“Through me you pass into the city of woe;
Through me you into eternal pain;
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric mov’d;
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon ye who enter her.”
- Dante Alighieri.
I finished reading Dante’s Divine Comedy earlier this year. Well, I thought a lot before starting it. Am I ready for it? Will I be able to understand it? Whether or not I will do justice with it. But then the little being inside said, that once a piece of art is out, its audience is free to comprehend it, create their own meaning, etc. Still, I decided to write what people call a review or in this case, how reading Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso made me feel. So, I skimmed it again, then I decided to re-read it. But somehow, I am unable to even make a frame, of what I want to write. (What sort of confused being are you reading?) I was about to give up, but then I read this answer from Jhumpa Lahiri on the question, “Who do you write for?” She said, “I write for myself.” So, though later some time I’ll try to write what can be called a review of Divine Comedy. This is about the canto which probably I have read enough times to recite.
My soul, disdainful and disgusted, sought
Refuge in death from scorn, and I became,
Just as I was, unjust toward myself.
It’s Canto 13, about the second level of the seventh circle. In this circle, sinners of violence are punished. On level two are those who committed violence towards/ against themselves. As Inferno goes, this canto describes the punishment faced by those who commit suicide. You’ll enter this by crossing the ring around the river of boiling blood where people who used violence on others are punished. The souls being punished include Alexender, Attila the Hun, and probably if Dante were to write it today, Mao, Hitler, and many others would have made it to the list. So, the people who killed masses, and committed genocides are being boiled in the river of blood. The depth and temperature increase according to the gravity of the violence. On the other side lies the plain of hot sand.
But what’s happening to those who erased their lifelines? Who shortened their own lives? They become trees making the second level a forest, which is why it’s called the Forest of suicides / Wood of suicides.
So, those who unalived themselves, and ended up hurting their own bodies are separated from their bodies. Unlike other sinners, they don’t have any place for them. Their souls are thrown into the forest. Which then grows into saplings and then trees and bushes. On these tress harpies (Harpies are half human — Half Bird creatures from Greek mythology.) build their nests and eat their branches.
Now though in the form of trees, these souls can feel the pain of a branch or twig breaking, or leaves falling. They bleed when hurt, the same as a human but never die. Their constant grieving and crying are described by Dante in the beginning. Or to say those who didn’t care for their bodies over sorrow are punished by being torn apart over and over.
It suggests the pain and torment the suicide survivors go through. Those left behind are constantly being torn apart in sorrow and guilt. That, what if I noticed the signs, what if I answered that one call, what if I said something else? All these what-ifs are the harpies nesting in the heads of suicide survivors. Grief makes them hollow, and guilt mingles with self-hatred.
Though it’s pitiful to know even death leads to more misery. It even mentions that on judgment day their bodies will come and hang on their branches. In Christianity where soul and body are one unit, it means suicide breaks a being apart. It shreds and ruptures the individual. Or we can say it’s the splitting of an atom (and not allowing it to form bonds to find stability) on a spiritual level probably. But what can be the epitome of human suffering but to end oneself, while we have evolved just for the sake of surviving?
So, as Dante enters this forest of woe, he is confused as he can hear cries of pain but sees no one. He probably thinks the souls are hiding among the trees. Virgil, noticing his confusion, asks him to break a twig from a nearby tree.
Virgil says, “If thou lop off a single twig from one of those ill plants, The thought thou hast conceiv’d shall vanish quite.”
This implies how a wrong-conceived idea can only be fought by perceiving the truth. While also twisting the saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” To Dante’s surprise the souls are not hiding among the trees, they are the trees. And this improbable thing somehow reminds me of a quote from Sherlock Holmes (which being a fan I must insert), “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”
The tree cries and asks why Dante is hurting it while claiming that it also was a human earlier. The Pilgrim Dante who is filled with pity and compassion throughout the book is called out by this tree as pitiless. “Is there no touch of mercy in thy breast?”
This often happens with empaths who unknowingly end up hurting others. While they are also tormented by the pain those around them suffer. At the same time, it shows how these souls, even after having left their lives by their own will, still are clinging to it.
This speaking tree is Pier Delle Vigne. He was chancellor to the Roman emperor Frederick the Second. There are many stories of him becoming a treacherous villain from an intimate confidante, all of them containing elements of intrigue, rumor, and violence. Rumor that he was bribed bythe pope to turn against Emperor. Or that his physician bought poisoned medicine for the emperor etc. Ultimately these are speculations as to why he was arrested. It is said that on his way to prison, he rushed headlong into the wall of a church and dashed his brains out. Another account has him doing the same but in his prison cell. And another has him throwing himself from the top of a tower.
Dante, like many others, believed in the innocence of Pier, and hence at least twice here Pier swears that he was faithful to Frederick. Also, unlike Brutus and other traitors, he is not in the depths of hell. Dante’s emotions and inability to question Pier further validate his faith in him.
Though Virgil’s promise to restore Pier’s fame is kept every time someone reads Dante’s work. It also implies that the dead live on in our memory, and when we forget them probably that’s their true death. But every time that Dante’s poem is read, the souls he talks about — even those damned for all eternity — live on for a while longer.
P.S.- The forest of woe though grows the souls of those who died, they cultivate upon the grief they leave behind. They grow so big in the darkness on the tears of their loved ones, that they synthesize the guilt, pain, and resentment they have caused.
And to anyone who might need it,
If you have lost someone to suicide,
I know it hurts like hell. At times probably you feel like a criminal. The world seems to be spilling all over, while drowning you in it. You can’t help but either hate yourself or them over it. I won’t say it gets better with time, but it was never once your fault.
And they always held you dear and they’ll remain there in your memories.
If you are going through the feeling of making an exit,
Please hold on, not for someone else but just for yourself. You have come such a long way doing everything, do not end it all.
If you are shying away from asking for help don’t, I know sometimes people are busy with their own problems but if you knock on doors someone is sure to open one for you.
Plus, more importantly open your own door, don’t shy away from your happiness, don’t think of useless things like someone else’s opinion and judgement.
Sorry for asking this of you but, even when you don’t feel it you are loved,
So, love yourself too, if not for the present you think of the kid you were, give the love it deserves to the current you too. That kid is in you somewhere.
Keep holding on to whatever feels like sunshine,
or throw away whatever is hurting you,
But just love yourself.
