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Theme Of Greed In Dantes Inferno

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Avarice The story of “Dante’s Inferno”, by Dante Alighieri is a dark story which depicts nine circles of Hell. The one circle of Hell that we will be discussing is that of greed which happens to be the fourth circle. In the Fourth Circle of Hell, Dante and Virgil see the souls of people who are punished for greed. They are divided into two groups (The Prodigal and the Miserly), those who hoarded possessions and those who lavishly spent it. They use great weights as a torture mechanism where they are pushing them with their chests. This symbolizes their selfish drive for fortune during their lifetime. As they make their way further down, they come across a swamp filled with naked people with their faces scared by rage. One other form of greed is that of anger, which overcame these terrorized souls. The two groups are guarded by a character called Pluto which also happens to be the God of Wealth from the Underworld. The fourth circle (Greed), is one of the iniquities that most incurs Dante's scornful wrath, thus is of great importance to understanding the text. Greed is briefly depicted throughout the entire story but more so in Canto VII. Here the men see two groups of angry, shouting souls boiling alive in gold and others who would clash huge rolling weights against each other with their chests. They are divided into the Prodigal and the Miserly. Their greedy nature with material goods is what landed them there in the first place. The Prodigal souls are the ones that spent

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