The novel "Dante's Inferno" takes mankind on a frightening journey through the depths of Hell. This mentally and physically exhausting journey proves to be an invaluable lesson in the restoration of the Church, which at the time was in a corrupt state. The physical ends of the journey are to strengthen the Pilgrim's body for the upcoming and rigorous ascent on Mount Purgatory. The intellectual ends of the journey, however, are far more beneficial to the human soul. Man must first understand the foundations of sin before he can hope to climb the mountain of salvation; it is only by climbing down Lucifer's grotesque body, i.e. grappling with sin itself, that the pilgrim is able to reach the mountain of Purgatory. On his voyage through hell, Dante shows the effects of the sin on the sinner's soul through their punishments; each punishment is relative to the sin. Dante symbolizes the effects of sin on the soul by using variations of a constant motion to punish the sinners in the circle of the lustful and the round of sodomites.
             Dante presents the second circle of hell as the pitiful realm of the lustful, in which the souls are blasted by a wind storm "eternal in its rage"(V.31). The lustful, like all sins of incontinence, makes "reason slave to appetite" (V.39). The lustful never truly commit themselves to a concrete relationship; they just flow freely from one person to the next. (i.e. there are no strings attached) The lustful are so easily swept off their feet that they are forever being swooned. The carefree lifestyle the lustful practice leaves no room for self-direction. Thus, the image of the harsh winds incessantly whirling the souls symbolizes the how the lustful deprived themselves of self-direction. The soul is turned from its proper nature when the soul deceives itself into thinking that it does not have the power of self-direction. The sodomites, like the lustful, have allowed thems...