Canto III
Line 30-33--"This is the sorrowful state of souls unsure...neither honor or bad fame..neither rebelious to god nor faithful to him."
This ties into a theme of indecision. Even the souls who didn't choose Heaven or Hell but led a good life were still sent to the outskirts of hell. They are punished by having bugs eat at them . This is strange because the souls who did not choose are shown as having a worse fate then those who did not have a choice. Indecision is therefore a sin, or the lack of complete faith in god, but parrallel lack of faith in satan, is a sin.
Line 89-90--"There demon Charon beckons them, with his eyes of fire;"
Charon, the ferryman accross the Acheron River in hell is a demon. He taunts and abuses the souls of the indecisive. He is either commanded by God to punish these souls who did not choose christianity, or he is controled by Satan who torments everyone.
Canto IV
Line 25-27--"They did not sin;...without: baptism, portal to the faith you maintain."
Virgil is describing the souls of the first circle of hell. The people of this ring either were never baptised or were born before christianity and did not have a choice. They have a "paradise" here and these are the only people that Virgil feels bad for because he belongs to this group. This state of this ring of hell is a statement on the compasion and acceptance of God. he allows these people who never accepted him, to rest in a nicer part of hell.
Line 86--"Onward toward the light i made a sixth"
Dante here is walking with Virgil, Homer, Horace, Lucan, and Ovid. All of these men are stuck in the first circle of hell because they were born before christianity. However, they are all brilliant minds of their times. Dante calls himself a sixth to this group. He is classifieing himself with the greatest poets of history.
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Note some things here: 1) Indecision - Why does Dante place those who don't choose a side here? Does this relate to those who did not choose a side in his own, the poet's, life (which maybe led to his exile)? This is a cruel fate for a coward. 2) He places his importance as a poet with the greats. Why? Is this a message to those in power: "This book will exist for Eternity because I am great, and therefore..."
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