Throughout Inferno, Dante continually asks the souls in hell for information regarding who they are and the sin that landed them there. Every time he enters a new ring and sees a new sin being punished, he always promises those there that he will make sure people remember them. If Dante is a good person, why does he keep bribing bad people with fame? He uses their want for something as an incentive to help him receive answers.
Dante beseeches the souls to speak despite their pain and the possibility that their sins cause them to feel shame, saying, “So may your name not seal itself away / from human memory in the former world, / But love through many turnings of the sun, / Tell me then who you are, and from what city” (303.103-105). The people in hell have no hope. Dante making the souls an offer and them accepting means they then have something even if they are dead and cannot see the outcomes. Even if we commit a bad action, we have a desire to be remembered, and that is why he is offering them that chance. All are sinners, so while what those in hell did was unrighteous, the desire for their name to persist outways any cons of possible shame attached to it on earth. Him bribing them is also an exchange. Dante is limited in what he can give them. He chooses to grant them fame, which he can easily carry out with his writings, and he obtains answers, which he might not have otherwise. When someone bribes another person, it is usually because he wants something. Dante is ensuring that he will because he is going to do something for them. The dead know they will physically get nothing from such fame, but the knowledge that it will exist comforts them in a place with no reprieve from punishment.
When Dante reaches the bottom of hell, he encounters the opposite response. A traitor tells him that “I crave the opposite. / Get lost, then! Don't torment me any more. / You don't know how to flatter for this pit” (335.94-96). If we are to be remembered, do we want it to be for a crime so heinous? Not everyone is going to cave to Dante’s offer. The refusal shows that fame is not what everyone desires, for the damned or even for those who do good. What Dante has to give is not of benefit or tempting. Letting the living know you are in hell for betrayal, a crime Dante considers the worst of the worst, is not a good way to be remembered because it makes a person look worse than others being punished for “less severe” sins. When the soul who refused to speak is revealed as Bocca, Dante threatens to spread the truth about him. Despite Bocca telling him to go ahead, he shows otherwise by rattling off others in the traitor ring. If his deeds are to be known, he wants others to look bad with him. The traitorous still care about their name to a degree, even if they did not take Dante’s offer.
If a bribe does not work, giving information is then up to the people, and they do, partly for the fact that Dante is someone to talk to, an amazement because he is still alive, and not just because of what he offers. “‘O living spirit, courteous and good, / traveling the black night to visit us / … Were He who rules the universe our friend, / we would entreat him, praying for your peace, / for you have pitied us our twisted fate’” (51.88-93). If the people please Dante, he is more likely to follow through with his promise of spreading their name among the living. He is also taking time to speak with them, and they cherish that because he could walk on past. However, he desires to know their stories despite their wretchedness and the fact he only has to gaze on them from afar, sometimes fainting or weeping from the sadness and sorrow he hears and sees.
Dante bribes the damned to speak by offering a chance to be remembered, as it gives them something where they have nothing, which is a comfort to them. Even the ones who do not wish to take Dante’s offer spill the beans, but because if they must be remembered for an evil deed, they want to take others down with them. He ensures he receives answers, the damned get fame and the knowledge that a living person took the time to talk with them.
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