In Canto 22, the fraudulent nature of sinners parallels the deceptive nature of the Evil Claws. Even though it’s revealed in the later Cantos that Malacoda intentionally misguided Dante and Vergil to take the wrong path, the deceptive nature of Malacoda and his beasts is hinted at in the descriptive imagery used in the 5th pouch of the 8th circle. In the 5th pouch Dante describes the submerged sinners as “ dolphins do, when they signal to sailors, arching their spines, to take measures to save their ship”(Canto 22, lines 18-20). The simile has a dual meaning because it’s not only acknowledging the behavior of the sinners but also the behavior of the beasts. The demons are pretending to help Dante cross the 8th Circle hence they’re acting as “dolphins” leading Dante and Vergil who represent the sailors however, the beasts are really like the sinners themselves who trick and deceive people.  Dante elaborates that “so from time to time, to lessen the pain, a sinner would show his back and hide it in less than a flash.” (Canto 22, lines 21-23). Dante implies that a sinner shows glimpses of their true nature.

Both, the beasts and the sinner from Navarre show that they can’t deny their nature. The beasts are compelled to sadistically torture the soul from Navarre. They say “O Ruby Face, see you get your nails in him, and tear his skin off!’ All those cursed ones were shouting at once.” (Canto 22, lines 39-41). The moment that the beasts first saw the damned soul, their first instinct was to tear the soul apart. This raises the questions that if the souls have this little patience with the damned soul, how long will it be before they succumb to their  violent nature and do the same to Dante and Vergil. The sinner from Navarre also can’t help but use trickery to escape his circumstantial problems. In the real world, he “took to barratry” (Canto 22, line 52) to escape the financial problems caused by his “wastrel” (Canto 22, line 50) father. Likewise, he tricks the Claws into hiding near the back and escapes. Dante narrates that “The Navarrese chose his moment well, planted his feet on the ground, and escaped their design.” (Canto 22, line 120-122). The Navarrese previously denied any intentions of running away or procuring  any more “suffering for his own kind” (Canto 22, line 109). However, when he was presented with the opportunity to escape, he took it, true to his nature. Both the Beasts and the Navarrese are susceptible to their deceptive natures

Both the Navarrese and the Claws have the capacity to betray their own accomplices. Dante uses an extended metaphor that “as sometimes one frog stays while the other jumps” (Canto 22, lines 29-31) to foreshadow that the beings will deceive or turn against their own kind. In the metaphor, Dante specifies that these frogs are “at the edge of a ditch” (Canto 22, line 24). The frogs have a dual meaning. They represent the sinners in the pool pitch who are physically turning but also reflects their nature to turn against people that trust them. The frogs are at the edge because the depth of the edge is unknown just as their true is unforseen. The Navarrese sinner betrays his accomplices when he says “Tuscans or Lombards, I can make them come;” (Canto 22, lines 96-98). He offers his friends to the beasts so that they can reduce his punishment. He claims that “for one that I am, will make seven come as I whistle, as is our custom to do so, when one is a lookout.” (Canto 22, lines 102-104). There is an obligatory and almost militaristic bond between these men, yet he’s ready to violate that trust and betray them for his own safety. Likewise, when the sinner escaped, the Beasts turned against each other. Dante narrates that “The heat was a quick ungrappler; but not for that could they come forth, they had so enlimed their wings.” (Canto 22, lines 141-143). They were so physically tangled in their fight that even the heat from the pitch couldn’t pull them apart. They demons attacked their own fellows instead of working together. Thus, the sinners and the Claws don’t have it in their nature to be loyal to their kind.

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