Dante's Inferno as a Mirror of Medieval Christian Values and Eternal Justice

Dante’s “Inferno” reflects a medieval view of the world since we can see the world that he sees is seen through this religious mindset— it is in that way is very medieval and Christian. It is very medieval since in the Middle age, it was almost compulsory to believe in God, and people had rather strong religious views. Life on earth was a testing ground for one’s faith, it was to see whether we were good for heaven or we were bad, and that's what his "Inferno," about: the whole thing is about being a good Christian.

Dante places himself as a character in the story, and we witness his journey through hell. Hell is a physical place under the ground for Dante, and it's in different layers— each layer represents one kind of sin. As we go down there are more serious crimes, like betrayal. It has a vivid description and the absolute physicality of hell. Another important thing to point out is that the punishment fits the crime perfectly. For example, we see that the second circle is lust, and people in there, like Dido–who gave in to their lust, to their passion– get tossed here and there by severe winds, storms. The whole story is about how one’s punished for their sins, and that makes it very medieval.

Another thing to mention is that, in “Inferno”, he meets a historical person called “Virgil” who was a very famous Roman poet. We see that Virgil is not allowed to go in heaven, simply because he was born before coming of the Jesus and couldn't be a Christian because of that, which is, again, a rather medieval outlook, though we get the impression that Dante doesn't like that idea and sees that unfair, not just.

We see that Dante starts off lost: he has lost his road, and that road is the path of goodness and righteousness. He has lost his way in life, and he has to find the right path. He has to be a good man to go to heaven, because if you go to hell, you're punished for eternity, there’s no hope to go to heaven, as Charon emphasizes— which is another medieval outlook since it brings us back to the idea of life being a testing ground for one’s faith.