The Sins That People From “Hell” Dante Committed Essay

Introduction

I am a foreign student who is majoring in mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering is about the design, production, and use of machines and tools. I will be finishing my study in one year and my career goal is to work in a big company in Saudi Arabia. I believe this career will bring me fame and fortune in the field of mechanical engineering but I have been warned that I could easily stray from the true way and so I want to avoid the dark way of error.

There are three sins that I might be vulnerable to and may make me stray and fall into a deep place. From Dante’s Inferno, I have learned of the sins which people committed and the kind of punishment meted them upon death (Alighieri, “Inferno”, 2). As portrayed by Dante, all are punished according to the sins they committed while they were alive (Alighieri, “Dante’s Inferno”, VII). The inferno which describes hell is where all sins are punished. I begin my journey through the inferno on the eve of Christmas and end it on the evening of Christmas day. I meet Zeph (a long time deceased friend) who takes me through the inferno.

First circle (Betrayal)

The first sin I might be vulnerable to is betrayal and as I travel through the inferno I meet some of the people who were involved in this sin of betrayal. For their punishment, they are locked up in cells where there is heavy security. The cells are small and there are many of them in a single cell; there is no fresh air inside because the cell has only one small window. They look miserable and skinny. They are put here waiting to be thrown into the lake of fire. Here I meet Joseph’s jealous brothers (bible characters) who betrayed him and sold him into slavery. Reuben, the eldest of them all tells me how they found themselves here. He tells me about Joseph’s dreams in which all of them bowed before him. The brothers felt threatened and the only way to make this not happen was to get rid of him; this was a big betrayal.

I learn that they had plotted to kill Joseph but Reuben being the eldest advised them to throw him in a pit instead. This he did because he had a plan of rescuing him later and thus he blames his brothers for his being here. Reuben goes on to tell me of how Judah suggested they sell Joseph to Ishmaelite which they did and when Reuben came back wanting to save him, he found Joseph gone. He blames his brothers because he was not part of the plan in which his brothers sold Joseph. When they went home, they delivered to their dad a coat dipped in blood and lied to him that they had found it on their way home. Joseph’s father was greatly aggrieved because a coat soaked in blood could only mean that Joseph was dead.

Second Circle (Lust)

The second sin I might easily fall to is lust. In my journey through the inferno, I see people who were overcome by lust; they include celebrities, priests, clergy, doctors, musicians, dancers, and many other public figures. In this circle, they are punished by being put together in an open place which is surrounded by barbed wire, and here everybody who recognizes them can see them. They wear sack clothes printed allover ‘am an adulterer’ or ‘ama fornicator’. This is a punishment to embarrass them before they are thrown into the lake of fire. In this circle, I see Tiger Woods, a professional athlete, who confesses to me about his bad behavior due to lust. The lust based acts have brought so much shame to him, jeopardized his career, and also caused much pain to his family. He tells me he regrets with all his heart for letting his family down and for those transgressions. He blames himself for being weak but still says he’s not perfect and as a human being he’s not without any faults.

Tiger tells me of how the press humiliated him by printing lies about him on several occasions and blames it for tarnishing his name. He gives me an example of the car accident where the press printed that physical violence led to the accident. He feels that his privacy should have been protected especially that being an intimate matter and within his own family. Tiger was overcome by lust despite having had a very supportive and dutiful wife, Elin, who showed him enough grace than he expected. He wishes he would have been a better person to all his supporters, a better husband and the father his family deserves.

Third circle (violence)

The third sin I could easily fall into is violence. I visited another circle in the inferno which housed all the violent people who have sinned violence against people and property. They are put in prison waiting to be sentenced to death by hanging then they will be thrown in a fiery furnace where they will burn forever; this is the punishment they will receive for their sin. The gallows are waiting and the hangman’s noose is ready. The prison’s doors are made of heavy metal and guarded by heavily armed policemen. In this house, I was able to see many people who included leaders and presidents of different countries. These were involved in abuses of human rights, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, corruption, and nepotism among many others. This is where I meet Idi Amin Dada, who was the military dictator and president of Uganda.

I converse with Idi Amin Dada to find out why he is here and he tells me of how he ruled his country. He tells me about his rule, under which more than 100,000 people died as a result of human rights abuses, nepotism, extrajudicial killings, and ethnic persecutions (Melady & Melady 107). He led a corrupt government, there was political repression and the economy of the country was greatly mismanaged. He tells me of his death in Saudi Arabia. His wife went back to Uganda and reported that he was in a coma and almost dying. She tried to get permission from the current president, Yoweri Museveni, for her husband’s return. Museveni said that if he allowed him back, Amin would have to be held accountable for the sins he committed during his reign. He told me that he died in Saudi Arabia and was buried there. He doesn’t express remorse for his heinous acts of violence on his people and property arguing that his country needed him. He highly regrets that he is here and he’s very afraid of the punishment that he will have to face.

Conclusion

What Dante’s ‘inferno’ portrays or depicts is very caring and I wouldn’t want to find myself there. Here, everyone who sinned is punished equally regardless of his/her position or status (Alighieri, “Dante’s Inferno”, 4). Given I am about to finish my studies and looking forward to working in a big company in Saudi Arabia, I will avoid these sins that could lead to my being punished forever as hypothesized in the inferno.

Works Cited

Alighieri, Dante. Dante’s Inferno. Trans. Birk Sandow, & Sanders, Marcus. San Fransisco: Chronicle Books, 2004.

Alighieri, Dante. Inferno. Trans. Musa, Mark. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Melady, Thomas, Patrick & Melady, Margaret, Badum. Idi Amin Dada: Hitler in Africa. Kansas: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1977.