Question

Which sentence best explains Dante's intended use of symbolism in this passage?

"Because their faces turned round to their haunches
So that they were compelled to walk backwards Since they could not passably see ahead"

A) the compulsion to walk backwards represents the sinners preoccupation with practices from the primitive past.

B) The figurative language is able to make abstract ideas like compulsion more concrete for the reader.

C)the sinners head are twisted around so that they can only see where they're going by walking backwards

D) the sinners compulsion to look backwards darkly mirrors their strain attempts to see in the future in life.

Answer 1

In this excerpt from Inferno, Virgil describes the punishment of fortune tellers and false prophets. They are sinners. Dante shows how the sinners' look into their past and it mirrors their strained attempts to see their future life.