In his poem The Divine Comedy: The Inferno,” Dante Alighieri presents his audience with a clear and vivid depiction 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, depending on the nature of one’s actions. He sets forth what could be the most fully developed Christian understanding of justice on earth: what we do as human beings will determine what happens to us after death, based on God’s judgment. Dante uses symbolism, allegory, and imagery, among other literary effects, to place his poem analogously 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: fraud, incontinence, and violence. In Canto I, he mentions three animals: a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf.
These animals act as symbols for the various types of sins. The sins depicted in Canto XVIII are symbolized by the she-wolf, which represents the sins of fraud. The sins of fraud are placed 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 kind of simple fraud is punished in concentric ditches. In the first ditch, Dante sees two files of naked sinners running in opposite directions, 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 uses a fellow contemporary to show what happens when one goes against the will of God and sins.
Venedico betrayed his family ties, and his indifference in this act resulted in his eternal punishment of being whipped by demons. Jason is also mentioned as having been punished for seducing and abandoning Hypsipyle and Medea. Dante’s allegory revolves around the law of retributive justice, where both Venedico’s and Jason’s psychology at the time of committing sin are tied to the punishment of whip lashing by demons. Both sinners placed their personal needs and interests above others and are now placed under the 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. Dante recognizes Alessio Interminelli da Lucca, who is smeared all over with excrement. Virgil alerts Dante of the presence of yet another sinner, Tha?s, who 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 these 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 afterlife will be determined solely by one’s actions on earth.
Works Consulted:Faulie, Wallace. A Reading of Dante’s Inferno. The University of Chicago Press, 1981.Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy: Inferno. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. General Ed.
Maynard Mack, 6th edition, W.W. Norton and Company, 1992, pages 1273-1423.
