The Implications of a Godless Hell

In the book version of Dante’s Inferno, Christianity is an overriding theme affecting all aspects of Dante’s journey through the fiery pit. Dante’s system for placing people in certain circles of Hell is based strictly on Christian values. For example, our society might think that murder (punished in the 6^th circle) is worse than accepting a bribe (punished in the 8^th circle). However in Dante’s Hell, forms of fraud are much worse than the taking of another human life. This inconsistency is due to the fact the Dante’s Hell values God’s will over human happiness. The punishments that are doled out in the nine circles of Hell are a result of God’s omniscience and divine justice.

 In the film version of Dante’s Inferno, the idea of a divine power is strangely absent. One would think that a movie based on such a religiously saturated book would contain at least some notion of a God figure. Yet the divine power that often assists Dante in his journey in the book is replaced by something far more common place in the movie: money. When Dante is denied entrance into the city of Dis, Virgil simply offers up money and the two are immediately allowed to pass. The idea of money taking the place of the “Heaven’s messengers” that so often guide Dante in the book can be seen in multiple other scenes of the movie. Violence also plays some role in this eradication of a divine being from Hell. When confronted with Cerberus in the movie Virgil simply shoots the creature, whereas in the book an angel kills the beast.

 Money and violence do more than simply oust the divine from Hell. Their place in the overall workings of Hell subverts a theme that the book tried so hard to convey: the perfection of God’s justice. The presence of money and violence are usually thought of as characteristics of a strictly human society. When the filmmakers placed them in Hell, they undermined the idea that it was a place of purely divine and perfect justice. The filmmakers’ placement of certain figures in in the nine circles also points to a Godless Hell. Hitler is being punished for consulting with an astrologer instead of the wide scale genocide he committed in WWII. In the book’s version of Hell, God’s divine justice would leave no room for technicalities such as this.

 The filmmaker’s point of view brings up an interesting question. If God is indeed absent from Hell, then perhaps much of the world is trying to avoid sinning for the wrong reasons. Instead of attempting to live pure and good lives for the sake of God and more importantly trying to stay out of Hell, perhaps we should be living pure and good lives simply for the sake of living pure and good lives.