Moral Paths to Redemption: Secular vs. Religious

Both Dante’s Inferno and Inferno by Dante provide moral guidelines about how humans should live their lives. However, each does so in its own way. The poem focuses mainly on Christian living and the omnipotence of God. The film, however, is a secular commentary on the modern-day American. Both Dantes have wandered from the moral path, but the journey each is placed on, religious or secular, leads them to much different conclusions.

In the poem, Dante depicts a wondrous world of extreme punishment that is frightening, intricate, and just. Hell is depicted as a much more fearful place, and the reasons an individual ends up there are much more easily understood. We see those who have a pattern of sin or one grave sin being punished at a level that fits the crime. Most of these relate to the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. Thus, the poem has a Christian backbone from its onset. Besides following the rules established in the Christian bible, the poem is a moral journey in which Dante comes to understand the power of God. He is depicted as all knowing, and his power is so strong that it can create such a complex space while still being able to control all that goes on inside of it. As the poem progresses, Dante begins to trust in God’s power. He finds reason in each punishment and understands the sin. He also learns to have faith in this powerful God even when reason fails. However, the film version of Dante is quite different.

Rather than show a moral journey through hell, the film comments on modern-day sin in a secular manner. Dante is an average adult with drinking problems, money problems, and, in a way, intellectual problems. He is thickheaded and lacks the capacity to understand the place he is in, in contrast to his poem counterpart. Dante does not really gain any true understanding of why people are placed in each realm. In Canto V, Dante sees sinners such as Fatty Arbuckle, John F. Kennedy, and many others who are guilty of lust. Thus, they are doomed to have sexual relations forever. Rather than understand God’s placement of these beings, Dante seems to enjoy watching such acts while Virgil chastises him. At this point, at least, the punishment seems to fit the crime. As the film progresses, though, it strays from the poem’s religious morality. Significantly, Dante witnesses Adolf Hitler being punished for the crime of astrology. Hitler has the blood of millions of Jews on his hands, yet he is sent to Hell on a “technicality.” We would not see this in the poem. Having Hitler get away with such grotesque sins undermines the omnipotence of God portrayed in the poem. Thus, we see a more secular approach here as well. The all-powerful God Dante is trying to understand in the poem is absent in the film.

Thus, in the end of the film, Dante does not find his way back to a moral path. He really does not reach any level of understanding at all.  Rather, he seems unaffected by his journey. This could be because the film was more of a commentary on every-day sinning and how, presently, humans do not fear the consequences of their actions. Dante in our poem, however, seems to have a better view of how life should be lived and how God ranks sins. He seems to maintain a fear of God and what lies ahead, thus helping him maintain his morals.