Dante's Inferno is indeed a religious allegory. Dante is involved in a spiritual journey which will take him down to the fiery depths of hell, through Purgatory, and then finally up into the Empyrean realm of the blessed. During his trip to hell, Dante encounters a number of people who've been consigned to the inferno for the sins they've committed on earth. Some sinners are presented more sympathetically than others. Paolo and Francesca have been sent to hell on account of their adultery, yet there's little doubt that they have true feelings for each other. In the Seventh Circle of hell, where people are sent for the sin of committing acts of violence, notable characters from history such as Alexander the Great are permanently sunk in a river of boiling blood and fire.
But whatever sins have been committed, and whatever punishments are meted out to the sinners, all the shades that Dante encounters in the Inferno share one thing in common: they have turned away from God. Dante the Christian pilgrim wants to warn his readers of the dangers of what will happen if they too choose to follow such a foolish path.
An allegory is meant to be interpreted with a hidden meaning. The Inferno is meant to give Dante's view of sin by showing the punishments of sins. Dante points out the corruption of various popes by placing them in Hell. Dante's take on the punishment for the Seven Deadly Sins is rational, thus implying that God is rational as well. Dante begins his story in a dark wood--the deeper meaning here is that the author was going through a crisis in life. Dante's trip through Hell allowed him time to examine life and that all of humanity was guilty of some sort of sin. To Dante, the greatest sin of all was disloyalty, which explains why he placed Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius in the middle of Hell. Dante's native city of Florence was going through religious and civil strife. Dante's version of Hell serves as a commentary on what he witnessed in Florence.
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