The Duties of Individuals to the Self, Others, and Society in Inferno - Essay Example

15 July The Duties of Individuals to the Self, Others, and Society in Inferno Inferno depicts hell as the fiery and tormenting pit of individuals, who failed their fundamental duties as human beings. In this poem, Dante travels through the nine circles of Hell with Virgil. These circles are further divided into subzones, where punishment is equal to the kind and depth of transgressions. The division of sins represents the numerous wrongdoings that people succumb to. More importantly, they signify Dante’s vision of a good life. Inferno shows that to have a good life, one must be a good person, who will not succumb to the temptations around oneself. In particular, good people observe duties that other people and society expect from them. According to the visualization of Dante's Inferno, individuals have duties to control their natural desires for immoral behaviors, and when they commit particular sins, the duties they fail to perform are duties to their humanity, a humanity that God uniquely made to perform goodness during their lifetime. Dante believes that the smallest and most forgivable kind of sin is incontinence, or not being to control one’s immoral appetites, which goes against the human duty of self-discipline in the midst of temptations. For the first Circle, Dante faces three beasts that hinder him from reaching the light of morning, which is an allegory for the path to Heaven: the lion, leopard, and she-wolf. These beasts are symbols of evil; to sin is to be a beast. One of the interpretations of these animals is: the lion stands for pride; the leopard is lust; while avarice is embodied in the she-wolf. These are all sins of incontinence or the failure to contain basic emotions, which consequently, blocks the logic of self-discipline. In the third circle, Dante hears moans and incomprehensible sounds: “Here sighs and lamentations and loud cries/were echoing across the starless air” (Inferno III, 22-23). The meaning of the loss of speech is that since these sinners cannot control their basic desires, they lose an indispensable feature of being a human: their speech ability. Without speech, they are inhuman; they are beasts. Indeed, giving these sinners beast-like features and behaviors symbolize their loss of humanity. In the seventh circle, Virgil calls Filippo Argenti a “dog,” and Dante rejects him too. Chaos follows: “They were all shouting: ‘At Filippo Argenti!’/ At this, the Florentine, gone wild with spleen,/began to turn his teeth against himself” (Inferno VIII, 61-63). Argenti’s behavior reflects that of a beast, or a dog, that turns upon itself. He is so angry that he can no longer control his fury. He shows that he deserves his Hell. Since he cannot control himself in real life, his incontinence also leads to relentless suffering in Hell. Animalistic actions pervade the circles of incontinence. The thief Vanni Fucci describes himself as a beast, which fits his mortal and underworld existence: “Mule that I was, the bestial life pleased me/and not the human; I am Vanni Fucci,/beast; and the den that suited me – Pistoia” (Inferno XXIV, 124-126). He knows that the den suited him, because he is an animal. Only animals cannot control their baser instincts. Still, Vanni Fucci shows pride. He curses Dante later on, because he is proud of his mortal immoral deeds. Until the end, Vanni Fucci epitomizes the ideal beastly human being- uncontrollable and full of hubris. The storm stands for the chaos of being a slave to one’s base emotions. In the fifth circle, the storm represents the nature of the lustful sinners. It stands for disorganized movements and lack of direction. In the same degree, the lustful rejects the straight line to morality. They are willing to run at different directions, if only to satisfy their lustful desires. In Hell, the storm stands for being tossed away, because these sinners let themselves be tossed away. Essentially, they allow themselves to be tossed away from better decisions and actions. David talks to the tragic lover, Francesca. She tells him: “Love, that on gentle heart doth swiftly seize,/Seized this man for the person beautiful/That was ta'en from me, and still the mode offends me” (Inferno V, 100-103). Her passion seizes her, and she lets lust to control her and to drown her rationality. She blames love for her lust, as if she cannot control her own body anymore. The storm represents her thinking. If she believes that love is an overwhelming force that she cannot say no to, then the storm reminds her of her whirlwind emotions and actions. Since she lets herself be swept away, she is doomed to be swept away over and over again. There is no peace, no stability, and no resting place. Chaos and uncertainty become her Hell. When Francesca tells Dante about their reading of Lancelot, he faints. His action parallels the loss of the lovers to their passions. These actions represent the lustful’s swift fall to Hell, because they yielded to irrational emotions. Fraudulent individuals commit the worst kinds of sins, because they violate duties of truth and justice to others and to society. The sixth circle divides the upper Hell of the incontinent from the lower Hell that three circles compose of. These circles consist of violence, fraud, and treachery. Fraud is the worst kind of sin, because these sinners use language, which is supposed to differentiate them from human beings, to mislead people. These sinners do not just do something wrong to themselves and to others, but also to society in general. They can infiltrate, for instance, important social institutions, such as schools, the government, and the church. Persuasion is supposed to be based on logic, as well as noble ends. Fraudulent sinners, on the contrary, use the beauty of speech to harm others. Virgil calls Dante’s attention to one sinner: “That shade is Jason, who with heart and head/ …With polished words and love signs he took in/ Hypsipyle, the girl whose own deception/ had earlier deceived the other women” (Inferno XVIII, 86-90). In Jason’s case, he used his golden tongue to attain black deeds. He lures an innocent virgin to his lair and takes her body and dignity. After that, he leaves her pregnant and alone. He damages her for life, because she is an unmarried mother. When persuasion misleads and injures others, it deserves the worst punishments in the underworld. Hell is also a place where deception earns consequences that last beyond the grave. The Jovial friars represent the difference between the outsides and the insides of humanity: “Outside, these cloaks were gilded and they dazzled;/ but inside they were all of lead, so heavy/ that Frederick’s capes were straw compared to them./ A tiring mantle for eternity!” (Inferno XXIII, 64-67). Their cloaks are gilded to attract people, who love beautiful and wealthy appearances. But inside, these friars are paying for their fraud. They carry their deception like heavy leads, because the heaviness of their sins affects society too. They were meant to preserve peace, but they sowed violence and disorder. In Hell, they bear the sufferings that resulted from their actions. Furthermore, Geryon is the beast that signifies deception. Dante describes Geryon’s hidden strength and speed: “No ivy ever gripped a tree so fast/ as when that horrifying monster clasped/ and intertwined the other’s limbs with its” (Inferno XXV, 58-59). Geryon deceives his prey. They do not know what hit them, until they are dead in Geryon’s arms. As Geryon crushes sinners, it is an allegory for the loss of humanity: “Then just as if their substance were warm wax,/ they stuck together and they mixed their colors,/ so neither seemed what he had been before” (Inferno XXV, 61-63). The beast and the humans combine, and soon, no one can tell the difference. No can tell the difference, because the humans are beasts already inside and outside. Inferno instills the essence of human duties. People have duties to be human beings; they are responsible for choosing actions that affirm their humanity. To be a human being is such a large responsibility, because humans have diverse skills and abilities that they can employ to do what is good. Using these abilities to harm others, or neglecting them, which also harms oneself and others, result to sin. Incontinence is the consequence of base emotions taking over logic. Fraud is the outright manipulation of people and societies. These sins have proper places in Hell, where sinners become beasts, or suffer as beasts. When people surrender their humanity, they transform themselves to beasts that fit the forests of Hell. Work Cited Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Trans. Robert M. Durling. New York: Oxford U P, 2011. Print. Read More