Dante

While many people perceive Dante's Inferno to be a religious novel that questions the ideas of heaven and hell, I believe that Dante's novel is a political one. He grew up in Renaissance Florence. At the time, it was a thriving, but not peaceful place. There were conflicts between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor. Both wanted to have the most power, and be supported by the people. Two groups formed in Florence, the …

…poetic license, and made himself look as good as possible, while pointing out all of the problems with society. He got to decide who got punished and how badly, and thus was able to indicate how he felt on most issues. While I don't agree with most of the message that he was trying to convey, I respect very much the fact that he was brilliant enough to do it in such a subtle manner.