A review by sophiasahota
Inferno by Dante Alighieri

The common fate of sinners in Inferno is a punishment of fire, agony, disfigurement, torture, etc. (except for those in the ninth and deepest circle, like Judas and Lucifer, and those is the first circles whose sins are not as great). In the midst of this violence, those who have killed themselves (”The Self Murderers”) are turned into trees where the Harpies nest. That really moved me - despite The Self Murderers’ eternal damnation, their fate is much different than the other sinners. They exist as large knotted trees, rooted to the spot, unable to harm themselves again or be harmed by the fiery torture that the other sinners face. There is a sort of mercy to this, an acknowledgement that even though suicide is technically a sin (and seen at the time as on par or as even a greater sin than murder) it is punished quite differently - I would go so far as to say that it is punished in a tragically beautiful way. Maybe this was not Dante’s intention, maybe the Forest of the Self-Murderers is only supposed to be unrelenting and disturbing, but I can’t help but feel like there is an unconscious mercy in the Self-Murderer’s fate.