In canto XIII of Dante's Inferno, those who committed suicide are punished. As in the other circles of hell, the punishments inflicted on suicides are directly linked to the nature of their sin. In the case of those who have committed suicide, the souls are not given bodies like other souls in Hell, but rather fibrous trees and plants that are torn and broken. Since those who committed suicide threw their bodies on earth, they are made to suffer without a body. (Musa 67)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The type of punishment souls suffer for the sin of suicide reveals Dante's view on this sin. Specifically, it reveals what Dante believes drives a person to commit suicide, how offensive suicide is to God, and how guilty the offending soul truly is. Together, he demonstrates how much mercy he believes should be shown toward a given suffering soul. The beginning of Canto XIII reveals what Dante believes drives a person to commit the sin of suicide by describing the bushes and trees he sees when he writes: "Not green leaves, but rather black in color, Not of smooth branches, but twisted and tangled, No fruit, but poisonous thorns bloomed instead” (Inf. XIII, 4-6). The black leaves devoid of color are analogous to a suicidal human being who, while his lungs breathe and his heart beats, lacks the beauty of life and is spiritually dead. He is physically alive but his spirit is dead and he has lost the will to live. Therefore it also cannot bear good fruit, and whatever produce comes out of it is not life-sustaining. Instead, the only thing that comes out of this blackened mind is a poison that kills and harms anyone who comes near it. The twisted and tangled branches represent the twisted reasoning that leads a person to believe that suicide is the best option. An example of this is again given when Dante speaks to Pier Delle Vigne and Pier says: "My mind, moved by contemptuous satisfaction, Believing that death would free me from all contempt, Made me unjust towards myself, who was just » (Inf. XIII, 70-72).Pier, having placed so much confidence in his status at the royal court, believed he had lost everything when his position fell in the eyes of Frederick. At that point, his tangled value system and twisted reasoning led him to believe that the only relief in life was to die. He valued something capricious and temporary over his own life, which made him believe that life, which was the only thing that could not be diminished by the royal court, was not worth it. to be experienced. In this regard, his mind and reasoning were as tangled, illogical and twisted as the branches he now has in Hell. The punishment of suicides also reveals Dante's view of how suicide is so offensive to God. God gives men the gift of life and body. It provides a life that people are meant to live seeking to be virtuous and happy, ensuring that they properly value and recognize the gifts God has given them. By committing suicide, people ignore and reject God's gift of the body and ignore God's call to seek happiness and virtue in the world. In the example of Pier Delle Vigne, Pier now has to bear all the pain of having a body without any benefit; each broken and torn branch being as painful as a human being whose limbs are torn off. Pier shouts: “Why are you tearing me apart? » And when his blood became dark around the wound, he began to say again.