Mrs. Dalloway 8

• "He could reason; he could read, Dante for example, quite easily ("Septimus, do put down your book," said Rezia, gently shutting the Inferno)." (p. 88)

Inferno is Italian for “Hell” and here, Virginia Woolf is alluding to Dante’s poem Divine Comedy. The poem is divided into three parts, Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. The first part of the poem, Inferno, describes the acknowledgment and rejection of sin. In summary, the poem describes the journey of Dante through his medieval perception of Hell which is portrayed as nine circles of misery within the Earth. To develop his character, Woolf has Septimus, who shows signs of insanity, read something with deep meaning rather than a book which discusses a lighter subject.

Works Cited:
"Inferno (Dante)." Wikipedia. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante).

Photo Credit:
Photograph. Word Search with Adair Jones. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. http://adairjones.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/william_blake_dantes_inferno_whirlwind_of_lovers.jpg.