Dante’s Inferno is more than just a list of evils. It also allows Dante to vent his political frustrations. Dante creates Hell where punishments correspond to the evil and severity of sins. Dante follows strict doctrinal Christian beliefs in cataloguing punishments. The Inferno moral system places God’s plan in Heaven before human happiness, harmony or even the well-being of Earth. Dante’s descent into Hell is used to reveal the sins committed by his political opponents and people who have violated the state.
Dante creates an analogy between the punishment a soul will receive in Hell based on their sins. The Lustful are caught up in a violent storm, and they will be blown for all eternity. The Wrathful are angry with each other over the hatred they have caused. Gluttonous Gluttons eat excrement out of sheer indifference. Dante uses the simple idea of God’s wisdom to show his perfect justice. In Canto III there is a inscription at the Hell gates that says God created Hell for justice. Hell exists as a punishment for sin. Its punishments reflect the divinity that sinners have violated.
Dante creates tension in The Inferno between God’s justness and his fictional character’s sympathy towards the souls tormented. This poem shows God’s infinite knowledge in punishing those tormented by sin. Dante’s inability to understand the suffering of those who are damned is evident by his early pity. Dante becomes less sympathetic towards sinners as the tale unfolds. Dante uses the appropriateness of God’s punishments to convey his moral message. Hell is also built around this idea. The punishments in the poem may appear harsh but when viewed as a whole, it is clear that they are meant to balance the sin. The sinners’ sentences are meant to represent the sins committed by them while they were alive. God’s justice is impersonal, mechanical and objective because it is based on the concept of balance.
This relationship is reinforced by the structure of Hell: As Dante progresses into Hell, his sins grow more serious. This structure can be questioned at times. One example is why Dante sees murder as being less bad than fraud. Dante is therefore required to view violence as less bad than fraud. Fraud represents the greatest opposition to God’s will. God expects people to treat one another with the same love he shows all people. Fraud, while it is an act that directly opposes God’s Love, is also a perversion. Fraudulent people claim to love God while they are knowingly doing sins against him.
Dante asserts in The Inferno that the state and church should have separate but equal power on Earth. The church should control a person’s soul, but the state’s actions should be governed by the man. This will create a chaste, obedient individual. The final image in the poem shows Dante’s belief, that treachery towards the church and state is of equal importance, as well as warranting the betrayers to be placed in the final circle. Dante is adamant that church and government are equal, but he also insists they must be separated. Souls that break the separation of church and state, like clerics seeking political power or accepting bribes, are punished with harsher punishments. Dante was more interested in spiritual topics than political issues, so Dante included the government as part of his religious allegory to reflect God’s perfect law.
The Inferno does not discuss sin or punishment in great detail, but it is implied. Dante declares that the evil in The Inferno is bad because it contradicts God’s Will, and God is not a person who needs to justify his actions. Dante’s journey through the evil never addresses its causes or earthly effects, but is instead a reflection of his personal political and spiritual beliefs. The Inferno lacks a critical evaluation of evil and is not based on philosophy. Instead it reinforces Dante’s Christian doctrine, political views and his personal spiritual beliefs.
