The Wrathful

Our intrepid heroes have made it to the circle of the wrathful (Circle 5, cantos seven and eight in the original). Dante especially liked this paragraph:

"Dante looked at the men again. They were not the red-faced, wide-eyed drunks they had seen at the bear-baiting. The faces here were dark, grizzled, with dirt, soot, and blood filling every crease, and their eyes squinted slightly. These men didn’t loll about and laugh like drunks; they stood there as erect and solid as tombstones, their huge fists waiting at their sides. These were not the kind of men who drank to forget and to lose control; these men drank just enough to gain control and direct their fury more effectively and destructively. These were the kind of men who could come home every night and beat their wives nearly to death, or who could come home and beat the neighbor to death, because he had been beating his wife or children. Or because his dog was barking. Or because it was Tuesday. Or they might go their whole lives without ever striking anyone in anger, though the thought had been with them every waking moment of their lives, as well as filling their every dream. These men were not dissipated; instead, their animal essence was too tightly packed within their huge frames. They were not brash and loud, but that made them all the more dangerous."