Canti 27-34, Quote #2

2) “If once he was as fair as now he’s foul and dared to raise his brows against his Maker, it is fitting that all grief should spring from him. Oh, how amazed I was when I looked up and saw a head – one head wearing three faces! One was in front (and that was bright red), the other two attached themselves to this one just above the middle of each shoulder, and at the crown all three were joined in one: The right face was a blend of white and yellow, the left the color of those peoples skin who live along the river Nile’s descent,”(Canto 34, lines 34-45).

Here, the imagery of the terrible Lucifer, who was once considered God’s finest angel, is now the exact opposite since his pride pitted him against the Almighty. Thus he sits, stuck upside down in the pits of hell, inner earth, beating his wings so that the innermost circle of hell is frozen over.

The three faces I interpret to be another perversion of the trinity. And the colors of the faces also provide insight into the greater meaning of the text. Although there have been many interpretations about the meaning of Lucifer’s face colors, I am in accordance with the meaning which shows each color to represent something opposite of divinity.

1. God: One part of the holy trinity representing Highest Wisdom and Enlightenment. This could be pitted against the darkness of ignorance, represented by Lucifer’s black face.
2. Jesus: Representative of divine omnipotence is compared to Lucifer’s yellow face, as yellow is the color of impotence.
3. Holy Spirit: Representative also of love and the spirit of Jesus and God living within those who follow the path to divinity is conversely representative by Lucifer’s red face of hatred or envy.

The punishments of the sinners in hell all are the opposite or parallel of the sins they committed. Thus, Lucifer is dwells in the place furthest from Heaven, unable to move, constantly weeping and beating his once-angelic wings to promote the suffering of those he suffers alongside. We see that Lucifer suffers most of all, that he has no power (despite those who fear Lucifer and his evil may believe otherwise). Dante shows that God truly is the almighty with complete power because he conquers and condemns all kinds of evil in hell and suffering.

With the end of The Inferno, I think that Dante and Virgil’s journey opened my eyes to the truth of sin and evil: it is not an uncontrollable entity or disease, it is within all of us and also within our control. What I mean is that I believe, as Dante seems to, that people are not innately evil. Instead, within all of us are good and evil parts of our soul, it is our choices in life that dictate our fate and everyone is born with the ability to achieve divinity. We need to conduct ourselves with reason and logic, we cannot fall victim to greed, lust, sloth, etc., and we also cannot be distracted by pleasure and pain. We need to rise above our animalistic instincts and create temperate souls within ourselves so that the “good parts” of our soul have control over the “bad parts.”

Our journey to heaven or hell is within our control, Dante wants us to use his literature to journey to make the decisions to lead us to divinity and paradise. Not to get caught up in all the temptations life presents us with.