Dante’s Inferno

Dante’s Inferno

The first circle of Hell is called Limbo. In this circle, the people “are innocent of sin; however, lacking Baptism, they could not claim its saving grace, and thus are doomed forever” (IV, 34-36). One famous person who fits into this circle of Hell is Mahatma Gandhi. He was a follower of the Hindu religion, and therefore he was never baptized in the Christian faith. As a result, “for these faults, not for any other defect, we are lost; our only pain is hopeless unfulfilled desire” (IV, 40-42). For his punishment he will be filled with hopeless unfulfilled desire because they never paid the Lord his due respect. He is in this level because he was a good person, just not baptized.

The second level of Hell is reserved for the lustful. In this circle are “those who like to practice carnal sin, when reason is by furtive lust ensnared” (V, 38-39). William Clinton belongs in this circle because of his affair with Monica Lewinsky. He is a married man who cheated on his wife for a secretary because he could not control his lustful urges. In this level his punishment is to be “hurled to and fro in random flecks, devoid of hope of rest, and rest of pain, to which they are eternally transfixed” (V, 43-45). The souls are trapped in a giant wind storm full of pain, which they cannot escape from. This punishment fits the sin because just as they could not control themselves in life, they cannot control what they do in Hell.

The third circle of Hell is for the gluttonous. Takeru Kobayashi belongs in this circle of Hell “for the crime of gluttony” (VI, 53). He was the 2006 Nathans International Hot Dog Eating Contest champion. He finished fifty three and three quarters hot dogs in just twelve minutes. He is one of the best examples of gluttony on the Earth. For this crime he is forced to live in filth and excrement, and eat excrement and mud while being eaten by dogs in a storm of freezing rain. This punishment fits the crime because while he was alive he gorged his body with unnecessary amounts of food, so now he must gorge on the filth he created by wasting so much in his real life and now he knows what it is like to be eaten.

The fourth circle of Hell is for the avaricious and prodigal. In this circle are the “squanderers and hoarders who enslaved themselves” (VII, 58). George W. Bush belongs in this circle of Hell for his squandering of the taxpayers money on an unpopular war, while cutting taxes to the upper-class (including himself), escalating the national debt like never before. They roll “enormous weights around with their chests” (VII, 27). This punishment is fitting because Bush has caused enormous strain on the American people and now he will have to feel the force of the pressure he has put on society to make up for his incompetence.

The fifth circle of Hell is for the wrathful. In this level are “the souls of those who were possessed by anger” (VII, 115-116). The members of the Westborough Baptist Church belong in this circle because their entire live have become devoted to hating people who do not think and act like they do. They travel around the country yelling at and harassing people, telling them how they hate them and how they are wrong. The punishment is they are “muddied to the eyes, stark naked, and of bloody-minded mien, who beat each other with a wild surmise: not only fisticuffs, but head-butts, chest-butts, feet; and with their teeth they cannibalized” (VII, 110-114). Since they felt so vicious in life, they must now face the same voracity from others on Hell.

The sixth circle of Hell is for the heretics. The people in this level “are heresiarchs of every sect” (IX, 127-128). These people betray what they say they believe in. Oprah Winfrey belongs in this level of Hell because she is a heretic. She says that she cares about giving money to charities and encourages people to give as much as they can. However, she does not give a very large percentage of her income to charity. She has founded charities and has given roughly five hundred thousand dollars; however that is still not that much of her money in comparison to her average annual income. She still has enough money to have a personal assistant for each of her two dogs and several mansions. She