Who is the foil to Dante in The Inferno, and why is that person the foil?

As a
literary device, a foil is a character
that contrasts and emphasizes the qualities of another
character, generally
the . True foils always have a number of things in common with the other

foil, but differ enough that both characters become more interestingusually they have
different
world views or temperaments.

In
Inferno, Dante has no
foil. He is the author, the point
of view character, the protagonist, and the lover of the
story. It would be
difficult for any single character to have enough in common with him that

their differences become engaging. It is also difficult for Dante to have a foil since
he is
traveling through different circles of Hell, not stopping for too long
at any one. He meets a
large swath of characters, but the reader does not get
enough time with any of them to form a
deeper sense of their world
views.

If Dante did have a foil in

Inferno, it would be Virgil. Virgil is his guide through hell and
the one
characterbesides Dante himselfwho the reader gets to spend a lot of
time with (Beatrice does not
factor in more prominently until
Purgatorio and
Paradiso). Virgil is
a poet like Dante, and he is clearly one whom Dante
admired. The reason
Virgil is not allowed to go into Heaven is because he was a Roman poet and

therefore a pagan.

If Virgil is Dantes foil, then the lesson to be
learned
from contrasting them might be that where and when a person is born
can make a tremendous
difference in their lifeand
afterlife.