Entry 3

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In Dante’s Inferno, Dante Aligheri ranks sins based on how bad they are to him, by corresponding circles. The higher the number of the circle, the worse the sin is. Circles 7 and 8 are some of the worst sins in the book. Circle 7 represents violence, and Circle 8 represents fraud. His idea that one is worse than the other can be seen in the transformation of language, and his description of the beasts.

Dante has a radical difference in language from circle 7 to circle 8. This is illustrated with “ Once there, I peered down; and I saw long lines of people in a river of excrement that seemed the overflow of the world’s latrines… one wraith who might or might not have been tonsured-one could not tell, he was so smeared with shit.” (147). This description of hell is more vivid than others, providing imagery not seen in other passages. With his language, Dante compares the people to crap, and says that they are worthless. With sins of violence, there is no alienation from others. There will still be trust with others, however with fraud, no one can ever take your word truly again.

Dante has the hells represented with three beasts, the She Wolf of Incontinence, the Lion of Violence, and the Leopard of Malice and Fraud. He places the beasts as what prevents him from getting to heaven. The Leopard of Malice is described as “I faced a spotted Leopard, all tremor and flow and gaudy pelt. And it would not pass, but stood so blocking my every turn that time and again I was on the verge of turning back to the wood.” This quote shows that the leopard is the last thing keeping from heaven and it is also the hardest to pass. With these sins, there is alienation brought upon with the fact that there will always be distrust due to the fact that someone betrayed the victim.

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Circle Seven, Round Three is the location of those who were violent against God, nature, and art. The setting itself is of a vast desert, with three groups of people being punished. The Blasphemers are lying on the sand, the Sodomites are running in circles, and the Usurers huddle on the sand. Both the sand and the fire are both symbols of how Dante enhances his work.

The fire in Circle Seven represents God's wrath. In literature, fire represents anger and destruction. Dante uses the fire to show that, in his opinion, these sins make God extremely unhappy and angry. The fire also represents divine justice. Because the fire is across the entire circle, Dante says that God’s wrath is inescapable. Because of the representation of fire, God's wrath is personified and inescapable With the use of fire, Dante can make multiple symbols for the reader to pick up on, and can enhance the section with its use.

The landscape of Circle Seven is of a burning desert. Deserts often represent hopelessness, death, and hostility. Dante uses the burning sands to show that there is no safe place from God’s wrath, as everyone in it is being burned by the rain of fire and the burning sands. Each group of sinners helps illustrate how God’s wrath is inescapable. The desert also represents hopelessness. In this circle of hell, there is no hope for the sinners to escape the wrath of God, as shown by the fact that the sinners are being burned from above as well as below. Hostility is exemplified by the fact that the sinners are in a desert, which very few humans can survive in. Dante uses the burning sand and desert to show that God is inescapable and that the sinners have no hope.