The Christian canon contains two influential epic poems which have depicted their authors’ visions of hell and Satan. They were in many ways reflective of the dual nature of western Christianity and the split of the Protestant reformation. Dante Alighieri was a Catholic writer from Florence, Italy. He wrote his poem, Inferno, in the high middle ages, at a time when Italy was divided into many city-states. He would be expelled from his own city due to political interest, and much to his irritation, never return.
John Milton, who wrote the epic poem Paradise Lost on the other hand, was a Protestant writer from London, England. He was a deeply religious Protestant who lived through the English Civil war and the dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell over the British Isles, serving as an official in the Republican government. The two men were also similar in many ways. Both were solidly middle class and made their livings by writing, and both lived through times of large turmoil in their countries, witnessing personally what many today might define as a sort of hell. As such, their depictions of Satan, king of the Christian underworld, differ in many aspects, but in others are fairly similar. Their two hells are deeply reflective not just of their theological differences but also of their personal similarities.
In Inferno, hell is divided up into nine paralel rings, with satan living in a kingdom of ice at the bottom. He is described to have three heads, and was said to have once been the most beautiful angel until he was cast down to hell by God. Dante exclaims upon seeing him “If he was once as handsome as he now is ugly and despite that, raised his brows against his Maker, one can understand how every sorrow has its source in him!” This is an exclamation from a narrator who is sometimes unfeeling and numbed in the face of human suffering. Also what is interesting are the physics of Dante’s Satan. It is a likely combination of the physical and abstract into the metaphor of ice which shows Dante’s personal hell: a state of living.
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This definition is influenced both by Dante’s Catholic theology and his personal situation. Catholicism is a very rule-based form of Christianity, even more so in Dante’s time than now in modern day society. It would make sense then that Satan, like all else, gets a very specific punishment that is literally the opposite of all Dante views as good in a physical sense. Additionally, the fractured and group nature of Dante’s hell, and his putting Satan in the darkest, deepest corner might signify both the highly stratified medieval society he lived in and his fractured, if beloved Italy.
Milton’s Satan is profoundly different from that of Dante. In Milton’s hell, Satan is also a fallen angel, who was also once “above the rest, in shape and gesture,” and “matchless but with the almighty.” However, his depiction of hell is rather different. It is far less categorized than that of Dante’s, and his work is more concerned with telling the origin story of Satan. It is explained that Satan chose to turn against God, and that they had a furious battle for three days over heaven. This is reflective in large part of the larger Protestant belief that while there should be no obligation in belief (of course, this was just that-a belief, not a reality), but that one should then be prepared to live with the consequences of choosing godlessness.
Furthermore, the nature of the struggle may have been influenced by the English Civil War, which Milton had been a witness to. Therefore, it presents the idea that hell is not a necessity for all people, and that we can choose God and heaven. Satan is portrayed in some respects like a tragic hero, and that is quite different from any of Dante’s sinner. There is far more character development than Dante’s rather simple description of Satan’s physical likeness and casual backstory. This is perhaps due to the importance of personal belief in Protestant theology.
The differences between these two works are evident. We see two different styles of narrative and structurings of hell. Where Inferno is extremely detailed, Paradise Lost can be very vague. An illustrative example of this is Milton’s description of hell to be “Regions of sorrow, sorrowful shades, where peace and rest can never dwell, hope never comes.” This description is so loose and open to interpretation, whereas Dante actually introduces an entire new character, Virgil, in part to explain his extended vision of Hell. Furthermore, Dante describes Satan as something essentially unhuman, saying “I marveled when I saw that, on his head / he had three faces.” This is in obvious contrast to Milton, who definitely takes a more human approach to Lucifer, showing that perhaps while Dante’s work was more oriented towards a general societal vision of hell, Milton’s was far more personal.
