Dante’s
compassionate and indignant behaviors seemed to conflict and
alternate throughout his adventure through Hell without much reason. It
confused me, as did Virgil’s inconsistent responses, whether it be agreeing
with Dante’s compassion or condemning it. However, once the class discussed it,
I started to develop my own answer to my confusion that made the most sense to
me. I find that the use of these different reactions to different sins is to
show how they affected Dante in life and the way society responded to these
different sins. Dante, who is simply a man, is sensitive to the first level of
Hell, the incontinent, because their sin of lust was so simple to commit. Dante
has dealt with lust many times over in his life, as has every other man. So,
because of this, Dante is able to feel a strong sense of compassion for the
lost souls who gave into lust and lost their way of a righteous life. He
sympathizes with those who were misguided, like the astrologers and fortune
tellers, who discovered something that they believed provided answers for their
lives. They were unaware of their insult to God for their future-seeking lives.
Dante could also sympathize with them because wanting to know what will happen
in the future is almost a core desire across humanity. He does not condemn
those who gave into curiosity and desired answers for their lives, and are
forced to walk facing backwards for all of eternity.
By
having Brutus and Cassius in the mouths of Satan at the center of Hell, we gain
insight on how heavily Dante’s Italian life plays into his depiction of Hell.
Dante placed the assassins of Caesar at the very center of Hell, worse than all
other sins. According to Dante, they were responsible for the destruction of
Italy. Worse, Dante believed that Caesar was appointed by God to rule over
Italy. To Dante, they committed a worse crime than anyone ever could, besides
the betrayer of Jesus. This provides evidence that Dante’s feelings toward the
levels of Hell heavily relies on the way they showed up in his life, not based
on the actual degree of severity of the sin.
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