Inferno by Dante Alighieri

“Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself

In dark woods, the right road lost”

These famous lines, narrated by Dante, open Inferno and immediately establish the
allegorical plane on which the story’s meaning unfolds (I.1–2). The use of such potent words as
“journey” and “right road” signifies the religious aspect of Dante’s impending adventure and quickly
notifies us that we are leaving the realm of the literal. Likewise, the image of being lost in “dark
woods” sets up a clear dichotomy between the unenlightened ignorance involved in a lack of faith in
God and the clear radiance provided by God’s love. The simple contrast between the “dark woods,”
which embody Dante’s fear, and the “right road,” which embodies Dante’s confidence in God, makes
his challenge clear—he sets out to look for God in a sinful world. His reference to “our life”
contributes to the allegorical level of Inferno: the journey upon which Dante is embarking is not
solely his but rather that of every human being. He describes his journey in only the vaguest of
terms, with no mention of where he is coming from or where he is heading, because he believes that
this journey is one that every individual undertakes so as to understand his or her sins and find his or
her peace with God.

SYNOPSIS

In the novel Inferno by Dan Brown, Harvard professor Robert Langdon is recruited by the
World Health Organization (WHO) to help locate a deadly pathogen. The virus is believed to have
been created by Bertrand Zobrist, a Transhumanist who thought that the world was in danger of
collapse because of overpopulation. Zobrist had led Elizabeth Sinskey, director of the WHO, to
believe he had created a plague to cull the population. Sinskey hoped to find and contain the
contagion before it had tragic effects.

Sinskey’s plan for Langdon to help locate the pathogen was quickly derailed when he was
detained by the provost, a man who had provided a sanctuary in which Zobrist could work. The
provost and his people wiped Langdon’s memory. They told him that he had retrograde amnesia
caused by a gunshot wound to his scalp, and they provided an altered form of reality in which they
convinced Langdon that the people sent by Sinskey to find him were trying to kill him.

Using cryptic clues that Dante enthusiast Zobrist has left, Langdon and his new friend Sienna
Brooks tracked the virus to the city of Istanbul. Before they could travel to that city, Langdon and
Sienna were separated when Langdon was captured by the men working with Sinskey. Sinskey and
the provost, who had begun working together after the provost showed Sinskey a chilling video
Zobrist had requested to be released to the media, convinced Langdon that no one was trying to kill
him and that they were all on the same side, with the exception, perhaps, of Sienna.

Langdon learned the shocking reality that Sienna had actually been Zobrist’s lover and disciple.
Believing that Sienna had wanted to find the plague so she could keep Sinskey’s men from
containing it, Langdon and the others discover the place where Zobrist left his virus — a cistern in
Istanbul that had become a tourist attraction. Zobrist had sponsored a symphony orchestra to play
the Dante Symphony, a musical rendition of Dante’s Inferno, at that cistern for a period of one week,
in order to draw the maximum number of tourists. After encountering Sienna on her way out of the
cistern, one of the disease control workers discovered the bag containing the plague had already
ruptured. Langdon followed Sienna because he believed that she had intentionally ruptured the
bag.When Sienna finally stopped running from Langdon, she told Langdon the bag had already burst
when she arrived. She had known what type virus Zobrist had made and had wanted to stop it from
being released. Seeing that she was sincere, Langdon coaxed Sienna to work with Sinskey and the
WHO to help them understand and deal with the aftermath of the virus Zobrist had created.