The Inferno: Structure and Format

In Dante’s Inferno, a reader can obviously tell that this book is well written and
expertly versed. The different literary devices, such as allegories, metaphors, similes, and
irony are clearly placed throughout Dante’s journey through Hell. For example, the simile
“I like here rotting like a swollen log…” (pg. 67, Canto VI line 51) puts Ciacco’s
punishment in Circle 3 in a whole new perspective: because of his gluttony on Earth, his
soul is eternally eaten away by Hell. The Inferno shows the complexity and the
knowledge behind Dante’s writing, and it really gets the reader to be more involved in the
text.

An evident thing that Dante uses in the Inferno is the terza rima poetry form. This
style is characterized by being hendecasyllabic and using tercets in the rhyme for aba,
bcb, cdc… Here is a clear example of this poetry structure:
“As a hungry cur will set the echoes raving
And then fall still when he is thrown a bone,
All of his clamor being in his craving” (pg. 67, Canto VI lines 28-30).
Now as you can see, only the words “raving” and “craving” rhyme, but the rhyming
sound will definitely be changed in the next phrase. To stick to this style, one must have a
thorough knowledge of various synonyms and different was to rearrange words. What
this simile basically explains is that the gluttons, during their life on Earth, sought to
consume, and their needs were only satisfied by gaining what they wanted.

Another element that Dante uses to both tell the story and engage the reader is by
using the first person point of view. This allows the reader to really connect and get
involved in what Dante undergoes throughout his journey through the various realms of
Hell. In Circle 3, Dante said that viewing the suffering souls of the gluttons “…calls my
soul to tears” (pg. 67, Canto VI line 56). This personification is used in an attempt to get
the reader to feel Dante’s personal empathy toward the condemned souls. From this point
of view, I felt that by reading it, we were supposed to find a moral guideline to mold our
own lives after to escape Hell’s eternal punishment. With Dante’s use of literary devices,
structuring his story in the terza rima format, and telling it from the first person point of
view, it shows Dante’s skill and mastery of all techniques in writing literature.