Circle 3

In Circle three of the Inferno, the gluttonous are dying in a dirty slush on the ground while being eaten by Cerberus, the three-headed dog. This is due to the excessive eating and drinking in their lives before.  Their sin is gluttony. The gluttons made no higher use of the gifts of God than to wallow in food and drink. They also were producers of nothing but garbage. The punishment of this sin is that the gluttons would lay forever half-buried in the dirty slush on the ground while Cerberus eats them. Three points that show the sin, punishment, and contrapasso of the circle include excessive eating, producing garbage, and the warmth that food gives. The first point is how the gluttons had excessive amounts of food and drink. This is shown when Ciacco says," Gluttony was my offense, and for it I lie here rotting like a swollen log"(46). This shows that the people of circle three were gluttonous. I believe that Dante chooses this punishment because it is the opposite of the sin. I think the contrapasso of this sin and outcome is how the gluttons ate a lot, but now they are being eaten. The second point is how they were producers of garbage. Dante shows this by saying, "We made our way across the sodden mess of souls the rain beat down"(46). This excerpt talks about how the gluttons are the rotten slush on the ground. I believe this is the contrapasso because they made the slush and now they are stuck in their own slush. The last point is how the gluttons hoped for warmth like they got from eating food, Dante shows how they looked for wealth by saying, "And they, too, howl like dogs in the freezing storm, turning and turning from it as if they thought one naked side could keep the other warm"(45). This shows how the gluttons were cold in the frozen, dirty slush. The contrapasso is that food kept the gluttons warm, but now they are cold because there wasn't any food to keep them warm. All three of these points show the sin, punishment and contrapasso of circle three. Dante used these to portray the main theme of gluttony in circle three.