Inferno By Dante Alighiery Essays - Divine Comedy, Inferno

Inferno By Dante Alighiery Throughout the years, people's views of sin have been changed. Today society view of sin is different than what Dante envisioned about sin at his time. During Dante's time, the worst sin that one can commit is rejecting the church. However, in the book The Inferno, Dante sees that rejecting the church is one of the least important sins. Other sins that were perceived as unimportant during Dante time are worse than rejection of the church in The Inferno. By doing so Dante tries to show that the magnitude of the sin does not matter. The most important thing he wants to point out is that people need to learn from their mistake and distinguish between good and evil. Therefore, after a long journey through hell Dante learned to avoid evil and become spiritually enlightened. By becoming spiritually enlightened and avoiding evil, Dante proceeds much closer to the salvation of God. In The Inferno, Dante loses all sense of direction, reason, and he wander away from the True Way and enters the Dark Wood of Error. He tries to find his way out of the Dark Wood of Error, but his attempts are unsuccessful. As soon as he tries to get out of this sinful place, he is confronted by all kind of beasts. They try to hold him back and attack him. However, after being force back into the Dark Wood of Error Dante see the shade of Virgil, who represents light, direction and reason. Virgil promises to lead him away from error. Dante is thankful for the guidance of Virgil, "For you are my true master and first author, the sole make from whom I drew the breath of that sweet style whose measures have brought me honor"(30). One of the things that Dante notices about hell is that most of the people are sent to hell not because they committed a sin against God, but because they committed a sin against themselves. The sin that interests Dante on his journey is the wood of the suicide, the hoarders, and the gluttons. These people committed a self -destructive act against themselves. The glutton, made no attempt to use their God given ability, all they cared for is food, drink, and excessively consumed goods. The more they consumed the worsen their punishment in hell. They produced nothing for their society. As a result, they will forever lie in the garbage they produced and act as a slave for Cerberus. From this particular circle of hell, Dante perceived the pain that these people go through, "I see new torments and new souls in pain about me everywhere. Wherever I turn away from grief I turn to grief"(65). When Dante spoke to Ciacco, a member of this circle of hell, he again expressed this feeling, "Ciacco, your agony weighs on my heart and calls my soul to tears"(67). Besides feeling pitiful, Dante has also learned a very important lesson from this circle of hell. In life one must use all the talent that god has given to him or her and use it for his or her own advantage. When Dante reaches the fourth circle of hell, his feeling toward the hoarders and the wasters remains the same. In life the hoarders and the wasters lack the ability to control their expenses. By not controlling their expenses, they forget every thing about the moral values God has given them, all they think about is their money. Therefore in death, their own dead weights serve to moderate them. With this weight they punish each other. From this circle Dante learns that money and processions in life will not buy him eternal happiness. As Virgil has said to him, "Not all the gold that is or ever was under the sky could buy for one of these exhausted souls the fraction of a pause"(74). Running after fortune and living under the control of money results in the destruction of man's soul. As Dante enters the wood of the suicides all he hears is the cries and the sounds of sorrow. The souls of this Circle destroyed their own bodies and denied human form. They can only express themselves through their own agony. In addition, they are only allowed to speak through their own blood because they chose to take away their life. Taking one life is not only limits the enjoyment of this beautiful world created by God, but it a crime against one own soul. Through this experience, Dante sees that he does not