In Canto VIII
Virgil embraces and kisses Dante - something he hadn't done even
when, at the beginning of the Inferno, Dante faced three fierce
beasts and was fearing for his life. Virgil does even more than
embrace Dante: he says to him, “blessed is the woman who carried
you in her womb.” Now Dante's mother is being equated to the mother
of Christ.
And what did Dante
do to merit such bombastic praise? He rebuked the damned soul Filippo
Argenti. We can sympathize: Argenti took Dante's possessions after
he had been exiled from Florence. But Dante, and the Pagan Virgil, go
too far. Dante says “I really would like to see Argenti torn apart
with my own eyes,” and Virgil spurs him on. Pity the Coliseum is
not nearby, they could have had a good time throwing Argenti to the
lions. Argenti is already suffering in Hell for eternity. Are we
supposed to approve of Dante (the character) and Virgil's behavior?
I think Dante the
writer wanted us to say, “wait a minute, this is not right.”
That's why he makes the scene so exaggerated, with Virgil hugging and
kissing, and “protecting” Dante from a soul who can do nothing
against him ( he kicks Argenti from the boat).
A few minutes after
the incident, the two travelers arrive at the city of Dis, and they
are denied entrance. The fallen angels that guard it tell Dante to
turn back alone – he has failed anyway – and they tell Virgil he
must stay in their citadel with them. Why? There is logic in their
mockery. The devils have a high opinion of themselves and they never
showed compassion to other beings; and here is another great man, the
poet Virgil, who just demonstrated cruelty to a soul, and seems just
as arrogant as the inhabitants of this part of Hell. He fits right
in.
In the next canto,
the IX, Virgil tells Dante that they cannot pass through the door
without a fight – actually he says without “fury,” (“ira”
in Italian), and he awaits an angel who should give those devils a
lesson. Instead, a different type of winged creature arrives,
precisely the three “furies” which Virgil has unwittingly
conjured up. And they turn against our heroes. God has a sense of
humor.
Now Dante is really
afraid, as he was in the first canto. But here he does not use the
word “fear,” “paura,” which he had used repeatedly when he
described the encounter with the first three beasts. Here he uses the
word “vilta', ” which in Italian denotes the kind of cowardice
that turns people into bullies.
The next scene is
hilarious, with Dante and Virgil behaving childishly like Gilgamesh
and Enkidu (the two Sumerians who were boastful against the gods,
even threw a leg of mutton at them, and were sorely punished).
The
image of Dante turning to the wall because he fears the Gorgon is
going to arrive and “petrify” him – and on top of that he
covers his eyes, and then Virgil covers Dante's eyes too, is worthy
of Groucho Marx.
Here Dante addresses his readers directly, saying
that they have to notice the allegorical sense of this scene. I
believe the meaning is that fear blinds us, and reason alone can
blind us too. In desperate circumstances, faith and compassion are
what is needed, and Dante realizes that in this “test” he has
lacked in both. How easy it has been, under Argenti's provocation,
to go from rightful indignation to self- righteous violence!
Instead of the
Gorgon, the awaited angel arrives, opens the door of Dis without
effort, and does not deign to even glance at Dante. So much for
“blessed is the woman who carried you in her womb.”
What I like of the
Inferno is that Dante the character is not perfect. He is still
experiencing and learning. He is not preaching – otherwise he would
have chosen St. Augustine, or the like, to be his guide instead of
Virgil (and we would have snored).
Dante learns his
lesson. When he meets Farinata and Cavalcanti in canto X, even under
provocation (“who's your daddy?” asks Farinata, and “why is my
son not with you, since he is just as smart?” asks Cavalcanti)
Dante will treat them both with respect. And we the readers like
Dante again.
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