Chapter 11: Death
The symbol of Death does not play a major role in the Commedia and is barely mentioned in Inferno 3:57. This is simply because this is a mystical journey that Dante takes during his lifetime, not after his death. The souls he meets are already dead. The event of death itself does not enter the storyline. As a result, symbolic traditions associated with the Dance of Death do not seem to have played a part in his thinking and I have not found the traditional symbols of Death among the illustrations.
Nevertheless, Freccero (1986) argues that the concept of conversion is an underlying theme of the work. Death and resurrection are critical steps in the conversion, represented symbolically by the journey into Hell and the climb up Mount Purgatory. Freccero (1986) feels that this basic theme is presented at the very beginning of the work. Dante is trying to climb directly out of the dark wood toward the sun. Virgil tells him that he must first journey downward into the Inferno (mystical death) and then through Purgatory to Paradise (resurrection). So, at the mystical level of interpretation, the Commedia is a story of death and resurrection.
The significance of the moment of death does enter the Commedia is several places. In Inferno 27, St. Francis appears to claim the soul of newly dead friar Guido. But a devil appears and fights for the soul. The demon wins because final repentance at the moment of death did not occur. In the Purgatorio, Dante meets a number of souls who repented at the moment of death and were saved, though they still have to do penance in the after-life.
Basically, we must conclude that although the concept of death appears, the traditional symbol never does – neither in the poem nor in the tradition of illustrations. The Tarot Death card doesn't come from Dante's illustrations.
Continue >>