8th Circle 8 Essay

In Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, the 8th circle of Hell is the most mentioned out of all of them, signifying that Dante truly believed there was something important with it. Circle 8 deals with the sinners that have committed some type of fraud against other people. These sinners have significance to Dante Alighieri, mainly for one reason. Circle 8 is the most devoted to in the Inferno because of the fact that fraud can be seen as being mainly committed by humans and not the monsters found in Hell. It can be argued that the most important sin in the poem is the sin of fraud, and this can be seen in the Three Beasts. Virgil states, “She mates with any beast, and will mate with more before the Greyhound comes to hunt her down. He will not feed on hands nor loot, but honor and

This emphasizes its importance because it shows that Dante is already prioritizing this, even though we don’t get to this section of Hell until later on. Its appearance on Earth shows that fraud is not something that the beasts in Hell are capable of committing, the humans are the ones who commit this vile sin. This adds to why it is the most devoted in the poem, as it shows that because there are just so many types of fraud we as humans can commit, there is so much to talk about. To Dante, fraud is something that is so vile to the eyes of God, that it ends up being one of the most complex sections of Hell. Humans bring the guilt of committing fraud with their souls to Hell, which is why the symbolism of rarely showing their face is found here. Dante states, “From every mouth a sinner’s legs stick out as far as the calf. The soles were all ablaze and the joints of the legs quivered and writhed about.” (167 22-4). This shows why a human’s ability is so emphasized in the poem, as humans will feel the guilt of committing this fraud, not the