Weber 1
Alex Weber
English 192
Response Paper #1: Inferno, Cantos 1-3
Wouldn’t we all be satisfied if there was someone who had the capability to go to hell,
wherever it may be if at all, and that person could return to earth to tell us about what was
seen and where they had been? Not necessarily, at least that takes away the fun and curiosity
that is so prevalent in our human minds. Not knowing the beyond allows for people to analyze
writings such as Dante’s Inferno, and/ or make their own claims for what hell could be. In the
first three cantos of Dante’s story and vision of going to hell, Dante reached the entrance to
hell, only to be introduced to what hell was proclaimed to be before him and his guide, Virgil, in
big writing. What was written on the gate might also reveal Dante’s views on the forsaken place
