In Canto 11, Dante and Virgil have a brief respite from their journey before continuing on, and both agreeing that they should make use of this time, Virgil decides to tell the pilgrim who they will be seeing next, so that he does not have to explain later. In lines 22-24: “Of every malice gaining the hatred of Heaven, injustice is the goal, and every such goal injures someone either with force or with fraud.” This line explains that the actions of men that Heaven punishes, are all actions that have the end goal of hurting someone. Virgil goes on to say later in the canto, that this hurt can be directed at “God, to oneself, and to one’s neighbor..” (Line 31). However, those who hurt another with violence are not punished to the same degree as those who are fraudulent, which here means those who lie or mislead.

Line 25-27: “But because fraud is an evil proper to man, it is more displeasing to God; and therefore the fraudulent have a lower place and greater pain assails them.” The mention of fraud being an evil that only mankind has is the reasoning for the greater punishment of those who commit fraud. Later in the canto, Virgil explains that fraud can be committed only where there is trust, and that fraud takes advantage of this trust (lines 52-53). This greater punishment of fraud because it is a human flaw may be linked to Satan deceiving in the Garden of Eden, committing the first fraud.

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