Dante, Hell, and Overpopulation. For eccentric scientist-madman-villain
Bertrand Zobrist, the modern version of Dante’s hell is global overpopulation. Zobrist
contends that the Black Death or the Plague—which actually occurred in Florence and
Venice about 25 years after Dante died—is the touchstone for the world’s contemporary
apocalypse. Acting and writing as though he has been driven by Dante, an anonymous
person begins his DVD-recorded suicide message in Brown’s prologue with “I am the
Shade, through the dolent city I flee, Through the eternal woe I take flight.” This verse
references the shades as bodiless souls of Dante’s Inferno and the need to flee the city,
just as Dante fled from Florence due to political strife in the late 13th century.
Initially, Zobrist’s identify and background are unknown to Langdon—and to the
reader. As the architecture of the novel is revealed, through an uploaded DVD we are
led to the interior of a cave with red hues and an underwater plaque inscribed with the
following:
“IN THIS PLACE, ON THIS DATE
THE WORLD CHANGED FOREVER.”
This same clue appears at least five times throughout the novel, reinforcing Brown’s use
of repetition to foreshadow the unraveling of the mystery while increasing the su