saying, as he is distracted by the tops of the... (full context)

Under the protection of the angel's words, Dante and Virgil proceed into Dis. Dante looks around and sees a plain filled with sepulchers,... (full context)

Dante asks Virgil who these people are in the burning tombs, and Virgil says that they... (full context)

While still walking by the heretics' tombs, Dante asks Virgil if he can see the souls who are inside the tombs, since all... (full context)

Just then, a voice from one of the tombs interrupts Dante and Virgil, calling out to Dante as a living Tuscan. Virgil encourages Dante to go... (full context)

Another suffering soul interrupts Farinata and Dante, asking why his son is not with Dante. Dante recognizes this soul as Cavalcante dei... (full context)

Dante asks Farinata how it is that he and other souls in hell seem to be... (full context)

Virgil urges Dante to hurry along, but before he does Dante asks Farinata to tell him quickly some... (full context)

Dante and Virgil reach the edge of a cliff overlooking the descent to the lower parts... (full context)

...of even more serious fraud and betrayal. At the very core of Dis are traitors. Dante asks Virgil why hell is arranged in this way, with some damned souls suffering outside... (full context)

Virgil calls Dante foolish and reminds him that, as Aristotle teaches in his Ethics, there are three kinds... (full context)

Dante then asks Virgil why usury (money-lending with excessive interest) is so wrong. According to Virgil,... (full context)

Dante and Virgil find a way down from the precipice into the seventh circle, but their... (full context)

Virgil explains to Dante that the path down through the cliffs was created by the massive earthquake when Jesus... (full context)

Dante sees centaurs (half-man, half-horse creatures) all around the banks of the Phlegethon with bows and... (full context)

Chiron notices that Dante is a living soul and Virgil explains to him that he is leading Dante on... (full context)

While walking along the riverbank, Dante looks at some of the souls submerged in the river and Nessus points out where... (full context)

Virgil and Dante come upon a dark forest filled with old, gnarled trees and devoid of any greenery.... (full context)

Virgil tells Dante to pluck a small branch from a tree. When Dante does this, the tree cries... (full context)

...Pier delle Vigne. Pier says that he was never unfaithful to Frederick and asks for Dante to heal his reputation on earth. Virgil encourages Dante to ask Pier more questions. (full context)

Dante says that he cannot think of anything more to ask Pier, because he is so... (full context)

...bodies will hang upon the trees, rather than being truly reintegrated with their souls. Suddenly, Dante hears a loud noise and turns to see two naked men sprinting through the forest,... (full context)

Virgil guides Dante to the bush, which is itself trying to speak. It cries out in pain (its... (full context)

Moved by love for his native city of Florence, Dante gathers the scattered leaves and returns them to the bush, before continuing to follow Virgil... (full context)

...(14.29) fall like snow, keeping the desert sands hot and burning the souls suffering there. Dante compares the falling fire to the fireballs that enemies of Alexander the Great shot at... (full context)

Virgil explains to Dante that Capaneus was a king who besieged Thebes and made light of God. Even in... (full context)

Virgil then tells Dante about the source of hell's rivers. Under the island of Crete there is a giant... (full context)

Dante questions Virgil further, asking where Lethe, the other river of the classical underworld, is. Virgil... (full context)

Leaving the forest behind, Dante and Virgil walk along the narrow path made by the banks of the Phlegethon. A... (full context)

Dante explains to Brunetto how he found himself in the dark wood and is now being... (full context)

Dante asks Brunetto to name some of the more famous sinners who are in his group,... (full context)

As Dante and Virgil continue along the river, Dante can start to hear the waterfall where the... (full context)

Dante stops and the three Florentines form a circle, so that that they can keep moving... (full context)

Jacopo wishes for Dante to have a long life and to live on in fame after his death. He... (full context)

Dante and Virgil arrive at the waterfall where the Phlegethon falls down into the eighth circle.... (full context)

...scorpion's. (Though not yet named, this is Geryon, a monster from classical mythology.) Virgil tells Dante that they must walk over to this beast. As they approach, Dante sees a group... (full context)

Dante goes alone to the souls sitting in the hot sand and does not recognize any... (full context)

Geryon sets off from the cliff (Dante compares him to a boat leaving its dock and returning to sea) and Dante describes... (full context)

Virgil and Dante are now in the eighth circle of hell, reserved for those who committed fraud. The... (full context)

...wall, looking down into the trench. They whip the souls, driving them back and forth. Dante recognizes one of these suffering souls and wonders who he is. Virgil allows him to... (full context)

Venedico says that he would rather not answer, but that Dante's clear words compel him to. He admits that he sold his sister to a lustful... (full context)

Dante and Virgil now come to the edge of the second trench. Dante can hardly see... (full context)

Dante and Virgil arrive in the third trench, which holds Simonists, those who bought or sold... (full context)

Dante asks who one of the souls is, who seems to be burned even worse than... (full context)

Pope Nicholas predicts that after Boniface there will be an even more evil pope. Dante chastises Nicholas, asking him how much Jesus charged Peter for the keys to the kingdom... (full context)

In the next (fourth) trench, Dante sees souls weeping quietly, their heads turned completely around so that they have to walk... (full context)

Virgil tells Dante to look at one of the backwards-facing souls, Amphiaraus (a seer of Greek mythology). Virgil... (full context)

...story of the origins of Mantua, and that other versions of its foundation are false. Dante assures Virgil that he believes him entirely. Virgil points out more seers and witches in... (full context)

The fifth trench is filled with boiling pitch and Dante cannot see anything in the pitch, which is continually bubbling. Suddenly, Virgil tells him to... (full context)

Virgil tells Dante to hide behind a rock while he talks with these devils. When the devils see... (full context)

Dante hurries to Virgil's side. A few of the devils debate poking and stabbing at Dante... (full context)

Dante is terrified and begs for Virgil to guide him alone, without the dubious company of... (full context)

Dante says that, although he has seen horsemen and soldiers and other military crowds advancing and... (full context)

...hair and pulls him out of the pitch. While the devils gleefully consider flaying him, Dante asks Virgil if he can possibly know who this is. Virgil asks the sinner where... (full context)

...while they are distracted, he escapes their notice and dives into the pitch in what Dante calls "a merry prank," (22.118). The angry demons try to pursue him, but he has... (full context)

As Virgil and Dante walk on, Dante worries that the devils will get angry and come after the two... (full context)

In this sixth trench, Dante sees souls walking around slowly, covered in cloaks. The cloaks are bright and gilded on... (full context)

Virgil asks the friars how he and Dante might get out of this trench and Catalano tells him that there is a rock... (full context)

Dante is distressed to see Virgil upset, but when they get to the rocks by which... (full context)

Dante gets back up, catches his breath, and tells Virgil to lead on. As they cross... (full context)

Virgil assents and when they cross and go down into the trench, Dante sees a mass of strange, frightening serpents and lizards, unlike any earthly creatures. He sees... (full context)

...and where he is from. He is from Tuscany, and names himself as Vanni Fucci. Dante asks what crime he is guilty of and Vanni looks at him with shame and... (full context)

Vanni curses God and at once a snake curls around his throat. Dante is disgusted with Vanni and wishes that his home city of Pistoia would burn to... (full context)

Three spirits come up to Dante and Virgil and ask who the two poets are. One of them calls for someone... (full context)

...bodies: the lizard turns into a human body while the spirit morphs into a lizard. Dante says that this incredible transformation is more remarkable than anything told by the Roman poets... (full context)

Dante describes, detail-by-detail, how the lizard's body transforms into a human's, and vice versa. The spirit... (full context)

Dante ironically praises Florence, because its fame spreads throughout not only earth, but hell as well.... (full context)

Dante and Virgil take the dangerous climb up some rocks and Dante can see the eighth... (full context)

Dante sees a flame split in two and asks who is under that flame. Virgil tells... (full context)

Dante eagerly asks Virgil if he can speak to the two heroes. Virgil agrees that this... (full context)

Ulysses leaves and another flame draws near, making strange muffled noises that Dante likens to the noises coming from a Sicilian bull: a torture device that is a... (full context)

The spirit begs Dante and Virgil to speak with him. He asks about Romagna, a region of Italy. Virgil... (full context)

The spirit says that Dante will never carry his name to earth, since no one can escape from hell, and... (full context)

...hell, for his fraudulence and deceit. Having told his story, Guido leaves, lamenting his fate. Dante and Virgil go onward toward the ninth trench of this circle of hell. (full context)

As Dante looks down from the bridge into the ninth trench, he claims that no one could... (full context)

Mohammed tells Dante that the souls here were all sowers of scandal and discord. Since they "split" people... (full context)

Virgil explains that Dante is not dead and is not being punished here, but is journeying through hell, guided... (full context)

Mohammed then walks off, and another spirit comes up to Dante with his ear and nose cut off and a wound in his throat. He asks... (full context)

Dante asks Pier da Medicina to identify another suffering soul, and he points out one whose... (full context)

Then, Dante sees—and he cautions his reader that he would hesitate to tell this without proof, but... (full context)

Dante continues to look at the sowers of discord in amazement, and Virgil tells him that... (full context)

Virgil says that Geri looked angrily at Dante, and Dante says that this must be because no one has avenged Geri's violent death... (full context)

The souls here suffer from horrible diseases and sicknesses, worse than any on earth. Dante and Virgil walk down into the trench and Dante sees that here falsifiers are punished.... (full context)

...hell. The two souls (and others who heard Virgil) draw near in amazement. Virgil encourages Dante to ask them whatever he wants. Dante tells the spirits to identify themselves, so that... (full context)

...impossible miracles. He is punished here, though, for his pursuit of alchemy (falsifying precious metals). Dante criticizes the people of Siena loudly and another spirit agrees with him. This spirit identifies... (full context)

Dante describes two more shades he saw, whose suffering surpassed even that of Hecuba and Athamas,... (full context)

Dante sees another soul who is bloated and swollen grotesquely. This soul tells Dante to look... (full context)

...someone named Guido, who convinced him to practice counterfeiting and is now somewhere in hell. Dante asks Adam to identify a pair of sinners "rolled in a heap," (30.92) and giving... (full context)

Dante is enjoying watching these sinners feud, but Virgil rebukes him, telling him that he will... (full context)

Relieved that Virgil is not seriously upset with him, Dante follows him forward. Dante can hardly see anything in the darkness, but hears a loud... (full context)

Virgil tells Dante that what he sees are not towers, but actually giants stuck from their navels down... (full context)

Dante then sees an even taller giant, with its hands bound by a huge iron chain.... (full context)

Virgil addresses the fearful giant Antaeus and tells him to carry Dante and him safely down the well, since Dante, who is alive, can report his name... (full context)

Dante hesitates as to whether his words can even come close to conveying the hideous innermost... (full context)

Close to his feet Dante sees two souls whose hair is tangled together and who continually butt heads. He asks... (full context)

...no other souls deserve as much as these two to be frozen together and tells Dante that he is Camicion dei Pazzi (who murdered a family member). Dante sees thousands more... (full context)

As they walk, Dante accidentally steps on a head. The spirit cries out and Dante thinks he recognizes it.... (full context)

Dante grabs the soul's hair and threatens to rip the hair from his head unless he... (full context)

Bocca tells Dante to write whatever he wishes, but tells Dante to include mention of other souls nearby.... (full context)

The sinner just addressed by Dante stops eating the head for a moment (wiping his mouth grotesquely on the other spirit's... (full context)

Ugolino tells Dante that he is cruel if he does not weep at his story. One morning in... (full context)

Dante cries out against Pisa. Although Ugolino betrayed Pisa in its disputes with other Italian cities,... (full context)

Dante feels a wind and asks Virgil what is causing it. Virgil tells him that he... (full context)

...himself as Friar Alberigo, who killed his own brother after inviting him to a dinner. Dante asks if Alberigo is already dead and Alberigo says he isn't, but that this region... (full context)

Branca had invited his father-in-law to a banquet and killed him there. Dante is incredulous that Branca's soul could come here even before he dies. Alberigo answers that... (full context)

Virgil informs Dante that they are now approaching Lucifer, once the fairest of angels before he rebelled against... (full context)

Lucifer's upper body sticks out of the ice and Dante says that Lucifer is even larger than the giants he saw earlier. In fact, Dante... (full context)

Lucifer has wings larger than any ship's sails that Dante has ever seen. The flapping of these wings causes the gusts of wind that Dante... (full context)

Virgil tells Dante that they have now seen all of hell. They wait until an opportune time and... (full context)

Virgil tells Dante to get on his feet again, because they must continue their journey, even though the... (full context)

Dante describes a cavern as far from Lucifer through the earth as Lucifer is from the... (full context)

Inferno

Dante Character Analysis

Dante Quotes in Inferno

Canto 1 Quotes

Canto 4 Quotes

Canto 9 Quotes

Canto 15 Quotes

Canto 16 Quotes

Canto 24 Quotes

Canto 26 Quotes

Canto 28 Quotes

Canto 31 Quotes

Canto 32 Quotes

Canto 34 Quotes

Dante Character Timeline in Inferno