In the first circle of hell, Virgil and Dante meets a group of virtuous people. These great people have not committed any sins other than being non-believers. Fittingly, therefore, that on this circle of hell, the shades of these people are not directly punished, unlike those in the other levels. Even though there is no direct punishment, these people are indirectly tortured by being stuck in this limbo forever. Only a few of these people – Adam and Eve, Abel and Noah, Moses, Abram, David, and Israel – were able to achieve salvation when Jesus descended into hell. They did not reach salvation because they are more noble or more virtuous than the other people; rather, they reached salvation because they are characters from the old testament, which serves as a progenitor to Christianity. The other great people in this limbo, therefore, have no real hope to ascend into heaven, even though they are more than qualified to.
In a way, this form of punishment is similar to the living nonbelievers. Though nonbelievers of Christianity are not committing any punishable crimes, they do not have access to the religious communities. According to the brief introduction of Dante and the context of his writings, Christianity plays a significant role in everyday lives in Florence, influential not only culturally, but also politically. By being an nonbeliever, therefore, one would be relatively powerless, thereby also stuck in a limbo, unable to serve in high offices that Christians were able to.
The opinion that either of these situations (stuck in the first circle of hell or denied access to Christian circles) are seen as punishments, however, is only my speculation.It is certainly possible that this perception comes from the negativity associated with hell, and that these great people, who believe in other religions, do not perceive the first level of hell as a bad place. Aristotle, for example, is with “his philosophic family.” In this realm, timeless, without needing to worry about food, shelter, or health, Aristotle and his philosophers can theorize and ponder forever, which makes this first circle of hell like the highest stage of heaven. In fact, this sounds even better than heaven: in this level of hell, these great people do not need to spend time practicing rituals and ceremonies of a religion that they do not believe in, and they are among souls like themselves.
In addition to what you said about how the First Circle sounds even better than heaven, I think Dante’s description of how there was light where these non-Christians were, which further proves your point on how this First Circle isn’t so bad. In fact, it is a place of light, which may be symbolic of knowledge since so many great minds are located in this circle.
I had not previously considered that the inhabitants of the first circle of hell might not consider their fate a punishment. Your argument that the people in Limbo who are not Christian would not have to follow religious practices that they do not believe in is a good one. It makes it seem as though their fate is not so bad, and perhaps they prefer to be there. However Dante’s description in Canto IV that “there were no wails but just the sounds of sighs. . . the sounds of sighs of I tormented grief” (Lines 26-28) leads me to think that just as many people are not happy to be there.