Canto I-V

Dante's inferno begins, "Midway on our life's journey, I found myself In dark woods, the right road lost. To tell about those woods is hard-so tangled and rough" (Canto I. 1-3). This first stanza I think summarizes the intricate allegory that Dante is going to unfold throughout the poem. Dante links his own personal experience to that of all humanity by saying, "our life's journey." The dark woods symbolize sinful life on Earth, and the “right road” refers to the virtuous life that leads to God. Dante is in a deep internal conflict, describing himself as lost and on the wrong road. The right road symbolizes the holy path of righteousness. The leopard or fraud came and "stayed before [his] face." Next a lion or anger, came "...at [him], his head high as he ran. (Cantos I. 25-39)." Lastly the she-wolf or incontinence "whose leanness seemed to compress All the world's cravings, that had made miserable." These are the internal sins that haunt Dante and prevent him from traveling the "right path."
Reader' become interested in the mystery surrounding the women mentioned by the narrator. "Lucy, the foe Of every cruelty, found me where I sat with Rachel of old, and urged me: 'Beatrice, true" (Canto II. 79-81).
Virgil is also a poet and tells Dante that "the good of intellect" is something he values, and something seldom seen in hell and that they commit to nothing. "Chose neither side, but kept themselves apart-now heaven expels them, tot to mar its splendor and hell rejects them, lest the wicked of heart" (Canto III. 34-39). Dante feels bad for the lovers and states, "Francesca, your suffering makes me weep For sorrow and pity-but tell me, in the hours of sweetest sighing, how and in what shape or manner did love first show you those desires so hemmed by doubt?" This shows how Dante acknowledges the lovers sin but still weeps for them out of pity. While the punishments suffered by the damned may be “just,” the text nevertheless emphasizes the pity and fear felt by the character Dante when witnessing them.