# The Devil — The Inferno character guide

> The Devil in The Inferno by August Strindberg.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Robert the Devil

**First appearance:** 0014-xi-hell-let-loose

## Snapshot

The Prince of this world who trades virtue for crosses and stakes, tempting a soul already half-convinced its suffering is a bad joke.

## Who they are

In the narrator's hellish visions, the Devil presides as both accuser and prosecutor, the power who condemns mortals to wickedness and rewards virtue with sleeplessness and dreadful dreams. He works through a Babel of authorities — Augustine, Aquinas, Luther — all insisting demons are real and busy, which makes the narrator's own journal entries feel less like invention and more like evidence. His presence forces the central question of the early arc: if the Punisher exists, are the sins being punished even remembered, or are they committed somewhere else entirely?

## In the story

### [The Inferno](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_inferno_se/chapters/the-inferno)

Implied as the tormentor in the narrator's persecution.

### [VI: Hell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_inferno_se/chapters/vi-hell)

The narrator refers to a 'Satanic coincidence' regarding the doctor's axes and guns, reinforcing his sense of being in hell.

### [VIII: Swedenborg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_inferno_se/chapters/viii-swedenborg)

Attributed as the source of the narrator's torments and the discord in his life.

### [IX: Extracts from the Diary of a Damned Soul](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_inferno_se/chapters/ix-extracts-from-the-diary-of-a-damned-soul)

Referred to as 'Robert the Devil' and 'Satanic chance'; the narrator suspects diabolical persecution.

### [XII: Pilgrimage and Penance](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_inferno_se/chapters/xii-pilgrimage-and-penance)

The narrator attributes the persecutory noises and electric currents to the Devil.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_inferno_se/characters/the_devil
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_inferno_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_inferno_se/characters