Our Place Down There

Through the Inferno, Dante walks us by a series of zones where very specific punishments are being enforced to those sinners and authors of crimes as specific as their burden. There are punishment for the violent against God, their neighbors, and themselves. We read about the consequence of frauds, astrologers, diviners and self proclaimed magicians. Hypocrites and thieves receive poetic justice in the hands of Lucifer and his demons. It strikes clear to the reader that all evil is concentrated on that burning chamber, that in the presence of hell we will find any man who has sinned in any way against God. Even those who where enveloped in chorographical disagreement receive a fine burden for their inevitable role.

Through the eight circle, ninth pouch I came across a very interesting conversation in which a victim of “the showers of scandal and schism” pronounces words fitting of a welcome to the blasted territory. “Now you can see atrocious punishment, you who, still breathing, go to view the dead: see if there’s any pain as great as this (Canto XXVlll, 130-132)." It’s a context of suffering and constant regret that he introduces. This character may as well be talking on behalf of all those sinners enveloped in the flames of hell, for they are all suffering pains without equal in their situation. By mentioning that the narrator is still breathing, he hints at a warning. He is warning us about what is to come if we don’t change our ways because we have seen the punishments for all sorts of sins, and almost makes it certain that if we invent a Sin, such a counterpart of a burden will fall on the innovator. It is important for you to understand the previous as I introduce you to my concept of what would happen if I we keep reading Inferno, because what is to come may be pessimist and drastic if you don’t, but realistic and enlightening if you follow.

If I would continue to read the inferno, I would read about sinners and demons, about punishments and cries of lament, about tears of blood and rivers of life boiling at terrible men. Inferno is a constant reference to the way we must carry out our lives because everything we do will have its consequence. It is clear to me that we are divided into groups and consequences according to our lives, but what I don’t quite follow is where the line is drawn. Every Sin has a spot on hell, and therefore any sinner will suffer in hell all right. But if a sin makes a sinner, and I can personally think of dozens of sins, consider those many more that exist or are to be. It is impossible for me to think of a person as one who is free of all sins. I can’t grasp the concept of living according to all the rules of heaven unhesitant, for I cannot view any offspring of the human species as perfect. “Upon the right I saw new misery, I saw new tortures and torturers, filling the first of Malebolge’s moats (Inferno Canto XVlll, 22-24).” If your mind works as mine, we have both come to the conclusion that we all have our spot in hell waiting for our judgment according to how many times the tail wraps around us without signs of mercy.

If by reading more of inferno I would find that there are unending punishments and sins, and in thus such reflection I came to think we all have a spot on hell, it is not really necessary for me to point out its meaning for humanity. It can only point towards the downfall of our species as sons of God. We will continue to last materially for there is no hint that our sons will be judged prior to the appointed time, until when they will already have secured their linage. But we will live a life destined to repentance due to the absence of perfection. As I said, it may be pessimistic. You may think that you are above all those mentioned and will live a perfect existence free of any sin. I rather stick to experiment and factual history. Rousseau once said: “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.” I will be ingenuous enough to add: Man is born perfect and everywhere he falls.