In Canto XIII of Dante's Inferno, those who committed suicide are punished. As in the other circles of hell, the punishment for those who commit suicide is directly linked to the nature of their sin. In the case of those who committed suicide, the souls are not given a body like other souls in Hell but are transformed into trees and fibrous plants that are torn up and broken. Since those who have committed suicide have abandoned their bodies on earth, they are forced to suffer without a body. (Muse 67) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The type of punishment souls suffer for the sin of suicide reveals Dante's view of that sin. Specifically, it reveals what Dante believes drives a person to commit suicide, how suicide is offensive to God, and how guilty the offending soul truly is. Together, he demonstrates how much mercy, in his opinion, should be shown towards a given suffering soul. The beginning of Canto XIII reveals what Dante believes drives a person to commit the sin of suicide as he describes the bushes and trees he sees as he looks. he writes: “Not green leaves, but rather black, nor smooth branches, but twisted and tangled, nor fruit, but instead poisonous thorns blossomed” (Inf. XIII, 4-6). Black leaves devoid of color are analogous to a suicidal human being who, while his lungs breathe and his heart beats, is devoid of the beauty of life and is spiritually dead. He is physically alive but his spirit is dead and he has lost the will to live. This is why he cannot bear good fruit either and any product that comes out of him does not promote life. Instead the only thing that comes out of this blackened spirit is poison that kills and wounds anyone who comes near it. The twisted and tangled branches represent the distorted reasoning that leads a person to believe that suicide is the best solution. An example of this is given again when Dante turns to Pier Delle Vigne and Pier says: "My mind, moved by contemptuous complacency, believing that death freed me from all contempt, made me unjust towards myself, who was all right" (Inf .XIII, 70-72).Pier, having placed so much faith in his status at the royal court, believed he had lost everything when his position fell in Frederick's eyes. At that moment, his intricate value system and twisted reasoning led him to believe that the only relief in living was to die. He appreciated something changeable and temporary in his life that made him believe that life, which was the only thing that could not be diminished by the royal court, was not worth living. In this respect, his mind and reasoning were as tangled, illogical, and twisted as the branches he now has in Hell. The punishment of suicides also reveals Dante's view of how suicide is so offensive to God. God gives people the gift of life and body. It gives a life that people should live striving to be virtuous and happy, making sure to properly value and recognize the gifts God has given them. By committing suicide, people ignore and discard the gift of the body that God has given them and ignore God's call to them to seek happiness and virtue in the world. In Pier Delle Vigne's example, Pier now has to endure all the pain of having a body without any benefits; each broken and torn branch is as painful as a human being having his limbs torn off. Pier shouts: “'Why are you tearing me?'” And when his blood darkened around the wound, he began to say again: 'Why are you tearing me? Have you no sense of pity?'” (Inf. XIII, 33-36). Having failed to properly love and care for his body, Pier now suffers an existence of pain.