Canto XXXIII

            As we enter the Third Ring of the Ninth Circle in Canto XXXIII, we come upon Traitors against their Guests. These sinners have their eyes closed shut by frozen tears.  As Dante converses with two such sinners, Fra Alberigo and Branca Doria, he learns that “as soon as any soul becomes a traitor…a demon takes its body away – and keeps that body in his power until its years have run their course completely” (p. 307, ll. 129-132). This passage seems contradictory to me, based on everything else Dante has discovered thus far. I thought that one of the main lessons Dante learns during this journey is that all sinners who inhabit these circles have not repented for their sins. This further implies to me that sinners on earth who do atone for their crimes will probably be spared an eternity in Hell. But the fact that the moment a sinner becomes a traitor they have no chance to repent seems grossly unfair to me. If every other sinner has the chance to apologize before their death, but these traitors are immediately taken over by a demon who will never let them go, how can they save themselves? How is this fair? Since they are never given a chance to repent, why must they be sent to the deepest circle of Hell? I don’t have any answers to these questions, unless the rule is that every sinner is given a chance at repentance except for those who betray. This explanation seems probable to me, as it echoes the conclusions we came to in class. As we deduced, Dante looks upon the willing sinners, like the betrayers, with tremendous disdain. But on the other hand, he takes a much more sympathetic view of sinners like the lustful or the gluttonous, who may have been deluded into their sins. Because betrayers are clearly willing and knowing sinners, they are looked upon with great contempt from Dante, Virgil, Lucifer, and the other inhabitants of Hell. However, it still does not seem fair to me that even the other complicit sinners in other circles are able to live the rest of their lives with the chance to atone for their sins. But betrayers are immediately possessed by a demon and, in reality, have no more life worth living, as they have no chance of escaping their fates in Hell. And although I agree with Dante that traitors are some of the lowest kinds of people, I still don’t understand why they must begin their punishment Hell while they are still alive on earth.