For much of the history of Christianity, there have not been many details provided to Christians regarding the depiction and workings of Hell. The most that has been provided are perhaps a few sentences in the Bible, but other than that, most of medieval Europe knew that good people go to Heaven, and bad people go to Hell. “The Inferno” by Dante Alighieri allows us for the first time to take a close look at just how complex Hell is, and the many layers of Hell that are organized based on the sins of the damned.
In “The Inferno” we are presented with so many vile and repulsive scenes that the people of Dante’s time would have been aghast that something so disgusting, such as the scene where the gluttons are eating what is basically human excrement. In another scene, the wrathful are in constant conflict, with each one clawing at one another in an endless cycle. This leads me to come up with the question: Why would Dante want to depict Hell in such a gruesome manner? While yes, we do know that Hell is not going to be paradise and there will be torture involved for those who committed great sins, why go so far as to graphically depict gluttons eating and swimming in excrement? There are other scenes that are tamer than the ones mentioned above, but Dante is trying to tell us something: Don’t commit sin, or else you will find yourself in the exact same place as these sinners.
Would there be any other way that Dante could tell us not to commit sin in a less graphic manner? Or did Dante knew that people are and will always be imperfect, and would need something extreme to change their sinful ways?
Hi Jose, this is Jan.
Your blog post is excellent as you addressed some very important points, and asked equally important questions with regards to Dante Alighieri’s vision of Hell in “The Inferno.”
Christianity as we know has somewhat evolved, and has became modernized in some aspects. One of the causes of this is the fact that starting in late 18th century information not only travelled via person to person but also by new modern means.. Even before the age of Internet, we had already started information revolution via greater access to books by general public, radio, and finally the era of TV. As information traveled faster and in more academic format, we became less reliant on what the preachers and priests had to say of God, Heaven, Hell, and how to live our lives. Having said that, however little the true modernization of Christianity might be, the main cause was the fact that our standard of living has gone up by quite a bit.
This in fact explains the gruesome depiction of Hell by Dante. In most instances, the life in Dante’s time was quite cruel and difficult, to say the least. People were burdened with hunger, endless wars, and serious terminal diseases. Even without the hunger or diseases, life was just very tough as it offered none of the luxuries or securities that we have become so accustomed to nowadays. In other words, regardless of the fact what actual Hell might be like, people had to be convinced that Hell is much worse place to be than the toughest life on Earth.
Therefore, to answer your question; probably wouldn’t be effective if Dante portrayed less graphic and gruesome vision of Hell to the people of his time because it lacked law & order of today’s world, as well as the much higher standard of living. In addition, such sins only added to the misery of people, especially for the ordinary peasants who were of no value to higher class except as a source of labor. Also, this probably helped to protect the higher class to some degree by limiting murder, rape, and stealing by the lower class who were more numerous.
Furthermore, despite imperfect but well established law & order in today’s world, the depicted vision of Hell and Heaven has great effect on how people live their lives as they try to obey the teachings of Bible, and as well as other religious scriptures.