Dante’s Inferno is a play that has a carefully worked out structure that gives the impression that there is specific punishment for particular crimes depending on the severity of the latter. From the outset, it is important to note that the vision of hell that the play illustrates causes the audience to perceive the trip to hell as a horrifying experience, especially when Dante creates the impression that every person has to undergo punishment because everyone is a sinner, one way or another. The structure that the play creates has nine circles with each with each representing different sin and a different form of punishment depending on the seriousness of the sin. Every punishment that the play associates with each of the circles provide the reader with the necessary information to enable one have a better understanding of Dante’s perspective of what hell is all about. One of the most important aspects of the hell that the play presents is the fact that the more grievous the crime the more one moves closer to the center of the circle and to the ultimate punishment represented by the center of the circle. Ultimately, Dante's structure and vision of hell in the Inferno reveals that failure to do good and/or evil does not absolve one from punishment because following the blank banner forever is a form of a never-ending punishment.
A closer look at every circle of sin and punishment presented by the play, one is able to find out the inescapability of punishment according to Dante. In order to understand the structure and the certainty of punishment according to Dante, it is important to evaluate each of the nine circles of sin in the Inferno. The first circle, which according to the play has the least severe punishment meant for non-Christians and pagans who have not been baptized. According to Dante, the punishment of such people is an eternity in what the play depicts as an inferior form of heaven, which the play portrays as a castle that symbolizes seven virtues. It is worth noting that in the first circle of sin and punishment, Dante considers people like Aristotle Homer, Julius Caesar and Cicero to belong to the circle despite their prominence in ancient times.
In the second circle, Dante’s focus is on lust. He considers people who are overcome by lust and their punishment is that strong winds often blow them back and forth as a result of which they are unable to rest and are never able find peace. According to the play strong winds are a symbol of constant anxiety for people who allow desire to lead their actions. Similar to the first circle, Dante identifies people who he believes deserve to be in the second circle by comparing the sins within this circle to the actions of history and mythical characters such as Cleopatra, Helen of Troy and Tristan who were adulterous in the course of their existence. The third circle revolves around gluttony where Dante ad Virgil considers the souls of gluttony that the worm-monster by the name of Cerberus overlooks. According to the play, the people whose sins revolve around gluttony receive punishment by the never-ending icy rain that forces the sinners to lie in a vile sludge. Ultimately, the vile sludge is a representation of the personal degradation that one goes through due to their overindulgence in worldly pleasures such as food and drink. The inability of gluttonous people to see other people near them is a clear indication of their self-interest and coldness. While discussing the third circle, Dante introduces Ciacco, a character who lets him know that the fraction supporting the Pope is going to defeat the faction in support of the Emperor from Florence, and this reveals that the aspect of punishment for sin has been in existence even before writing of the play. This aspect is apparent given that the play was written after 1305 while the conflict between Guelphs and Ghibellines from Florence was in 1302. This shows that punishment for sin has been in existence for many centuries and the practice will most definitely outlive the current generation.
Accordingly, Dante discuses greed in the fourth circle while focusing on the souls of the people who receive punishment for their greediness. In this circle, Dante establishes two types of greediness, hoarding possession and lavish spending, which symbolize selfish drive throughout a person’s lifetime. The play considers many clergymen as belonging to this circle. The manner in which Dante portrays self drive as something that leads to punishment shows that every person is subject to punishment because it is virtually impossible to find a person whose activities do not derive from self-interested. As such, the fourth circle gives the impression that it is not possible to escape punishment. In the fifth circle of hell, Dante perceives sin based on anger as one deserving punishment. While on a boat with Virgil, Dante watches the angry fighting each other on river Styx as well as the sullen gurgle underneath the water surface. It is notable that the punishment for the anger is a reflection of the sin that one commits during their lifetime. This aspect is further demonstrated by the confiscation of Dante’s property following his expulsion from Florence.
The sixth circle of hell demonstrates the manner in which heresy leads to eternal punishment as show by the condemnation of the heretics to a perpetual suffering in the flaming tombs. Here Dante considers the characters of historical figures such as Pope Anastasius II and the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II while perceiving the as heretics who deserve condemnation to an eternity of punishment. Here, it is important to note that Dante does not portray heresy as an outright denial of God but rather as too much attachment to things that are not Godly (Barolini 100). Accordingly, the seventh circle of hell that Dante resents in the play is based on the sin of violence that is divided into three spheres, where the outer ring represents murderers while the other two symbolize violence towards people and property. In this circle, Dante considers Alexander the Great as one of the characters deserving of the punishment that is associated with the circle. The sphere in the middle represents suicides whose punishment entails being turned into bushes and trees that feed harpies, and in the same sphere are the reckless whose punishment is being chased and torn into pieces by dogs. On the other hand, the inner ring in the seventh circle is a representation of the sodomites and blasphemers whose punishment involves living in a desert where they suffer from burning rain and burning sand. The possibilities of a person getting lost in a dessert are very high, which means that the possibility of suffering for eternity in such environment is a reality.
With regard to the fraudulent, Dante believes that they belong to the eighth circle that is guarded by a flying monster that exists in deferent natures. Within this circle of hell, Dante portrays it as having ten divisions of concentric ditches with rough bridges across them and dikes in-between. Dante refers the concentric ditches as Bolgias, with the Bolgia consisting of seducers and panderers, flatterers, persons guilty of simony, false prophets and sorcerers, corrupt politicians, hypocrites, thieves, evil counselors and advisers, divisive individuals, falsifiers such as alchemists, and perjurers and counterfeiters respectively (Alighieri 90). Accordingly, the ninth circle of hell is divided into four depending on the severity of the sin even though the punishment of all the people residing in the circle is freezing in an icy lake. The name of each of the four divisions is in the last circle derives from individuals who personify the sin, these are, Caina personified by Cain who killed his brother Abel, Antenora named after Anthenor of Troy, Ptolomaea named after Ptolemy, and Judecca whose name derives from Judas Iscariot (Zimmerman 225). The punishment by freezing in an icy lake shows that the suffering of those residing in the four rounds remains perpetually because they remain stuck in the ice continuously.
Work Cited
Alighieri, Dante. “The Vision of Hell, Complete: The Inferno”. www.gutenberg.net. 21 Jul.
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Alighieri, Dante. Dante's Inferno: The Indiana Critical Edition. Trans. Mark Musa. Indiana:
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Barolini, Teodolinda. Medieval Multiculturalism and Dante’s Theology of Hell. 2006. Web. 6
Jul. 2016. http://italian.columbia.edu/files/italian/pdf/Barolini%20Medieval%20Multiculturalism%20and%20D's%20Theology%20of%20Hell.pdf
Zimmerman, Seth. The Inferno of Dante Alighieri. Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse, 2003.
