Fraud vs. Violence

           In Dante's Inferno, in circle 7 and 8, sins of fraud seem to be punished more severely than sins of violence. This could be for many reasons including Dante's past with his exile, and his experience with Florentine government.                       
            In circle 7, round 3, the Usurers are punished with being violent against art. Usurers are people who charge interest to gain more money than they should. This punishment is that they must huddle on the burning sand in the desert, which is a severe punishment in hell compared to some of the others. Dante creates this punishment as so harsh because he seems to be highly against any sin that has to do with cheating in life in some way. This punishment of charging interest for any profit, is like cheating or deceiving your way into more money.      Dante's exile from Florence could be a cause to his severity towards theses specific sinners because Dante didn't cheat in life, and therefore he was exiled. So he seems to have a problem with the people who cheated in life and got away with success, so they must suffer in death as a consequence.
            Another example of Dante's severity towards fraud as opposed to violence is in circle 8, bolgia 2. This bolgia is where the flatterers are, which are people who flatter others with the motive of receiving something in return. Their punishment is to live in excrement and just constantly thump themselves in the head with their palms. This punishment is also a quite severe one, because the concept of false flattery is also a method to "cheating in life." When Dante speaks to one of the flatterers, he says,"'Down to this have the flatteries I sold/ the living sunk me here among the dead'" (148). Da Lucca says this to Dante when Dante seems to be staring at him in the pool of excrement. In this passage, he describes that he sold his flattery's, which means that Dante sees this as selling flattery's, in order to gain something in return. This illustrates Dante's harsh attitude towards their sin, and lets his feelings come out in da Lucca's words.
            The last example is in circle 8, bolgia 6, which was the hypocrites. In this bolgia, the hypocrites had to wear gold shiny cloaks, that are made of heavy lead, and walk along a narrow path. The idea of a hypocrite is more about fraud then deceiving because they are showing fake feelings on the outside, usually about religion, but feeling differently about it on the inside. "The outside is all dazzle, golden and fair;/the inside, lead, so heavy that Frederick's capes,/ compared to these, would seem light as air" (188). Dante's description of the cloaks from the outside symbolizes how the outside of hypocrites seems lovely and golden. However, since they are made of lead, on the inside they are full of guilt and this describes Dante's attitude towards their fraud in life, and how they should feel about committing this sin in life.