“Here i saw more than before people, on either side, with loud cries and heavy weights being rolled by their chests.”
It is enough for a person to be filled with the struggle of reaching new heights. Imagine Sisyphus as happy.
– Albert Camus discussed the concept of the Myth of Sisyphus in his literature.
In Confessions, St. Augustine defines Sin as the alienation of God. Inferno, Dante affirms the same conception. Augustine tends, however to highlight the negative aspects human freedom — it was the cause of the Fall that separated man and God — while Dante uses a discerning blend. By extending Augustinian views, Dante defends a possible human virtue independent of God. In Inferno characters such as Ulysses, who display a unique human grandeur, are examples of this possibility. Dante keeps the Augustinian structure but continues to poeticize free will’s heroic potential, which can be used to help redeem some souls who are in the hell.
Augustine passes almost all judgements on the omnipotent God. In almost all his speech, he demonstrates this worldview: “Who is going to grant me your coming into my heart? To intoxicate and enchant it, that I might forget my sins, and embrace you, the only one good in my life?” (I.v.5]). God being a “one-and-only good,” Confessions is set along an axis connecting the corrupted deity and the corrupted individual. God must be accepted by man in order for him to live virtuously. The Lord can only be embraced by man through the grace of God. This holy embrace is the only way that man’s natural sin can be defeated.
Inferno’s universe is more secular than Confessions. Dante avoids addressing God every other stanza with an apostrophe. The divine’s rhetorical flourishes are limited to “Gods art” (21.16). God is not present, despite the fact that Hell’s design is divine at every step and level. The second canto’s great chain of being, which connects Virgil with Beatrice and Lucia and the Virgin Mary to God at the end, further demonstrates this enormous chasm.
This celestial sound serves two functions. This silence reinforces a concept that is found in Confessions: there is a large distance between God and His creations, including sinners. God’s absence in Cocytus seems to make sense because sinners living there are spiritually and physically far from God. The near absence of a omnipotent god allows for greater freedom in human thought and action, which is what Dante uses to develop his humanistic perspective.
To understand the candle, it is necessary to examine Augustine’s views on sin and free will. Augustine says that “crime was the piquante sauce” in reference to the incident he had with the pears (II.vi.12). Other words, Augustine sinned to sin’s sake. Augustine explains that his crime was motivated by this: “I enjoyed the self destruction, I enjoyed my fall. I did not love the object I had fallen for, but I did enjoy my fall.” (II.iv[9]). Adam chose the freedom to choose his actions by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Augustine also committed his crime as a result of asserting himself without divine guidance. The self-destruction was a pleasure to him because, paradoxically, it was a form of self-creation. It gave him elation from the sense of agency.
Augustine’s adult pessimism is understandable, especially after he has had such a positive experience in his youth. Augustine is concerned with the negative effects of free will, which are not good but can make mankind less close to God. He denounces human agency, saying that it “asserts a faint resemblance of omnipotence (II.vi.14]). Augustine believes Adam was happy and innocent before his fall, because he lived under a plan from God. Only through his free will did he become tainted.
Augustine asserts that virtue cannot exist apart from worshipping God. He says, “The Soul fornicates…when It is turned from You and searches Outside of You the Pure and Clear Intentions which can only be found by Returning to You.” All humanity copies you in their perverted ways” (II.vi.14). Hence, attempting to define virtue in a humanistic way will be futile. In the Augustinian view, man can’t exercise his will independently to be good, even if it resembles perfect divinity. Men may try to emulate the virtues and institutions of God but they only pervert themselves. Augustine writes, “[T]hey exalt themselves and distance themselves from [you]” (II.vi.14). Other words, although humans strive to emulate godly virtues in order to gain divine grace, they actually end up further from God.
Augustine explains at least two of the reasons that such mortal pretenses to virtue are doomed to failure. Augustine, while not denying the dignity of moral striving by humans, which he refers to as the “urge of self-assertion”, (II.v. [10]), claims that this progress will never be able to approach the greatness God. Progress can only be a hollow imitation of the infinite goodness that God is (II.vi.14]). It would be a mistake to become so absorbed with the workings of the world that one loses sight of the ultimate goal. Augustine emphasizes this by repeatedly urging people to humble themselves before God. After all, the only way one can achieve goodness is through God’s generosity, not the collective effort or soul of the whole world.
Augustine also believes that people are not able to be heroic and virtuous in themselves. Augustine’s antipathy toward self-sufficiency in humans is amply demonstrated when he asserts, “[n]o person who understands their frailty can attribute to themselves chastity and innocent” (II.vii[15]). Augustine criticizes man’s weakness and vulnerability to worldly ideologies. Then he praises God’s overwhelming grace for saving such a miserable man. Augustinian thinking is expressed in this contrast. The man cannot achieve innocence and chastity by himself. These virtues, however, are not within his grasp and are only available through God.
Inferno presents two very different presentations. Limbo, the place where “no sinners” rest (Inferno 4,34), is at odds with Confessions. Their only fault, according to Inferno, was not having received baptism, the gateway into faith (4,36). Dante has to decide whether to condemn pagans who do not believe in God as Christians or praise their virtues. Augustine’s teachings are radically different from Dante’s. Augustine clearly states that the soul sins when it is not focused on God. Augustine’s view of paganism as fornication is obvious.
Dante does not, however, interpret paganism in the same way as fornication. The pagans were not Christians, so it was impossible for them to know and worship God (4.37-8). Their fornication is therefore partially excused because they didn’t will it. Dante and Augustine seem to view sin as being inherently connected to freewill. He seems, unlike Augustine to give more credit to virtues that can exist without knowing God. Dante believes that the spirits in Limbo are truly paragons because they live a secular life. Dante does not elevate them to a higher plane because they never received baptism. However, baptism appears to be a mere technicality. It is not enough to justify damnation. Dante therefore does not put these souls into Hell. Limbo, or the space in-between the worlds of the saved, and the hell, is a place that seems to be fundamentally a space of humanistic virtue.
Dante is impressed by the magnificence of this construction. He describes a lush meadow reminiscent the Virgilian Elysium populated with “people of slow, grave gazes and great authority” (4.112-2). He says, “I feel exalted at this sight” (4.119-20). The poetry reveals the noblesse of these great souls. Dante lifts (4.130). his brow in order to join Socrates (4.133-4) and Plato. According to Dante they still enjoy honor (4.133-4). Limbo reveals a dimension of human virtue and will, independent of God. Souls are larger than they appear, as if they were ancient supermen. Dante depicts intelligent, self-sufficient humans who are lucid in their intelligence. Although they are not God, the portrayal of them almost implies that they don’t need Him. They live in desire, but without hope (4.41-42).
Augustine’s treatment of such a Limbo-like depiction would be anything but respectful. He would most likely emphasize the Fall, which led to Original Sin. Man was placed in a world that is different from God’s, after the Golden Age. Only in humility and submission to God can man find salvation: “Let him not ask ‘What? Let him stop saying it. He is the man. Anaxagoras or Democritus (4.137-142) are no longer relevant. It was a form of omnipotence for man to question why and where. He would pretend that he is God. Augustine was convinced that God is the only way to make things clear. Augustine’s attack against the Neoplatonists (VII.xxi, 27) who lack a humble and contrite spirit is an example of this polemic. Augustine demonstrates that human virtue and wisdom are always limited by the 1 Corinthians 4:17 verse: “For what does he have which he did not receive?” (VII.xxi[27]). Augustine’s epistemology places divine revelation in the forefront, because what may be hidden from the wise is revealed to the baby (VII.xxi [27]).
Dante, Augustine and other thinkers differ in their opinions on the punishments of Paganists. Augustine’s Confessions scorns a strong human will that is so intransigent it needs divine help. Monica is perhaps the greatest example of virtue. She is “servant to your servants”, (IX.ix [22]). Her main virtues are patience and devotion, not independence. Augustine rejects also the Socratic concept of man who can only do good if he is aware of the truth about good and evil.
Yet I was still bound downward to the Earth” (VIII.v. [11]). Strength is only associated with those who are determined to reach out to God. This suggests that strength comes from the Lord’s grace. Victorinus, for example, declares his faith “ringingly confident” (VIII.ii[5]). Those who were pagan and accompanied the newly converted Roman officials “dragged their hearts along” (VIII.vi [15]). Converts or Christians are often portrayed as strong, but their strength is only apparent if they have faith and obey God. Faustus and other supposed leaders are incompetent, with little knowledge.
Dante, on the other hand, seems less inclined than Augustine towards ascribed pagan thought to false, proud wisdom. Augustine defines man as born with a sinful nature, but Dante acknowledges pagans’ great souls. Dante doesn’t explicitly deny Original Sin. But he does reject a vision of humanity as weak and narrow. Italian poet Dante believes that man has his own unique virtue. This virtue is not determined by a static state or a dissimilarity but by a dynamic movement of science, art and progress. Dante attributes his own virtue to this when he walks, “as near as light” (4.103), with the illustrious group of six (4.148). Dante aims to elevate himself by associating with the poets.
Dante equates man’s struggle to reach the highest heights with virtue. This is perhaps best illustrated in Canto 26, where Ulysses appears. Ulysses felt that nothing “could defeat the passion” he had to “experience the world, the vices of mankind and the worth of man” (26.97-9). He continues “Consider Your Sowing: You Were Not Made to Live / Like Beasts, But to Follow Virtue and Knowledge” (26.118-9). These lines are a perfect example of Dante’s admiration for the great strength of the speaker. It is not in the perfection of a sterile person, but rather in their desire to learn. It is through the struggle of improvement and progression, which can only be accomplished in the absence of God, that a beautiful human quality can be found. Ulysses is not a believer in God, nor does he humble himself to Him at death. Ulysses represents the opposite of Augustinian conceptions of human frailty.
The interplay between Augustine’s and Dante’s views on evil is exemplified by their respective approaches to the problem. Augustine argues, as is well known, that weak human intellects cannot grasp that everything must be good. What we see as good when viewed in isolation can also be very good when viewed as a whole (VII.xii[18]). Without the Lord’s protection, human agency is unable to prevent the slide from good into less good. Using this approach, not only does it destroy evil, but it also diminishes the virtue of man. Man cannot be as perfect as God, he is always sinful. Man must seek God to be saved. Augustine’s argument becomes more rational once he clarifies his premises. Dante departs from the restrictive notion of sin, incorporating the classical concept that virtue is found in the struggle to reach the heights. It is possible to have meaning in a human will if it’s guided by virtue and reasoning. Dante addresses both the good and bad sides of the equation of free choice. He does so in an innovative and balanced way.