English Literature

As Dante follows Virgil into the dark and twisting depths of the forest in Canto 13 of his comedy, he has no idea what to expect. He has been subjected to the perils of the underworld and has learned much about what awaits his fellow man in the afterlife. In the beginning, this second circle of hell is quite confusing. The forest is full of suicides, and at first, Dante does not realize how their crimes fit the punishment they have wrought upon themselves. The souls are entrapped, forever shunning life, but also eternally alive. Furthermore, they cannot express their emotions unless they are feeling extreme pain and they shall forever be reminded of the deed they committed that cursed them into hell. However, after speaking to Pier and learning of his misfortunes, Dante realizes that the second circle of hell is full of extreme irony and in turn, is an extraordinarily just punishment.

The first major point of irony is the embodiment of the suicides souls as firmly rooted trees. Primarily, when people are feeling suicidal, they feel like they are trapped and unable to move forward in life. C H Grandgent puts it most aptly when he states that  The suicide uses his freedom of bodily movement only to deprive himself of it, robbing himself, by his own act, of that which corporeally distinguishes him from a plant. Such a sinner, then, his wicked deed eternalized, may aptly be figured as a tree or bush.  (Grandgent) Simply put, having bodies and being able to move  is what makes people human. By purposefully casting aside their physical bodies, and ergo, their abilities to move, the suicides have intentionally decided to cut out all that makes them human. In the second circle of hell, they are given the bodies that they have chosen through their actions.

There is a second irony that comes along with the new manifestations of the suicides soul. While they have decided to reject the ability to move about freely on earth, they have also lost the ability to express themselves. In fact, as John S. Carrol states, Pier was once a great poet and speaker. What Pier did not realize was that he was exchanging his human body for a form that would not even allow him to speak or express his own inner thoughts and feelings (Carrol). What is perhaps the most ironic about this situation is that in order for the suicides to regain the ability to speak, they must be injured. For example, Pier can speak when Dante picks off a twig (XIII. 31-33), but Pier also explains that when the Harpies come and eat their leaves, they create pain, and therefore give the trees an outlet to express that pain (XIII. 101-102). That said, the only way that the suicides can give voice to their thoughts is to accept a reminder that they once were human, with the ability to think, move, speak, and of course, feel pain, and lose blood. They are only given the ability to vocalize when they experience the human emotion of physical pain.

Although the suicides have given up all rights to their humanity, they still embody several very human characteristics. As discussed, they of course have the ability to feel pain. However, they also have the ability to feel self-pity. This is particularly ironic because it can be assumed that self-pity was a primary motivator for committing suicide. For instance, when Dante plucks off a piece of the tree in front of him, at Virgils urging, the tree begins to berate him. Pier cries,  Why dost thou mangle me After it had become embrowned with blood, It recommenced its cry Why dost thou rend me  (XIII. 33-35). However, this language is used again, when Pier begins to speak of his own suicide. When asked how he happened to find himself in the wood, he replies,  When the exasperated soul abandonsThe body whence it rent itself away (XIII. 94-95). It seems that when Pier soul left his body, it tore out completely, and now Pier must deal with the physical pain, the rending away of his body in the afterlife.

Despite the fact that Pier disowned his body, it remains a mystery as to why he finds himself in the second circle of hell that is, the circle reserved for violence. Again, Grandgent provides the answer. He states that Christianity has long put suicide on the same level as murder. The person committing the deed is throwing away a gift from God, a life that they have been ordered to live. In fact, there is an ironic similarity at play here. According to Robert Hollander Pier commits suicide because he has been accused of treachery. However, the act of killing himself commits him to an eternity in hell because he has become insubordinate to God (Grandgent).

Piers unyielding dedication to Fredrick also explains the underlying cause of his eternal predicament. Robert Hollander offers up a brief historical background on Pier delle Vigne. He was the minister of Emperor Fredrick II. He had worked his way up through the ranks and become one of his most trusted advisers. He worked for the emperor for over twenty years, but was accused of treachery, imprisoned and blinded, and shortly thereafter, killed himself (Hollander). In the years that Pier worked for Fredrick, it is obvious that the emperor had Piers complete devotion. In fact, Pier was so devoted to Fredrick that he would rather die than face the shame of having his mentor believe the lies about him. Throughout his entire adult life, Pier worshiped Fredrick instead of God, and when Fredrick turned against him, he could not bear it. Instead, he turned his back against God one final time, and landed in the second circle of hell as a result.

Indeed, when telling Dante his story, Pier is so overcome by Fredrick believing his betrayal that he says   I, by the roots unwonted of this woodDo swear to you that never broke I faithUnto my lord, who was so worthy of honourAnd to the world if one of you return,Let him my memory comfort  (XIII. 73-77). While Pier should be mourning and lamenting over his betrayal of God, he is instead beseeching Dante to tell Fredrick that he would never go against him. The great irony here is that Pier has spent his whole life devoted to a man who could do nothing for him in the afterlife. Instead, he betrayed his God, an act that Christianity finds unforgivable. Thus, he is sentenced to a life where he exists in a body that cannot function as a human, and yet his only concern is for a living man who can still do nothing for him, a concern that colors him as a pathetically helpless man.

Another huge ironic twist comes at the end of the Canto. Dante is still perplexed about how the punishment fits the crime. Although there are many small ways in which the dead are forced to recall their betrayals, the everlasting punishment has yet to be revealed. Upon Virgils urging, Pier discloses what the rapture has in store for them. Every person on the planet will reclaim their bodies, and their souls will slip back into the body they left behind. The suicides will get to reclaim their bodies, however they are not allowed to re-emerge with what they have purposefully discarded. Instead, they will be forced to drag their carcasses back to the woods, and hang the soulless bodies from their thorny branches (XIII. 103-108). They will be forced to realize their mistakes and betrayal, and will instead have to spend eternity looking upon the body that they desperately wish to repossess, the body that they willingly and violently shed.

The final lines of the canto are perhaps among the most ironic, and at the same time, the most heart-wrenching. There is a chase through the woods, where two men came crashing through the woods, with two she-mastiffs on their heels. One of them sought shelter in a bush, but the dog found her prey and tore it to bits. After the animals had fled, Dante and his guide approached the bleeding and damaged shrub. He cried out helplessly,   O souls, that hither comeTo look upon the shameful massacreThat has so rent away from me my leaves,Gather them up beneath the dismal bush  (XIII 139-142). Even though in life these people had been desperate to rid themselves of their earthly bodies, in death, they cannot bear to lose even a single leaf of their existence.

In conclusion, Dantes work in Canto 13 seems to be rather mysterious on the surface. The people who committed suicide are stuck in a life that appears to bear no relevance to the crime and betrayal that they committed in tearing their soul from the flesh. However, upon further investigation it is proven that the crime does indeed fit the punishment. The men who were so eager to lose their earthly connection are found bound to the ground for eternity by the very roots they tried so hard to sever. In addition, they have lost every benefit of being human, and instead can only experience the pain. Dante manages to effortlessly turn the sin around on the sinner and show the true nature of both sin and consequence, by revealing that sometimes the act committed to escape a situation is one that only further entangles.  Dante masterfully combines irony with sympathy to populate the second circle of  hell with characters that are relate-able and realistic, and a punishment that is certainly just.