Idolatry In Dante's Inferno Essay

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, idolatry is defined as “the worship of a picture or object as god,” as well as an “immoderate attachment or devotion to something” (Merriam-Webster.com). Idolatry is a grave sin that turns man’s focus away from God, and toward earthly pleasures and possessions. Though all things in Creation are inherently good since they are made by God, an unhealthy and intemperate devotion to things other than God leads to no other end than man’s undoing. Dante illustrates the role of idolatry for many sinners in his Inferno, as he encounters many of the damned and their self-piteous stories. Three instances where idolatry is particularly prominent are Dante’s encounters with Francesca da Rimini, the avaricious and the prodigal, and Pier delle Vigne. Dante’s first encounter with idolatry is through Francesca da Rimini, in the second circle of the lustful. Francesca tells her pitiful story of how she and her lover, Paolo, were reading the story of Sir Lancelot and Guinevere. The passage of Lancelot and

Here, as Virgil explains, is where those who “could not judge with moderation when it came to spending” are punished (VII.41-42). They are forced to push enormous weights against each other, and when the clash, they scream, “‘Why hoard?,’ the other side, ‘Why waste?” (VII.30). The idol of the two classes of sinners is obviously money. While they worship it differently-one side hoarding it greedily, and the other spending it extravagantly-they both place money above God. No specific souls are mentioned by name in this circle, and perhaps this is because money is quite a common idol, of which many are susceptible to becoming a slave. Any number of sinners could be placed in this circle, and Dante shows that one must exercise great caution when dealing with money, lest they, too, fall subject to avarice or