Violence or Fraud?

Dante, shows his readers that he believes that fraud is worse than violence. This meaning that being a hypocrite is worse than murdering someone. It may be unclear on the reasons why he thinks this but he shows it discretely through his writing. The sins of Fraud is the first place where we see some of Dante's new emotions. I saw among the felons of that pit/ one wraith who might or might not have been tonsured--/one could not tell, he was so smeared in shit."(147) Here is the first time I believe that we see Dante use profanity. This shows the seriousness in which Dante starts to take the next couple of Bolgias and circles. Also, it could be that this is what had affected him the most or not this Bolgia but the sins of fraud in general which calls for the fowl language.

Dante also shows this emotional side to him through the fifth Bolgia which relates to the Grafters. Unlike the other one, in which he used profanity, Dante is actual very fearful throughout theses cantos. "I pressed the whole of my body against my Guide, and not for an instant did I take my eyes from those black fiends who scowled on every side."(173) Yet again Dante is very emotional with the eighth circle of hell. Dante sees these demons all around him which is actually the first time in which we see demons in hell. This is funny because usually the first image of hell is a demon looking thing with wings and lots of fire but it is not really the case with Dante's hell. But, this also shows the seriousness of the situation at hand for this is the first time Dante is scared and can be because one of the reasons he was exiled from Florence was because he was accused of being a Grafter. Therefore, Dante is afraid that this will happen to him yet again.

Now, from Dante's perspective, these sins of fraud, some of which are mentioned above are overall worse than the sins of violence. This can be because Dante is all about not cheating your way through life. He does not like when someone finds loopholes throughout society so that they may be able to gain more power, or money, or even favors. These sins of fraud are of lying or blackmailing mostly so that people can get something out of it which Dante believes is worse then taking life as it is and maybe being violent sometimes to yourself and others.

Another way to look at the situation is the fact that when someone is a grafter or a hypocrite they affect many more people than if someone killed someone. These people of fraud also mostly live a lifetime of sins rather than just possibly killing someone out of blind rage or yourself as well. I agree with Dante's assessment on the matter of the fact that in today's time it seems that people are more hurt by these people of fraud. Such as the many people who were victims of Bernie Madoff. He had taken a tremendous amount of money from people and eventually got caught and is now in jail for life a believe. Thus affecting many more people and causing much more trouble than possibly him murdering someone. Not to say that murdering is not bad it is, it is just, in my opinion, behind some pieces of fraud.

Here is a clip of Bernard Madoff and his actions.