dantesuicide vs. murder
... circle of hell after the unbabtized. In a way we can say that Dante is punishing the sins according to their unnaturality or contra naturem. If we understand the contra naturem ideology it is easier to understand why Dante put murder as a better sin than suicide. It is more natural to kill somebody than to kill yourself. If we look back at more primitive times we can see how violence against their neighbors was a common and instinctual thing to do. This is one of the reasons and I think the most important one of why Dante put sucide under murder in hell. Another important reason for the placement of suicide under murder is the importance of the violence in sucide versus the violence in murder. What I mean with this is very simple. When a person kills another he is showing disrespect twoards that person and that person only but when a person comits suicide he is showing a greater disrespect. The person who commits sucide is showing disrespect not only to him but to the whole entire world around him. To see this you have to understand the mentallity of a person who commits sucide. The act of killing oneself is comparable to the act of killing the whole entire rest of the world because in the second choice the suicide is equally satisfied. This is an exagerated view but in a sense it is another definition of what suicide really is. What Dante is looking at here is the magnitude of the violence. In suicide their is a great selfeshness involved that is hard to see especially when comparing to murder. In my opinion Dante is right in situating mur...