The Inferno is the first of three parts of Dante's epic poem, The Divine Comedy, which depicts an imaginary journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Dante is the hero, who loses his way in the "dark woods" and journeys to nine regions arranged around the wall of a huge funnel in nine concentric circles representing Hell. He is led by the ghost of Virgil, the Roman poet, who has come to rescue Dante from the dark forest and lead him through the realms of the afterlife. The first circle they enter is Limbo, which consists of heathen and the unbaptized, who led decent lives. The second through the fifth circles are for the lustful, gluttonous, prodigal, and wrathful. The sixth circle is where heretics are punished. The seventh circle is devoted to the punishment of violence. The eighth is devoted to those guilty of fraud and the ninth for those who betrayed others. In the last section, Satan remains imprisoned in a frozen lake. The journey is difficult and full of revelations, disappointment and questions, but yet they persevere. Due to the fact that Dante poured his heart and soul into his writing, there are many representations of his personal life and the time in which he lived, in this piece of literature. Whether they were someone that betrayed him in his political career or the girl that he fell in love with when he was nine years old. He saw her only twice but she provided much inspiration for his literary masterpieces. Her death at a young age left him grief-stricken. He found a way to integrate these experiences into the Inferno. Dante considers trust and loyalty to be one of the most important human characteristics. He basically felt this way due to the point that he was betrayed and exiled away from his beloved homeland. It is because of this that he places perpetrators at the center of hell. The end of their journey leads Dante and Virgil to the bottom of Hell where Lucifer is seen in all his ugliness and they are drawn...
