Hell is not a place, but a state of mind

Now I begin to hear the sad notes of pain
now I have come to where
loud cries beat upon my ears.

I have reached a place mute of all light
which roars like the sea in a tempest
when beaten by conflicting winds.

• Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, trans. H.R Huse (New York; Toronto: Rinehart & Co., 1954). Pp 28.

In the second circle, the beginning of true Hell, Dante finds adulterers and sinful lovers locked in eternal embrace. The sinners are bound together in eternity, causing each other nothing but pain in their carnal acts. They wail, shriek, moan and cry as they exact their lust upon one another.

In sympathy with the sinners, Dante, acknowledging that, he, and others like him, have played their part in the downfall of these sinful lovers by glorifying stories of great romance, prompting them to seek out romance in the realm of the extraordinary. Art has ignited their desire for a love greater than the ordinary, implanted the idea of unstoppable love. This love, as is the nature of sin, is easily mistaken for, and transformed into, lust, a sin leading to Hell. Where the ideas of lust and love should be compatible, in sin they are distorted, perverted. It is the act of compulsion that drives these people to Hell. The act offers nothing but a brief respite from the gnawing desire that caused their compulsive actions.

In this circle, punishment and act are one and the same. In Dante’s Inferno, each Hell is subjective and reflective of the beliefs of the individual: a murderer may yet find themselves in the suicide grove if they feel their self-destruction is the greater sin.

The subjectivity of Hell means that the sinners are punished by themselves and the sinful act becomes deed and punishment alike. Hell is a subjective experience, as true turmoil can only come from within. It is not a place, nor is it a consequence for one’s actions; Hell is a state of mind.

Appeared in 120 Days of Sodom: Manfred Zylla’ published by Erdmann Contemporary in 2015