Violent Against Their Neighbors

Dante shows much outrage in The Inferno toward his contemporaries in regards to the different sins individuals have committed.  This outrage can relate to modern society today.  Authorities made an arrest on December 6, 2010 in the first homicide ever in Celebration, Florida, a Disney-developed community.  David-Israel Murillo, a homeless man, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for the death of 58-year-old Matteo Giovanditto.  According to investigators, Giovanditto was beaten and strangled to death inside his condominium sometime over Thanksgiving weekend.  Murillo and Giovanditto had known each other for about a year and a half before the murder.  The two men had been drinking on November 24 and got into a fight soon after.  Murillo became angry and beat Giovanditto unconscious with an ax he found in the closet.  When investigators brought Murillo in for questioning, they found out he was trying to sell coins that Giovanditto owned.  Detectives soon found Giovanditto's iPad, money, and collector's coins at the homeless camp where Murillo was living.

It makes me mad how a person kills another person just because of a conflict they did not agree on.  Everyone has fights and disagreements as some point in life, but they shouldn't get to the point where one is fighting for their own life.  If the two men got in a fight, they should have settled their disagreements in a manneristic way or apologized instead.  Murdering someone is not the way to go; in this case it is a selfish act.  Murillo killed Giovanditto so he could acquire some of Giovanditto's belongings that included cash, an iPad, and collector's coins.  Why would you want to take someone's life just to obtain some belongings you wanted?  Will that bring you one step closer to reaching your goal?  Murdering an individual does not conceal trouble; instead it stirs up even more trouble that the murderer got himself caught in in the first place.

Dante addresses this issue in The Inferno in Circle Seven.  The crime described above would go under Violent Against their Neighbors, people who committed murder.  According to Dante, these sinners' punishment are they are stuck in a river of boiling blood, and centaurs stab them with spears and shoot them with arrows when attempting to rise from the river.  I believe that Dante and I would be in agreement regarding this issue.  Killing a human being is a horrible sin no matter what, so there needs to be consequences for it.  Therefore, the individuals who were violent against their neighbors have to boil in the blood that they spilled in life, and since they committed violence towards others, they will have violence upon them forever.

The video to the right of this is an interpretation made by some students on Circle Seven for an English project.  The first part of the video is on Violent Against their Neighbors, the round that relates to moral outrage of modern society.

Source: http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=13625289

Blog Post Two

"Master," I said, "tell me--now that you touch
on this Dame Fortune--what is she, that she holds
 the good things of the world within her clutch?"

And he to me: "O credulous mankind,
is there one error that has wooed and lost you?
Now listen, and strike error from your mind:

That king whose perfect wisdom transcends all,
made the heavens and posted angels on them
to guide the eternal light that it might fall

from every sphere to every sphere the same.
He made earth's splendors by a like decree
and posted as their minister this high Dame

the Lady of Permutations.  All earth's gear
she changes from nation to nation, from house to house,
in changeless change through every turning year.

No mortal power may stay her spinning wheel.
The nations rise and fall by her decree.
None may foresee where she will set her heel:
                                                   
Circle four, which focuses on the Hoarders and Wasters, contains many elements of language.  For example, Dante's is in a curious mood, as shown when he asks Virgil about Dame Fortune, "...what is she, that she holds the good things of the world within her clutch?" (74).  You can infer that Dante is interested to know about Dame Fortune, someone who he is not familiar with, when he emphasizes the word, "is" and repeats the word, "she."  Virgil tells Dante that he is a gullible man, saying that error has persuaded and tricked him, but Virgil goes on to explain that Dame Fortune is selected by God to oversee the magnificence of Earth.  On the other hand, Virgil reveals that Dame Fortune represents Chance in medieval symbolism.  Good things and bad things happen in the world, and only Dame Fortune is responsible for them.  She plays an important role in Dante's plan of the Universe.  Since she is chosen to watch over Earth, the changes of Earth happen as a result of the spinning of her wheel.  Spinning represents change because as a wheel turns, it changes positions and direction; the earth can also change position and direction by rotating around the sun, just like a wheel.  In terms of diction, Dante says that Dame Fortune is also called the Lady of Permutations.  The word, "permutations," means change, which is related to the changes of Earth she controls.  In the second stanza of this passage, Virgil repeats the word, "error."  This pattern of the word suggests that mistakes have impacted Dante on his journey through Hell, whether they helped him or harmed him.

The theme of Circle Four is greed.  As mentioned earlier, Dame Fortune "changes from nation to nation, from house to house,/in changeless change through every turning year" (74).  In other words, she changes the fortunes of people's lives.  One of these changes is money, which involves greed.  Individuals who are changed by fortune either lose or gain depending on his impulse.  Since one is defined by money in life by being greedy, he is undefined in death.

The song below is called Money, by The Flying Lizards.  Money can be acquired by greed, and greed is one thing that Dame Fortune can change with the spinning of her wheel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_iQZiVD_zA

Blog Post One

Dante describes the first circle of Hell as a serene environment, containing a dome of light, a sweet brook, and a green meadow blooming.  He says, "No tortured wailing rose to greet us here, but sounds of sighing rose from every side" (50).  Usually you would think that the first part of Hell would be filled with immediate suffering and pain instead of portraying a tranquil atmosphere, and the punishment would be very harsh.  Dante describes the environment as a peaceful place to make the first punishment seem not so bad.  He does this to trick the mind, making the reader think that Hell isn't so bad, but in actuality it gets worse and worse.  The sighing in the circle also indicates that this first circle of Hell is not so severe in the beginning.  Although Dante portrays Circle One as a peaceful place, there are still sinners and punishments that he and Virgil will encounter.

The Virtuous Pagans, the first set of sinners, were born before Christ, therefore they cannot get into heaven because since they did not get to know Christ in life, they will not know Him in death.  They cannot come into the light of God if they never know Christ.  Even though they are in Hell, Virgil emphasizes their likeable personalities when he says to Dante, "I wish to know before you travel on/that these were sinless" (50).  Virgil stops Dante to tell him that the Virtuous Pagans really weren't terrible people; they did not disobey God nor committed sins.  Thus, they were cast into Hell because their lives came before Christ.  Although their punishment is not very harsh, it still impacts the sinners.  Dante says that they "lacked Baptism's grace" (50).  Baptism is an important part of Christianity because it is a necessary part of salvation, and since they were born before Christianity, they have to stay in Hell forever due to this unfair and uncontrollable consequence.  Dante also says that the Virtuous Pagans are "spared the fire" of Hell (51).  When you usually think of fire, you think of the bright color it produces, and it is a symbol of destruction, pain, and chaos.  The Pagans can do without this severe pain, destruction, and chaos fire brings, and instead "live on in desire" (51).
Poets and philosophers, like Homer, Horace, and Ovid, are mostly found in Limbo, and they do not experience the "fire" of Hell, as mentioned above.  For one thing they were born before Christ, but since they are philosophers and poets, human reason blocks them the hope of seeing God.  This human reason is not led by God, therefore it is not enough to go into heaven.  Likewise, many of the philosophers live in the Great Citadel, or a castle.  The Great Citadel represents philosophy, or human reason.  But, this human reason produces is own light, not the light of God.  Therefore, the castle is eternally separated from God's magnificent light, and in Hell it will be surrounded in darkness eternally.

Dante symphathizes with the Virtuous Pagans because of their sin and punishment, feeling sorry and pity for them.  He says, "I thought how many worthy souls there were/suspended in that Limbo, and a weight/closed on my heart for the noblest suffer" (51).  You can tell the words "weight," "closed," and "suffer" are used in a negative context, and Dante knows the Virtuous Pagans are in a sad situation because they didn't do anything wrong.  Dante also mentions how a weight closed on his heart.  The heart is a symbol of joy and compassion.  When the weight closed on Dante's heart, all the joy and compassion his heart contains is shut out.  When the joy and compassion is locked out, all hope is also locked out of the Virtuous Pagans' hearts, resulting in them not being able to have the hope to know Christ forever.