Sin and Virtue in the works of Freud and Dante

Religion is arguably most influential when concerning politics, society, and individuality. This belief system provides most people with somewhat of a 'guideline' on how to live their lives on a daily basis, depending on which religion one follows. One of the major underlying aspects of religion, Catholicism or Christianity in particular, is to show guilt or sorrow to God for one's own sins and to ask for forgiveness on Earth so when Judgment Day comes the gates of heaven will open. A follower of Christianity is expected to follow the divine doctrine (e.g. The Ten Commandments) and any deviation requires repentance. If one does not ask for forgiveness for his sins, the common belief is that he will be sent to Hell upon death, spending an eternity in damnation. But how does this affect life on Earth? It seems that the individual harbors an internal battle between acting on instinctual desires and what is deemed right or wrong according to God. This self-war creates a sense of guilt. Guilt and sin are closely related to one another in terms of Sigmund Freud's analysis of religion in civilization and can be further compared to Dante's account of sin and the afterlife.

In Civilization and Its Discontents, one of Freud?s main purposes is to point out the effect of the relationship between the human conscience and religion. Freud?s central view of religion is that it is an illusion created, and even needed, by man to attain a sense of security from ?an enormously exalted father? who watches over his life and promises a better afterlife (Freud 22). Individually, humans portray through behavior what their motivation in life is: to attain happiness. But religion only offers one road to happiness, and that road is through God. ?Its tech...

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...ness, heightens the demands of his conscience, imposes abstinences on himself and punishes himself with penances? (Freud 87). The same can be said according to Dante, but instead of turning to the superego, one turns to God as Dante did while he was ?lost in the dark wood?. An individual looks for a way of escaping these disparaging emotions and searches for a path that will lead to ultimate happiness?usually through and with God. As the purpose of Dante?s Inferno was to understand sin in a way that will allow him to lead a more virtuous life, so was Freud?s theory that the more aware of your guilt the more able you are to recognize what it means to be virtuous. The more aware an individual is of his sin or guilt, the better his ability to repent and achieve virtuosity. This in turn makes peace with God and/or within him and it is here that one achieves redemption.