Inferno

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 9

Chapters 10-18

Chapters 19-27

Chapters 28-40

Chapters 41-50

Chapters 51-60

Chapters 61-70

Chapters 71-80

Chapters 81-90

Chapters 91-99

Chapter 100-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Denial and Moral Neutrality as Harmful Defense Mechanisms

As hinted by the epigraph, the act of claiming moral neutrality in a time of crisis is the central human theme of Inferno. In Chapter 50, Sienna argues that denial is the primary foundation upon which each character’s predilection for moral neutrality stands.

Inferno argues that the twin vices of denial and moral neutrality are especially insidious as they do not normally present as conscious sins but as defense mechanisms encoded in humans to protect them against the anxieties of becoming over-conscious of the world around them. With the overpopulation issue, for instance, the sheer magnitude of the problem—and knowledge of humanity’s historical tendency to turn to prejudice, elitism, and violence to address the issue—are indecipherable enough that most of the characters outside of Zobrist and Sienna refuse to consider overpopulation an immediate issue, even when shown hard data of the severity of exponential growth.

Inferno approaches the varying reprehensibility of steadfast moral neutrality by exploring it in three characters in particular: Langdon, Sinskey, and the provost. Langdon’s denial of the overpopulation issue appears to be the most forgivable as it largely stems from his novice knowledge and relative powerlessness to solve the problem, as shown when Sienna introduces Zobrist’s theories in Chapter 50. While Sienna scolds him for leaning on this denial, Langdon also has no experience in population control or any actionable scientific background whatsoever—in essence, he has about the same number of tools to address the issue as the average reader.

Dr. Sinskey, meanwhile, is shown in her flashbacks with Zobrist to be fully aware of the issue at hand and more empowered than most others on the planet to address it but fails to do so by adequate means due to her belief that the problem is unsolvable by acceptable means. This defeatism serves as the foundation for her denial and claim of moral neutrality in the face of the crisis, as she can chalk it up to “human nature” and remove blame from herself. Sinskey’s realization that such inaction and denial can be harmful—especially as it went so far as to ostracize Zobrist and inadvertently force him to create the Inferno virus—inspires her to abandon her neutrality and address the problem directly at the novel’s end.

The provost, at last, is shown to be the most reprehensible of the trio. Not only is his justification for his entire career supported solely by his belief that the actions of his clients are not his responsibility, but when he does finally decide to take a more proactive role in the crisis, it is solely due to its endangerment of his freedom and career. His failed escape attempt at the end of the novel further damns him, as it shows he was prepared to continue claiming his moral neutrality as soon as he was able to escape the dangers of Zobrist’s plot.

Overpopulation and Thomas Malthus

Arguably, Inferno’s most powerful moment comes in Chapter 22 during Sinskey’s flashback to her first meeting with Zobrist when the biochemist displays hard data illustrating the staggering rise in the global human population in recent years. As discovered by Laurence Knowlton in Chapter 33 and described by Sienna in Chapter 50, a central figure inspiring Zobrist’s approach to solving this problem turns out to be the late-18th, early-19th-century thinker, Thomas Malthus.

The lynchpin of Zobrist’s approach is his belief that as resources become more abundant humanity will always use them to further propagate its numbers rather than work to regulate its reproduction and safeguard the livelihoods of its individuals. This is commonly known as the “Malthusian trap,” which also postulates that such growth will continue at an exponential rate even if the accrual of resources does not concordantly increase, which inevitably leads to a population decline via catastrophe. Malthus believed, as Zobrist does, that there are only two actions that can be taken by humanity to avoid this trap: either encourage circumstances that increase the death rate or circumstances that decrease the birth rate. While all the characters outside of Sienna worry for most of the novel that Zobrist has embraced the former tactic, he in fact elected for the latter.

Despite the powerful evidence of the reality of the overpopulation crisis, it also takes care to point out some of the more controversial aspects of Malthusian philosophy. In particular, it is emphasized that almost all attempts to apply Malthus’s theories in the real world have resulted in unspeakable misery, stoked by unjustifiable prejudice: Nazi Germany’s perpetration of the Holocaust, the genocide of Indigenous Americans in the name of Manifest Destiny, and China’s one-child policy are all examples of governments and other organizations applying Malthusian strategies to curb population growth. Zobrist’s strategy of random sterilization may be free from many of the prejudices that have fed such catastrophes, but it is still criticized by all the other ensemble characters at the end of the novel, both because of the viral vector method he co-opted to carry it out and because of the nonconsensual nature of what he has done. In his creation of the Inferno virus, Zobrist appears to have leaned on a belief that his work to decrease birth rates rather than increasing death rates will serve as means better justified by their ends. Langdon argues that the Inferno virus is a desecration of the laws of nature while Sienna argues that all human action is a part of the laws of nature. The novel leaves any definitive answers to these questions for the reader to discover on their own.

Western Scientific Advancement Versus Euro-Christian Traditions

This theme is central to the Robert Langdon series and provides kindling for all of the novels’ conflicts. In Inferno’s case, the fuel it provides for the plot is outlined in Chapter 22 during Sinskey’s first meeting with Zobrist.

As part of that discussion, Zobrist asks Sinskey to explain what actions the WHO has taken to curb exponential population growth in its policies and global interventions. Sinskey points to the WHO’s role in promoting contraception and other family planning techniques in “third-world” countries, where she and Zobrist each claim the most rapid growth is occurring.

However, she also admits to Zobrist that these techniques are often sabotaged by religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church, which carries an outsized influence on many of the nations in question and which frowns on contraception as anathema to its doctrines. This has created a stalemate between the two factions that Zobrist argues will continue to favor the Church and faster propagation so long as the WHO and other similarly empowered organizations are unwilling to apply Malthusian principles to the issue.

This stalemate and his perception of the problem’s urgency are what finally inspire Zobrist to take up the cause of his own accord, applying said principles without oversight. The novel thus makes the argument—as all books in the Langdon series do—that so long as this dichotomy between scientific and traditional/religious thinking remains unaddressed, the Western world will continue to find addressing hard truths and crises more and more difficult, thus breeding conflict and empowering those on the fringe.