In Dante’s time there was a tradition, even a right protected by law, of avenging the death of kinsman. Geri del Bello’s death had not been avenged at the time of the writing of the Inferno, though the death was avenged thirty years later by del Bello’s nephews with the accepted code of “a life for a life.”
Virgil upbraids Dante for weeping and pausing at the ninth pit, consistent with the hardening of his character in these later circles. There is no time for pure emotion at this point in the journey; time is growing short and Virgil must move Dante along, even if that means taking on a harsher nature. Dante is still utterly human, his emotions changing with each moment of the journey, though he is coming to realize that his pity does not change the fate of these sinners, that his only proactive choices are to remember them to the upper world, and in some cases, cause a sinner more pain.
The final chasm of Circle VIII contains the Falsifiers, who are, as are the other sinners in other circles, suffering the pain of retribution. These sinners affected the senses of others, showing themselves or substances to be what they are not, thus they spend eternity in a corruption of the senses—filth, thirst, disease, stench, darkness, horrible shrieking, physical pain—these sinners are damned to an eternity of what they put others through in life. In Canto XXX, the two mythological examples of insanity are a link and/or a parallel the two sinners in this circle who suffer from insanity.
As usual, Dante gives faces to each of these four classes of sins, in allowing the sinners to speak. It is noteworthy what sins Dante considers worse than others. Here, there are four classes of falsification, ranging from those that harm others least to those that harm others most. This is in keeping with Dante’s positioning of all of the sinners in Hell—those on the inside of any given chasm were less outwardly harmful than the others that are closer to the center of Hell.
Interestingly, the sinners here that are allowed to tell their tale are only vaguely related to religion or politics, though one could argue that they are connected to both in some manner. Remember, Virgil stated earlier that God despised Malice the most, out of all of the possible sins, and these souls in the final chasm of Circle VIII are certainly guilty of Malice—they knew exactly what they were doing, and they did it with malicious intent.
In this particular canto, readers should note that the sinners aren’t suffering from an outside, foreign influence in the environment as in the other cantos. The sinners here are suffering from systemic infection within themselves. Alchemists have leprosy, impersonators are mad, counterfeiters have dropsy, and the liars have a fever that makes them stink. They are punished by the corrupt state of their minds and bodies. Their corrupt sense of values is symbolized by the corrupt state of their minds and bodies.
Just before the poets leave this circle, Virgil gives Dante a strict and swift reprimand, again illustrating how he has changed from the earlier circles. Dante is immediately filled with shame, something that probably would not have happened in an earlier circle, where he would not have known better than to listen to two shades bickering. Dante is coming to understand the nature of sin and is learning to be disgusted by it. Virgil sees his immediate shame and is relieved at this behavior; Virgil’s toughness on Dante is teaching him to be diligent and watchful, though Virgil indicates that something similar may happen again, illustrating that he understands the fallibility of Human Nature.
