Dante believes fraud to be a more evil sin than murder and suicide and expresses this feeling in Inferno. In Circle 7, Dante begins by going through a round dedicated to those whom committed murder. These murderers are submerged in a pit of boiling blood which Dante explains, "But turn your eyes to the valley; there we shall find/the river of boiling blood in which are steeped/all who struck down their fellow men" (112). The blood symbolizes all of the blood which they had spilled throughout their lives. He next moves through a round for those whom have committed suicide. We now see the sinners portrayed as trees which can only express how they feel when they are torn apart. Because when they were alive they would only express themselves through hurting themselves, the same is in death. Dante states, "Its foliage was not verdant, but nearly black/the unhealthy branches, gnarled and warped and tangled/bore poison thorns instead of fruit" (119). Here Dante wonders what the vines actually are and questions if they are the actual souls. These sins are rather high up for having killed someone, or oneself.

As Dante continues his journey he ventures into a round dedicated to those whom have been violent against God, nature, and to art. Those considered violent against art are men and women whom have charged interest throughout their life. He considers all of these sins as worse than committing murder and shows this by making them lower in hell. These men and women are all punished by having what they wanted in life flaunted before them, out of reach, in death.

As previously discussed in class, alienation is oftentimes viewed worse than union. When one commits murder, whether it be for a good cause or not, there is still a reason which you do it and many times the murderer is connected to some other organization or group. Although someone suffers, someone else is being benefited. The same goes for suicide. When someone commits suicide, they are finally at peace with themselves. Fraud is different than these. When someone uses fraud to get ahead they are doing it solely for self-cause. The person committing fraud is alienating himself from society because he is showing that all he cares about is making money and not the people surrounding him.

I do not agree with Dante's view on these sins. I believe that murder is much worse than fraud because, by murdering one person, many others are suffering. If a girl is murdered, that girl has parents and sometimes siblings, along with friends all of whom suffer when that one girl is killed. I think that murder is an extreme act which can never be fixed while fraud, while still bad, can be fixed and one's actions can be changed. While money will also be around, once a person is killed, they will never come back.

Throughout Dante's Inferno, fortune and fate are extremely important themes. Fate is what brought Dante on the journey in the first place and therefore has a huge role throughout his journey. In Circle Four, Dante and Virgil discuss Dame Fortune. They both begin to express how they believe that fate rules above all and that nothing and no one can change one's fate. Dante says, "No mortal power may stay her spinning wheel/The nations rise and fall to her decree/None may foresee where she will set her heel" which expresses how he feels. When he says that "the nations rise and fall to her decree", he is saying that she controls what happens to everyone. This is interesting because, in Christianity, Dante believed that God controlled everything yet he personifies fate as something completely different. It makes one ponder how "in touch" Dante was with his religion at the time. He may have been writing the book in order to understand his religion better.

As Dante keeps talking, he goes so far as to compare fate to a god. Dante goes on to say, "She passes, and things pass. Man's mortal reason/cannot encompass her. She rules her sphere/as the other gods rule theirs. Season by season..." and explains how he believes that fate has just as much power as a god. By saying this he also shows that he believes that there may be more than one god. Many people second guess what they believe and question things that have been so solid throughout their life and this is exactly what Dante is doing. He is going against what the entire book is about by saying that there is more than one god and that fate has just as much power.

Fate is also shown differently than it is in other parts of the book. Throughout the book Dante has known that it was his fate to go on this journey but he believes that it was through God's will. Here, he is saying that fate is the only thing that can determine what happens to a person. He shows that he believes fate is different than God and that it is almost more powerful than God.

The Gates of Hell state that God created hell because he wanted for men to have the choice between right and wrong but know that, whatever their choice, they will have to suffer the consequences. The Gates say, "I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE/I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE/I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW" (42). The "I" here is referring to God and God is saying that he understands that hell is full of pain, sorrow, and suffering. In fact, he created hell so that it was full of sorrow and that whomever entered it would be forever suffering. Reading only these lines, one would think that no one would ever choose to enter into hell, they would have to be forced or manipulated into thinking that it was greater than it may appear. Many think that God created hell for "payback" to all those whom had done him wrong during life or had turned from him, but this is not true.

The Gates go on to say that hell was created for a divine purpose and for the good of mankind. It states, "SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT/I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE/PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT" (42). As God says this he shows that he created hell out of love and that he did it because he is all-knowing. When God says that he was "raised here by divine omnipotence, primordial love and ultimate intellect" he is showing that he first did it because he is all-knowing and knows what is best for all. Second, he did it because he loves mankind and wants it to have whatever it wishes, be it bad or good. Lastly, "ultimate intellect" is often used to describe faith. Therefore, he created hell having faith that few would choose hell while many would choose heaven.

Dante goes on to ask Virgil what the inscription means and Virgil gives him a rather simplistic yet truthful answer. But the real answer as to why people would ever choose to enter into hell lies in Dante's view. He goes on to say, "...With a gentle and encouraging smile/he led me through the gate of mystery" (42). As Dante says "the gate of mystery" he shows why men would ever want to enter through it. Men crave what they don't know. Even if they know that there may be bad or evil behind it, they have a desire to see for themselves. Men love to see how far they can go but many end up falling. The Gates symbolize the line that can't be crossed, but once you cross the line there is no going back. The Gates symbolize the mystery of testing the line and seeing just how far is too far. That is why anyone would wish to enter into hell. Although men have been plenty warned, they still choose to test the line and to see how far is too far.