Upon first meeting Virgil in the Inferno, the Dante pilgrim says to his teacher and guide: “You alone are the one from whom I took/the noble style that was to bring me honor” (Inferno 1.86-87). Throughout the very Virgilian descent into the underworld, we find the extent to which this statement is true. Because Virgil embodies classical virtues, such as reason, piety, Latin literature, and a high authority to command through imperium, Dante could not have asked for a better companion to guide him through hell. Once we reach the Purgatorio, however, it is apparent that Virgil cannot proceed towards God. Though Dante refers to his epic poem as his “comedy,” this genre classification does not extend to all characters or all elements of his narrative. This distinction is important for Dante, who is writing in the less-elevated and more accessible vernacular, a clear contrast from his classical influences who wrote in [neither Dante nor anyone else could read Greek at that time; Greek authors were unknown to him even in translation] Latin and incorporated the higher style of tragedy. Although Dante is indeed writing a Divine Comedy with respect to plot, language, and diction, he also utilizes the tragic mode to characterize Virgil, explore the arcane divine laws governing salvation, and even justify the Roman poet’s eternal fate in the first circle of Hell.
It is tempting to take the author’s classification of his work at face value. After all, Dante does refer to his poem as “[his] comedy” in stark contrast to the “high tragedy” of Virgil’s Aeneid (Inferno 16.128, 30.113). In terms of plot, the poem is clearly a comedy. Our protagonist, the Dante pilgrim, begins his difficult journey through hell (Inferno) in order to find salvation in heaven (Paradiso). Additionally, the decision to use the vernacular over Latin appears to be a conscious effort on Dante’s part to maintain the low mode of a comedy. In his very formative book Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, Erich Auerbach echoes the misgivings readers may have on this issue: "Why do you want to rebaptize the book for me, when the author called it a Comedy?" He maintains, however, that "if its author called it a comedy because its style is low and popular, he was right in a literal sense, but in its way it is a sublime and great style”(186). Though he does not write in the elevated Latin of his classical influences, Dante does not use an elevated form of Italian as he defended in De vulgari eloquentia, either. Auerbach is fascinated by this novel use of everyday language, asserting that Dante gave the vernacular “a vigor and depth previously inconceivable,” that makes his style “immeasurably richer in directness, vigor, and subtlety” than that of his predecessors (183, 182). Even when Dante employs the Virgilian high style in the dialogue between the protagonist and his first guide, for example, in the beginning of Canto X (ll 30 -33), Virgil’s words consist “exclusively of principal clauses without any formal connection by conjunction” (Auerbach 182). According to Robert Hollander, by “carefully allowing for the use of the high style” Dante finds a “possibility of joining the two styles in a ‘mixed’ style” (244). This short, clear, and original form of writing, combined with the consistently maintained gravitas of tone, signifies the authority that Dante takes to raises the voice of his poem from low (comedy) to high (tragedy) as he desires.
Aside from its unique style, the themes which the Comedy introduces “represent a mixture of sublimity and triviality which, measured by the standards of antiquity, is monstrous” (Auerbach 184). There is perhaps no other theme that so easily hinges between tragedy and comedy than that of God’s justice in the afterlife. Much as he now “betrays a certain indecision in regard to the question of the stylistic category in which the Comedy might fall,” Dante also leaves the divine judgment of his predecessors uncertain (Auerbach 184).
Early on in the text, Dante-the-poet appears to make a very final judgment on the status of poetry in his condemnation of “virtuous pagans” to Limbo in the first circle of Hell. Here reside figures as illustrious as Caesar, Socrates, Plato, Euclid, and even “the “master sage of those who know,” Aristotle (Inferno 4.131). Also present are the “master singer[s] of the sublimest verse:” Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan(4.22). They live in a realm resembling the Elysian Fields, reserved for “honorable souls, inhabitants of Limbo”; yet they are still living within a circle of Hell (4.72). This is, of course, “for no other guilt” than for “not worship[ping] God the way one should” (4.37-38). Though the Dante-pilgrim is star-struck to be in the presence of such thinkers and considers Aristotle to represent the summit of human reason, the achievement of each “virtuous pagan” symbolizes which a human could reach on his or her own without faith in the Judeo-Christian deity. Virgil laments later on that the mistake he, along with Plato, and Aristotle, made in the mortal world was trusting “in reason to reach truth” (Purgatorio 3.42). Despite their achievements and enlightenment, the glory of the sciences and arts” was not enough to save them (Inferno 4.73). Though not visibly suffering in the afterlife, these figures are still consumed by the much greater “pain in having hope cut off” (9.17-18). This fate is perhaps the most tragic of all the eternal punishments we see in Hell.
Interestingly enough, this fate is not unique to the “virtuous pagans.” How the “virtuous pagans” currently live in Limbo is similar to how many individuals who were later released to heaven had lived – in pain but without hope – before they inherited God’s promise to Abraham. When we learn that Adam, “the first soul,” longed in “pain and in desire five thousand years and more” outside of Heaven, we hear an echo of Virgil’s revelation to the Dante-pilgrim about the “hopeless longing” and unquenchable “thirst” he “endures as endless pain” without the sight of God (Purgatorio 33.61, 3.34-44). Putting this into perspective of how the damned are periodically released from Hell by divine grace, the fate of the Limbo-dwellers seems much less permanent. According to Virgil, those in Limbo who live in the castles illuminated by a “hemisphere of light” are there because of “the honored name they bear” because their actions in the mortal world “wins Heaven’s favor for them in this place” (Inferno 4.69, 76-78). The fact that there appears to be a consideration in the afterlife for achievements in the living world indicates that the rules governing heaven are more complex and fluid than the Dante-poet initially reveals.
This puzzle is further complicated by the extent to which the Dante-pilgrim laments Virgil’s return to Limbo when it is no longer possible for him to proceed through Purgatorio. After losing his teacher, guide, and poetic father, Dante says his entire being feels the absence of the “sweet father” to whom “for my salvation I gave up my soul” (Purgatorio 50-51). After Beatrice’s rebuke, the Dante-pilgrim does not dwell on this sadness, but this burden permeates the rest of the text. Later on, Beatrice senses Dante’s sadness stemming from Virgil’s fate and encourages him to voice whatever misgivings he has regarding the divine action. “For our justice to seem unjust in moral eyes is argument of faith,” she reassures him, is not of “heretical iniquity” (Paradiso 4.67-69). The Eagle offers similar advice when Dante specifically inquires about the fate of the virtuous pagans: Restrain yourself in judging [whether or not a person is saved or will be saved], for even we who see God cannot always make such judgments” (Paradiso 20.134-135). Dante-the-poet does this to highlight the fact that beatitude is something that many in heaven can’t understand. The unfairness that the Dante-pilgrim sees in the decision is not relevant when judging a system that is beyond comprehension. Many critics, including Mowbray Allan, interpret the Eagle's message as words of "hope" signifying "that knowledge of God's final judgment on the virtuous pagans is withheld so that we might participate in it" through prayer (Allan 202). Following this school of thought, Virgil is not condemned to “eternal exile” but instead assigned a more ambiguous fate (Allan 194). In this case, Virgil’s salvation and the mortal quest for truth through reason and art are not up for our protagonist to judge.
On the other hand, the Eagle also prompts the Dante pilgrim to realize the unbelievable turn of events that would save Ripheus the Trojan, making him “the fifth of the holy lights in this circle” (Paradiso 20.67-68). There is incredible irony in the fact that Ripheus, a character in Virgil’s work, attains salvation but his literary creator is stuck in Limbo. Even crueler is the revelation that the poet Statius becomes a Christian because he reads Virgil’s work. Likewise, both Cato and Trajan either have either been intimately related to Virgil or profoundly affected by his work. If these four have been saved as a result of Virgil, why is Virgil himself not saved? As a result of his contribution to these saved souls, Dante could have easily written Virgil free from the first circle of Hell. The fact that he did not is critical to his view of salvation. Even though the author of the Aeneid has done more than anyone else to contribute to Dante’s Comedy, having done so does not automatically gain him entry to heaven. Robert Hollander stresses that Dante-the-poet did not save Virgil, “not because he lacked the boldness (one could never accuse him of poetic timidity),” but because Dante “did not believe that Virgil's work gave evidence of more than the cause for faith” (251). The fact that Virgil was able to inspire others to find salvation through Christ but did not have faith in Christ to come is itself a tragedy. The Aeneid, which symbolize a “rendering unto Caesar” and a failure to “render unto God,” is not only the single-most important work that influenced the Comedy but also the most incriminating piece of evidence used to deny its author salvation
Among the paradoxical logic and arcane rules governing salvation also exists the curious fact that the further the Dante-pilgrim travels along on his destination to heaven, the less of a hold Dante-the-poet’s codes of judgment have. Uncertainty builds up on the ascent to heaven. Dante approaches judgment in his poem with the same level of indecision that he applied to the stylistic categories characterizing his Comedy. Yet, this apparent uncertainty and indecision reflects Dante’s very definite purpose. According to Auerbach, Dante achieves his elevated style “integrating what is characteristically individual” and at times “horrible, ugly, grotesque, and vulgar with the dignity of God's judgment - a dignity which transcends the ultimate limits of our earthly conception of the sublime” (194). Although Dante relies most heavily on Virgil in order to develop his style and conception of the sublime, he approaches the matter of Virgil’s fate using more immediately present and more Christian traditions. It is through his belief in a God with definitive judgment maintaining harmony and order throughout the universe that Dante can convince himself of the righteousness of Virgil’s fate. At the same time, Dante’s use of realism to depict Virgil and other individuals residing in Hell lets us know that he intends to moves us towards sympathy for these characters. Though every judgment in the Comedy is eventually resolved by the larger comic plot that contains it, each tragic plot is heightened to a sublime capacity which allows us to empathize with the “horrible, ugly, grotesque, and vulgar” in preparation towards an eventual recognition of “the dignity of God's judgment.”
Works Cited
Allan, Mowbray. ""Does Dante Hope For Virgil's Salvation?"" MLN 104.1 (1989): 193-205. This is another article concerned with the question of the justice of Virgil's damnation. This is an interesting piece because instead of assuming that "Dante's Virgil is in fact condemned to eternal exile," Allan sees his fate being ambiguous (Allan 194). There is also a unique interpretation of the Eagle's message as words of "hope" that say "that knowledge of God's final judgment on the virtuous pagans is withheld so that we might participate in it" through prayer (202).
Auerbach, Erich. "Farinata and Cavalcante." Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2003. 174-202. Print. This text helped me better understand my other sources, particularly Robert Hollander. Auerbach illustrates the novel quality of Dante’s use of the vernacular and mixing of styles, resulting in a style “so immeasurably richer in directness, vigor, and subtlety,” than that of his predecessors (182). This essay also argues that Dante “betrays a certain indecision in regard to the question of the stylistic category in which the Comedy might fall,” and considers other instances of indecision (184). According to Auerbach, Dante’s use of realism allows us to separate individuals from their damned existences and recognize that even in Hell “there are great souls, and certain souls in Purgatory can for a moment forget the path of purification for the sweetness of a poem, the work of human frailty” (202)
Dante, Alighieri. The Portable Dante. Ed. Mark Musa. New York, NY: Penguin, 1995. Print. This is the edition of the Divine Comedy I am using for my research. Even though Dante calls this poem his "comedy” (Inferno 16.128), there is still considerable tragedy taking place throughout the narrative. When I first read this text, the fate of the "virtuous pagans," especially that of Virgil, seemed especially tragic. I plan to explore this tragedy and discover other tragic elements in the poem through my research.
Hollander, Robert. ""Tragedy in Dante's Comedy"" The Sewanee Review 91.2 (1983): 240-60. This source was especially thorough in its discussion of modes and how they related to tragedies and comedies. Hollander theorizes that it is possible for the work to be both a comedy and a tragedy. By “carefully allowing for the use of the high style” he thinks that Dante achieves the “possibility of joining the two styles in a ‘mixed’ style” (244). Also interesting was Hollander's assertion that, with respect to plot, "all of the Comedy is comic and the tragic plots, narrated by their protagonists in hell, are resolved by the larger comic plot which contains them" (245). This made me question how Virgil's plot was resolved by the end.
Letivan, Alan. "Dante as Listener, Cato's Rebuke, and Virgil's Self-Reproach." Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society 103.1985 (1985): 37-55. This article discusses the "self-reproach" Virgil feels after Cato rebukes everyone listening to Casella's song in Purgatory. Letivan also notes how the Casella episodes are very influenced by Virgil's descriptions of the temple of Juno at Carthage and the Temple of Apollo at Cumae in the Aeneid. It is interesting how Virgil is "less at fault morally than Dante-the-pilgrim" by lingering because "it is not Virgil's but Dante's salvation that is the issue in this poem" and Virgil shouldn't take Cato's rebuke as "consciously and personally directed towards himself" (52). Here, Virgil is less of a guide than he was in Hell - "Virgil is as much a newcomer, a stranger, to this classically unimaginable realm of purgatory as Dante himself" and thus finds himself "subject to errors, lapses, and temptations grounded in his sensibility and his spiritual and artistic past (53).