It should be understood, I think, that Dante’s vision of Hell (as well as his vision of Purgatory and Heaven) while intended to communicate a spiritual reality, does not require, and indeed does not wish for, a conforming of the reader’s imagination to that of his own. Moreover, any reader who approaches Dante’s work should remember that God alone, shrouded in mystery, knows the fate of any soul, that we are not privy to the shape of his mercy, and that no sinner can be so far from his providence as to certainly be damned, at least not from our limited perspective.