Dante Alighieri
The Inferno, Dante Alighieri gives his audience a clear vivid
presentation of
what he as a follower of the Christian religion perceives to
be hell. Dante
shows that human sin is punishable in various degrees of
severity and that this
is dependent on the nature of one’s sinful actions. He
sets forth what could
very well be the most fully developed Christian
understanding of justice on
earth, and that is; that what we do as human
beings will determine what happens
to us in the event of death based on God’s
judgment. In writing his poem Dante
uses symbolism, allegorism and imagery
among other literary effects to place his
poem analogically to life as it was
during his day and age. Dante structures The
Inferno around thirty four
cantos. Each of these cantos marks a steady
progression from the mildest to
the worst of sins. The cantos depict sinners
under various forms of
punishment which are commensurate to the nature of their
sins. Dante
categorizes sin into three different categories of fraud,
incontinence and
violence. In canto I he mentions three animals namely , a
leopard, a lion and
a she-wolf. These animals act as symbolisms for the various
types of sins.
The sin’s depicted in canto XVIII are symbolized by the
she-wolf which acts
as a symbol for the sins of fraud. The sins of fraud are
placed the furthest
from God in the deepest pits of hell, near Satan. In canto
XVIII Dante
and his guide Virgil find themselves in the eighth circle, called
the
Malebolge. It is in the Malebolge, that each of the kinds of simple fraud
are
punished in the concentric ditches. In the first ditch, Dante sees two
files
of naked sinners each running in opposite direction, whipped by demons.
These
sinners are the panderers and the seducers. Dante recognizes
Venedico
Caccianemico, a man he once knew. Venedico in this case is
depicted as having
sold his sister, Ghisola to serve the will and lust of
another man, Marquis.
Dante at this point uses a fellow contemporary to
show what happens when one
goes against the will of God and sins. Venedico
betrays his family ties and his
indifference in this act results in his
eternal punishment of being whipped by
demons. Also mentioned as having been
punished is Jason, who suffers punishment
for having seduced and abandoned
Hypsipyle and Medea. For these two sinners
Dante’s allegory revolves
around the law of retributive justice where both
Venedico’s and Jason’s
psychology’s at the time of committing sin are tied
in with the punishment of
whip lashing by demons. Both sinners place their
personal needs and interests
above others and are now placed under the whip
lashing and oppressive command
of indifferent demons. Dante and Virgil move over
to a bridge and below it,
Dante sees the ditch of the flatterers. It is in this
trench that persons who
had sinned as flatterers are punished by being made to
wallow in a river of
human excrement from which emanates nauseating fumes. Dante
recognizes
Alessio Interminelli da Lucca. Allesio is smeared all over with
excrement.
Virgil alerts Dante of the presence of yet another sinner, Tha?s.
Tha?s
is punished in the same way as Alessio, but is made to
alternatively rise and
crouch in the river of excrement. Tha?s is
punished for being a prostitute
and for a flattering lie that she told while in
the trade. The punishment
that this two consequently suffer is the eternal
stench and filth of the
ditch. Tha?s in this canto perpetuates the image
of ingenuine love which
turns out to be a mere outlet for bodily urges and
needs. From the
perspective of Tha?s’ and Allesio’s punishment we see
that they both undergo
the process of retributive justice. Flatterers, due to
their abuse of
language wallow in excrement which metaphorically symbolizes the
words they
used in flattering others on earth. In conclusion it can be seen
that
Dante views fraud as a sin that separates human beings from God’s
grace and
love. Dante presents to his audience a poem that creates a better
understanding
of the consequences of sinful human actions. He bases The
Inferno on the
teachings found in the Christian religion and offers to the
audience a
typological reading that makes it clear that what will happen to
each individual
in the after life will be determined solely by one’s actions
on earth.
Bibliography
Consulted Faulie, Wallace A reading of
Dante’s Inferno , The University of
Chicago Press, 1981 199-123
Alighieri, Dante The Divine Comedy. Inferno, The
Norton Anthology, World
Masterpieces. General Ed. Maynard Mack 6th ed. W. W.
Norton and Company
,1992. 1273-1423