	When a work is written in the first person, the author, who may double as the narrator, has an important role in shaping the tone of his work,  for it is through him that the author relays all information.  The author's tone and that of the narrator become one and the same in this case, but the it is the author who creates the tone, and his character exists only as it's medium.  This tone, as set up in the first Canto of the "Inferno," is trepidatious and mysterious, pervaded by a fear of what is not known.
	When Dante first describes what he awakens to, it is with a slightly bewildered tone.  The nature of his new environment is programmed to cause misgivings, to confuse, and to the reader these feelings are imparted..  A dark forest, further shadowed by the midnight hour, lies behind Dante, as though he has just lately passed through it.  The author uses allegory here to liken the situation to one that all men have been in at some point: that sudden realization of being lost, that fear which grips one's heart; the tone is obviously serious and it's treatment of the situation is anything but light.  Anxiety envelops Dante, and the "recollection" to the author still seems grim, even in memory.  These feelings will remain throughout the Canto, indeed, throughout the play, even when hope begins to glimmer.
	That glimmer is welcomed by Dante in the familiar and comforting rays of a morning sun, whose very presence in the text exists to represent that which it universally symbolizes: hope.  However, this hint of hope can not change the tone, it simply insures that Dante does not view the future as too grim.  Hope is an integral part of the tone, even if it is too weak to do away with the fear.
	A moments respite pervades a line or two as Dante rests himself, implying a slight relief in his late passage through the dark wood, but this rest is too brief to effect any change in tone, and Dante soon returns to his journey.  The trepidation continues, the author and the reader feel it in the tone, and Dante illustrates it in the care with which he places each step:  "my firm foot always the one below."  Carried through to this part is the same fear that exists for the unknown.
	Soon revealed to Dante are three of these fears, in the forms of flesh and blood animals.  The mood is enhanced by their forms: a leopard, a lion, and a ravenous wolf.  Far from having a soothing affect, they terrify Dante into retreat.  Slight elements of beauty are allowed here, but the tone is ultimately bordering the side without hope, as it seems there is now no escape.
	Hope does return though with the entrance of Virgil who appears at this most dire instant, as the sun had.  Emotions again fluctuate, the tone is allowed neither to become to optimistic, nor  too despairing.  With the appearance of Virgil, hope does however become thoroughly ingrained as an element of the entire work's tone.
