Dante's Inferno

In Canto 3 of The Divine Comedy: Inferno, the pilgrim, and Virgil arrive at the gate of hell. They enter and as Virgil explains, the souls who had no goal in life, no direction, no intellect to choose God, reside here. They are the neutrals. They move along until they reach the river of Acheron where Charon, after a bit of hesitation, takes them across to the other side. On this side, there is an earthquake which causes Dante, the pilgrim, to faint. In this canto, Dante takes us through the pilgrim's journey of education through hell's entrance by the usage of irony and by the expression of fear and courage.
When arriving at the gate of hell, the first thing Dante sees is the inscription on the gate, which reads,
Through me you pass into the …show more content…
But, when Virgil says to Charon, “Charon, thyself torment not: so ‘tis willed, Where will and power are one: ask thou no more,(Inferno:Canto3,89-90)” it seems as though the pilgrim has been chosen by God to take this journey through hell, and you would think that someone chosen by God would be of the best fit; someone who wouldn’t be like the pilgrim who is always scared and does not seem to have any courage. Nevertheless, through his journey in this cantos, the pilgrim becomes fearful of many things, but he becomes courageous due to Virgil. The pilgrim is not educated at this point and knows nothing of hell. His only support is Virgil, his guide, and although Virgil may never lie to the pilgrim, Virgil is sometimes wrong, thus causing more fear to enter the pilgrim. The pilgrim feels fear at the gates of hell due to the “warning” sign but Virgil is there to ease his fear and educate him about what the sign means to say. He also seems to feel fear and sorrow when he hears and sees the condition of these souls; yet again Virgil is there to ease his emotions by educating him on the fates of those souls and by telling him to ignore them because they are being punished mercifully and justly. Next, he feels fear when Charon is telling him to leave because he is a living soul, and telling him that this is a place for dead souls who have no chance to “see the sky again (Inferno: Canto3,79).” His fear is turned to hope when Virgil hints to him that he is a good soul, but is a good soul who has a long journey ahead of him. Lastly, when he crosses over to the other side with Virgil and there is an earthquake, he faints because of the fear present in him. At this point in the pilgrim's journey, he is susceptible to fear because he is an unknown to this new world of God's