The Inferno Good Vs. Evil

In the Inferno there are nine circles of Hell. As Dante explores each circle with his guide he realizes that with each circle he goes through the sins get worse. Until he reaches the ninth circle which is reserved for the worst of the sinners and the punishment was so severe that it was almost unimaginable.

According to William Franke, "the basic philosophical implications of the Inferno are that Satan, representing evil, is the center of gravity, and because of this all humans are naturally drawn to him. God, representing perfect salvation, resides beyond the highest sphere of heaven in the Empyrean, and is the most difficult thing in the universe to reach. The three beasts eternally block the right path: The leopard of treachery, the lion of violence, and the she-wolf of incontinence" (Franke, 2013). The author is saying that these creatures represent their respective sins, and that they block the right path for all souls residing on the earth. The fact that the right path is vacant tells us that no man is capable of right living, and so the journey through the inferno is necessary.

Each circle in the inferno is a different level of sins. As Dante travels though the circles he comes to the second where the souls trapped there are essentially stuck in a never ending hurricane. He then comes to realize that "those who undergo this torment are damned because they sinned within the flesh, subjecting reason to the rule of lust" (Alighieri, 5. 37-39). Lust contrasts God's love because it is a sexual desire that dishonors its object and disregards God. It's the corruption of a good thing by the absence of honorable commitment and by the absence of a supreme regard for God. If your sexual desire is not guided by respect for the honor of others and regard for the holiness of God, it is lust.

Once Dante make it to yet another circle Virgil tells him to "fix your eyes below, upon the valley, for now we near the stream of blood, where those who injure others violently, boil" (Alighieri, 12.46-48). Because God is love, love comes from God. God is the source of love. Like the electricity running through electrical wires, love comes from God to us, and then flows through us to others. When you violently injury another you are going against everything that God stands for, this is what makes this sin so contrast from God's love.

Dante comes to the worse place yet where "all the others here whom you can see were, when alive, the sowers of dissension and scandal, and for this they now are split" (Alighieri, 28.34-36). The Bible tells us that "a perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends" (Proverbs 16:28). Many a love has been ruined over a misunderstanding that started with gossip. Those who engage in this behavior do nothing but stir up trouble and cause anger,