Violence over Fraud?

As one begins to really begin to dig into the lower circles of Seven and Eight, they find that Dante treats the sins of fraud much more severely than the sins of violence. Evidence from the text supports this idea for the intensity of punishments and vulgar language Dante uses between the circles is much different. Dante's reason for this belief is that the sins of fraud are not very human. The sins of violence are a little more humanly and, although still severe, they retain some form of human nature. In Dante's eyes these sins are nothing compared to those of fraud which are alienations to human nature.
          Throughout the rounds of circle seven, the sinners are subjected to severe punishments such as the river of blood”in which are steeped all who struck down their fellow men"(pg.112). However, the language used to describe the setting and the punishment for the sinners is not disturbingly vile. Also, Dante pities many of the sinners throughout circle seven, the first being the soul in the wood of suicides whose leaves were painfully ripped off and the next being Brunetto Latino. When Dante discovers Brunetto among a band of Sodomites on the burning plain, he is immediately overcome with great sorrow and affection and goes on to say, " You were a radiance among men, for that sweet image, gentle and paternal, you were to me in the world when hour by hour you taught me how a man makes himself eternal, lives in my mind, and now strikes to my heart."(pg.138). A kind of respect and affection that is never seen by Dante when the poets continue to circle eight.
          As the poets move on past the burning plain to circle eight, the tone of Dante's righting immediately changes. Without sparing any time Dante begins to describe the punishments and dwellings of these sinners in a way not yet seen in the inferno. This language becomes very clear as he describes circle two, that of the Flatterers, explaining that " Steaming from that pit, a vapor rose over the banks, crusting them with a slime that sickened my eyes and hammered my nose; I saw a long line of people in a river of excrement that seemed to overflow of the world's latrines."(pg.161)". A much more putrid idea than that of a burning plain, a perfect example of the text supporting the idea that in Dante's mind Fraud is not of any human nature and deserves to be treated much more severely. Another prime example is the description and inhabitants of Bolgia Five. As the poets find themselves crossing through bolgia five there is a faint similarity between Bolgia five of circle eight and round one of circle seven. Round one of seven contained centaurs, which have human traits, and recognizable along with the river of blood which, although impure, seems somewhat unintimidating. However, in bolgia five, Dante takes everything from round one and upgrades it to a more evil level explaining that " A viscid pitch boiled below and coated the bank with gluey mire; I saw a figure running at us across the ridge, a Demon huge and black.”(pg.184). Everything has become much more evil in bolgia five, the home of the grafters. Centaurs replaced with demons, recognizable people with pitch covered muzzles, and blood with putrid, dirty pitch. These changes in tone between the circles clearly support the idea that Dante treats the sins of fraud much more severely than those of violence due to their alienation of human nature.
          In conclusion, Dante's idea that the sins of fraud are much eviler than the sins of violence are clearly supported by the change of tone, diction and symbolism used entering circle eight. The alienation of human nature that fraud causes is much more extreme in Dante's eyes rather than violence. In this assumption, I think Dante is right for violence has always been a tendency of man and has been common since the dawn of time. Fraud however, fraud mutates and distorts human nature and destroyed unification among humanity and should be punished much more severely.


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Circle Seven Round One

“The scene that opened from the edge of the pit was mountainous, and such a desolation that every eye would shun the sight of it: a ruin like the Slides of Mark near Trent on the bank of the Adige, the result of an earthquake or of some massive fault in the escarpment- for, from the point on the peak where the mountain split to the plain below, the rock is so badly shattered a man at the top might make a rough stair of it. Such was the passage down the steep and there, at the very top, at the edge of the broken cleft, lay spread the Infamy of Crete, the heir of bestiality and the lecherous queen who hid in a wooden cow. And when he saw us, he gnawed his own flesh in a fit of spleen." (Pages 110 and 111).
The tone and diction used by Dante in this passage to describe opening scene to circle seven is extremely important for the reader to really get a grasp of the mortifying scenes that the poets are starting to encounter. The diction used by Dante is extremely effective in getting the lay of the land across to the reader along with the atrocities the poets are immediately subjected to as they enter circle seven. Using descriptive words such as “desolation", "mountainous" and "escarpment", Dante really burns the picture of this part of circle seven into the reader. One imagines how hopeless, arid, and intimidating this landscape is as a result to the diction used in the passage above.  However, the other big player in Dante's description of Circle Seven round one is the tone in the passage. Analyzation and close reading of the text above reveal that Dante uses hopeless and disturbing tones in describing this section of Circle Seven. As the poets come to overlook the setting of Round One, the tone of the text is extremely depressing, saying that it is “such a desolation that every eye would shun the sight of it" and also describes the setting as mountainous, rocky, and shattered. The tone of these words conveys the idea of hopeless intimidation by the landscape to the poets. Along with that, the text's tone soon switches to a graphic and frightening tone as the poets switch their gaze to the Infamy of Crete who, as he saw the poets, “gnawed his own flesh in a fit of spleen". A perfect example to the frightening and graphic tone switch of the text as it switches from hopelessness to disturbingly graphic as the poets witness this man basically eating his own flesh. Through using effective tone and diction in the introduction to Circle Seven, Dante is able to give the reader detailed ideas of the landscape, make connections with the current emotional state of the poets, and give them a preview for the disturbing sights to come in Circle Seven.

The Fate of the Gluttons

As Dante recovers from swoon, he awakes to find himself in the Third Circle of Hell, the home of the damned souls whom committed the sin to find no higher use of God's gifts than to indulge and wallow in food and drink. In this circle, Dante uses extremely detailed language and descriptive imagery to fit the punishment and setting to agree with the law on contrapasso. As the poets enter the Third Circle, Dante immediately dives right into description of the lay of the land, explaining that ”a great storm of putrefaction falls incessantly, a mixture of stinking snow and freezing rain, which forms into a vile slush underfoot.". Immediately, the reader gets a sense of cold, discomfort, and the smell of purification. Such descriptive words used by Dante in the quote above really gives insight to the situation and allows the reader to already make connections between the punishment of the sinners and the law of contrapasso in the sense that Gluttons, always being warm and content due to indulgence in food and drink, are now subjected to their worst nightmare. The nightmare of freezing cold and decaying garbage, which they produced all their life. However, Dante also explains that, " The souls of the damned lie in the icy paste, swollen and obscene, and Cerberus, the ravenous three-headed dog of Hell, stands guard over them, ripping and tearing them with his claws and teeth.". This is really where Dante makes the connection of the soul’s punishment fitting perfectly to the law of contrapasso. Analyzation of these disturbing and graphic scene yields that the Gluttons have become, in a sense, food. Receiving the complete opposite of their lifestyle on Earth, a lifestyle of warmth, comfort, pleasant smells, and eating has now been transformed into a life of ice, putrid smells, discomfort, pain, and becoming the food. Using very descriptive, in-depth writing, Dante was able to perfectly convey and assert the sense of how the punishment of the Gluttons fits into the law of contrapasso.