Dante’s journey through Hell starts with his decision to embark on the travel through the shaded depths. One must first commit to a journey, before that journey can begin. Canto II starts off with Dante’s trouble in deciding if he should proceed on the quest or not. He states, “But I-how should I dare? By whose permission? . . . Who could believe me worthy of the vision?” (Dante 35). Finally, his guide Virgil, convinces Dante to take the journey. Virgil, is not a living soul. He is one of the dead who helps out God and Heaven, while still being condemned to Hell. Virgil’s soul rests in the first circle of heaven, that of Limbo.
After Dante makes his decision, they enter through the Gate of Hell. Here Dante sees and inscription that depicts a life of sorrow, without any hope for the unfortunate souls that must enter (42). This foreshadows the horrors that lay ahead for Dante. This is upper Hell. Later on He will pass through another gate into the city. That wall symbolizes the separation between upper and lower Hell. Upper Hell is where the sins are small and against man only, they are small in comparison to the other part. Those sins include: not knowing Christ, Carnal sins, sin of gluttony, the hoards and waster, and the wrathful and sullen. In lower Hell, the sins are much worse, and they symbolize the direct sin against God and what he created. These would include the sin of heresy, the “Sins of the Lion” (The violent and bestial sins), and the “Sins of the Leopard” (The fraudulent and malicious) (108). There is one other part that Dante must past through. It is not really part of Hell, but it lies just inside the Gate of Hell.
Just inside the gate is the place where the opportunists spend their eternity. The opportunists are those angels that did not take a side during the war in heaven, among the angels. Since they did not choose to side with God, there was no place for them in heaven. However, the angels did not side with Satan, so they are therefore not punished any more then knowing that they will never reach Heaven.
Then Dante comes to the Acheron. On the other side lays the first of the nine circles of Hell. Here is where the virtuous pagans and non-baptized children dwell. Dante has these people in the first part of Hell, because the only sins they have committed was that they did not know Christ and therefore could not obtain entrance to heaven, for the only path to Heaven is through Christ. “Though spared the fire and suffering Hell in one affliction only: that without hope . . . [they] live on in desire” (51). This means, they are only punished by having no hope for seeing the glory of God. Here is where Virgil resides. Virgil died before Christ, so he did not know the glory of Christ, and there fore can not obtain salvation, even though he led a good and virtuous life.
As Dante continues down into the depths of Hell he comes upon the second circle, which inhabit the souls “who sinned in the flesh, the carnal and lusty who betrayed reason to their appetite” (59). So the souls who let love and lust guide him/her even if reason told him/her to do otherwise are the first group to receive any type of punishment in Hell. “Here, there, up, down, they whirl and, whirling, strain with never a hope of hope to comfort them, not of release, but even of less pain” (59). This symbolizes the punishment that these souls are given. Like in life, they gave up the right to guide themselves, when giving into lust, so no they have no right to guide themselves in eternity.
While talking to two lovers who are doomed to this circle, Dante feels great pity towards them. “I felt my senses reel and faint away with anguish” (62). This is something that he must over come, pity for those who chose to sin, before he can be allowed to enter Heaven. That is one of the reasons that he has been sent on this journey. As he moves on throughout the circles, his heart becomes hardened to pity and anguish of the condemned.
The next circle is the realm of the gluttonous. Here their punishment is again symbolic of their sin. One soul states, “gluttony was my offense, and for it I lie here rotting like a swollen log” (67). The other two circles of upper Hell have similar symbolism, that is the punishment symbolizes the sin that was committed.
Then Dante comes to the city, which houses the circles of lower Hell. Here he comes across those sins that are great. Each successive circle the punishment and torment increase greatly. Circle six is that of Heretics. Here people who did violence against the lord are tormented through eternal fire. They believed that their souls would die with the body, so they are forever entombed in fire. The next circle is that of violence against neighbors, self, and god, art, and nature. Here lay the people who were murderers, who killed themselves, blasphemers, usurers, and perverts. These people were punished according to their sin and their degree of sin. One who committed a sin against God was punished the harshest in this realm. The next two circles contain the sins of fraud. The first one being simple fraud and the last one being compound fraud. The realm of the compound fraud is the circle closest to Satan. There are degrees within this circle, like the others. Souls who are here, are punished by being encased in ice. The only the “best” of these are able to cry or show tears, and the worst are totally entombed in Ice. In the middle or bottom of Hell is Satan. He is frozen to where he stands. There is a mock trinity with him, in that he has three heads. The worst sinners are being eaten in one of his three mouths. The center one being Judas Iscariot. He was the one who betray Jesus Christ. This is the worst Sin to Dante, because Christ was the savior of humanity. He was the one that would lead souls to God and Heaven. He was Judas’ master as well. In the other two mouths were those who betrayed Caesar, Brutus and Cassius. All of these circles of hell describes well the religion and civilization that Dante lived in. Throughout the book, it is noted that the souls in hell can tell that Dante is from Tuscany. This shows that the civilization at the time associated with the city in which they were born, that of city pride and not national pride. Dante’s Hell also shows the reader about what his civilization and religion are like, depending on what level he put different sins. For instances, to him the worst sin was that of Judas Iscariot, because Judas was put in the central mouth of Satan. The sin of suicide was also great, as can be seen from the fact that it is part of lower Hell. However, Dido killed herself for love, and was not in lower, but rather upper Hell. In away Dante is saying this is a lesser sin because the power of love is very strong to control and those who fall to it, are people who are weak, and should be punished, but it must be realized that this sin was caused from such a strong power, that the person didn’t have much control over their reason. Seen in the journey of Dante’s are his cultural and religious interpretations that he makes based on his society.
On the other hand, Genji’s journey was much different then Dante’s. Instead of just taking a short time for his journey, Genji spends his entire life traveling it. He was born a son of the emperor, which made him a prince. However, his father did not want anything to happen to Genji, so he (the emperor) created a new house for Genji. This way Genji would not be caught up in the struggles for the heir to the throne. This leaves Genji plenty of time to do other things, then worrying about the throne. He is able to have lots of romantic escapades with various women. Which was customary in those times. Genji doesn’t feel that he is even sinning by these escapades, even though he is married.
One of Genji’s first escapades is with Cicada. She was young, but very smart in her dealings with Genji. She never allowed him to really have her, which made Genji want her even more. She felt that her position in life would not allow her to have that kind of relationship with him. This shows some aspects of Heian Court life. The fact that Men may go out and have relationships with other women, but women were not allowed to play around. Women were only supposed to get married and then stay out of the way, while the men could go off and play with other women. It was perfectly fine, and even slightly encouraged for men to have many partners, while women were shunned who did that. Cicada left before Genji had won her over completely, but he had romanticized her quite well.
His next love was that of Yugao, also known as Evening Glory. Genji fell in love with her. He took her away to live in a small secluded place. Here she died while in his arms. This terribly saddened him. Genji was terribly heart broken. He didn’t know exactly what to do. He had a friend of his come over and they decided that it would be best to take her to a monastery where she can be buried quietly. For if it was to get out that Yugao had died in Genji’s arms, it would be a terrible misfortune to Genji.
Just after this time Genji became sick. He did not know why he was so ill. He had priest from around the area come and try to heal him through exorcisms, but that did not work. A friend then told him about a hermit that lived way out in the mountains. This hermit had a good reputation for being about to get rid of spirits. So Genji went there. While there, he lived in the monastery that the hermit was part of. While there Genji found that he became truly happy again. The hermit was able to exorcise the spirit out of the prince. This shows great incite as to affect that Religion has on Genji’s life. The fact that Genji didn’t go to a doctor when he became sick, but rather went to priests and finally a monastery.
While at the monastery Genji sees a young girl with whom he falls in love with. But she is too young for Genji to marry her or have any romantic escapades with her. So he offers to take the young girl and raise her as his daughter. The girl’s mother had died and she was living with her grandma. However, the grandma suspected that Genji wanted Violet for sexual pleasure, so she said no. Upon the death of the Grandma, Genji finally convinces the girls nurse to allow Violet to live with him.
Genji’s live then takes a turn for the worse, his wife gets very sick. The priests say that it is a living spirit that is attacking his wife. Eventually she dies and Genji is once again thrown into sadness. He believes that the woman who killed his wife was also the woman who killed Yugao.
After this Genji decides to spend some time in the monastery. Here he finds himself very happy and content. No longer is he living the life of sin. Though he doesn’t realize that the way he was living was sinful. He does know that living in the monastery makes him really happy, while when he lived in the Heian court, he was always sad. Unfortunately, his duties to the court make him return.
Genji lives in the Heian court in a Buddhist society. These two factors greatly influence him in thoughts and beliefs. For him, it is not sinful to go and have all these romantic escapades with woman, or to live a life of pleasure. This comes more from his civilization and his court life, rather from the Buddhist religion. Buddhists believe that to attain happiness, one must give up on pleasures in this life time. However, Buddhism does influence Genji. The way he treats those who are sick and the way he acts when he is sick. Also on certain days he is not allowed to walk in a certain direction because of Religion. This is why he met Cicada. Also, Genji has duties as a prince. These duties cause him to leave his life in the monastery and return to the Court. Some of his duties include performing in Religious Festivals and the like.
Another factor that influences Genji is the way he thinks about women. To him they are supposed to be delicate flowers. This is more of a cultural influence on him and can be seen In the names of the women, like Evening Glory, Violet, and Saffron Flower. When he meets Saffron Flower he really likes her, but he can’t see her too much. Genji talks with her a lot and finds that she is very perfect in that sense. However, when he is able to see her looks he realizes that she has a major flaw in her beauty. She was not very pretty and didn’t look to delicate. So he broke off his relationship with her.
Besides the names of women mean flowers they can also signify rank. For instance, women who were the court ladies would change their name often to signify where they lived in the court. This would show how high up she was. The mother of the heir apparent would be the highest member of the ladies, and her name would show this.
Rank was also something that were seen in men’s names. Genji signifies, the fact that he is a prince, but not in line for the throne. While his best friend, To-no Chiujio, was a General of the Imperial Guards, which is what Chiujio means. Throughout life men, and women alike, would change their names to signify their rank and position is society. For this was very important to them.
Because of these differences, Dante would not see Genji as a fellow traveler. He (Dante) would in vision Genji in a much different light. The first thing that Dante would notices is that Genji is a pagan. Genji’s belief in the Buddha and not in God would make Dante classify him as such. However, since Genji has never been shown the light of Christ, Dante would not put him as low as he put others who did not believe in God and Christ.
However, Genji sins greatly in the eyes of Dante. Genji has committed the sin of lust. He (Genji) has loved so many woman, and it has all been for sexual pleasure. Dante would see Genji living a life of pleasure, and not going through a journey for his soul. Genji might go through some pain with the lose of his loved ones, but that is not anything like what Dante sees. In Dante’s journey, he sees everything that those who have sinned are suffering in Hell. He gets a first had view of what is going on and what will happen if he sins and does not repent or if he does not follow the path that God and Christ have set forth. Genji has not seen that. He knows very little about what may actually happen to him if he sins and continues to sin. All he knows is that his life at court is filled with sadness, and sometimes with sexual pleasure.
Because of Genji’s sins of lust, Dante would place him in the second Circle. This would place Genji in with people like Dido, Paolo and Francesca, and Achilles. These people also led a life of sin with love and passion over reason. Had Genji led a righteous life, he would not have to suffer the punishments that are inflicted in the second circle, though he could never obtain passage to heaven, at least, he would not have to suffer in Hell.
Besides Dante seeing Genji as a person who leads a life of sin, Dante doesn’t see Genji as fellow traveler because Genji isn’t seeking God or redemption for his sins. Instead he is continuing to sin in the same way. Even after Genji loses Yugao and his wife, he continues along the same path of sin. For this reason, Dante would not see Genji as a traveler.
Like wise, Genji would not really understand all of Dante’s logic behind why certain people or sins are punished the way they are. Genji might understand some of the sins, because they would be similar in his culture, however, others would not be. One that Genji would not understand would be circle one. For Genji’s religion there is no concept of a pagan. All are treated as the same and their actions are what judges them. If they are virtuous and give up all pleasure and sin, then that person will go on to reach nirvana. It wouldn’t matter if that person believed in the Buddha or not. Where as in Dante’s first circle, all those who did not believe in God or Christ but were virtuous were still placed in Hell.
Another circle would be that of the suicides. In Genji’s time, it was better to commit suicide then to face dishonor. For instances, a person who was a samurai and found dishonor with his master, was to kill himself. He then would be able to go on and his sin would be forgiven and honor still in tacked. So Genji would not really understand why Suicide was so wrong. The fact that life was precious and that God only gave each person one life to live would not have a concept to Genji. This is because Genji believes that there is a continuous cycle of death and rebirth. That people live many life times until they are able to reach the place of true happiness. So the death of one life would just lead to another life, not to torment.
Genji would be able to understand circle nine, Caina: Treachery against kin. In Heian court life the idea of family is extremely important. The fact that the Emperor can’t make Genji the heir to the throne is because Genji doesn’t have any family backing. To do treachery against one’s own family was considered very wrong and very dangerous. So Genji would agree with and understand why this crime/sin was punished severally.
He would also understand the Antenora and Ptolemea parts of the ninth circle. Those levels are the treachery against country and the treachery against guests/hosts. This goes back to the Japanese concept of honor. To betray one’s country and one’s loyalties was very bad. So Genji could understand why this level was put where it was.
The last one that Genji could really understand also deals with the concept of honor. That is the treachery against one’s lord and benefactors. Genji would consider this to be the worst sin as well (Dante considers it to be the worst). This can again be seen in the Samurai class of warriors and the fact that they would kill themselves if they ever displeased their lords or masters.
Besides being able to understand why Dante put certain sins in the level they are in Genji would also have difficulties with the concept of Hell it’s self. To Genji, there is only nirvana and being reborn again. He might be able to get a sense of what Dante means by Hell if he thought about each level as say where a person might be reborn again into society. For example, someone who committed a minor sin, say the first or second circles for Dante, might come back as a human in a very good place in society, while someone else who had committed a treachery against their lords would come back in a very bad position in live. But the actual concept of what Hell is, would not come across to Genji very well. To think that there was a place to go after death where you would be tortured for eternity with no hope of bettering one self was not a concept that he would have understood very well.
The same could be said about Dante. He wouldn’t really understand the concept that a person could be reborn into another person’s body. To Dante each individual person had their own soul that God gave them. A soul could not be replaced into something or someone else’s body. In fact the idea that a human soul could be put into an animal body would seem totally wrong in Dante’s eyes.
Even with these differences in believes, they do share one thing in common, and that is the fact that a person is punished in the next life (weather that be another life on earth or on in Hell) for sins that he may have committed in the present life. Both Dante and Genji could understand that idea and concept. It would just be hard for them to understand how the person was actually punished and how severely “sins” were punished.
Dante and Genji come from very different and distinct cultural and religious backgrounds. Even though they both went through a sort of journey, one could not really understand the other. To Dante, Genji is a person who belongs in Hell. Genji, even after he realized that his life was not happy because of his lust for many women, he continued to do the same thing throughout his entire life. Genji did slow down, but he continued his escapades never the less. For Genji, it is not possible to understand the concept of a Hell, though he does understand the concepts of sin. These are due to their different and distinct life styles, culture, and religions.
