My western writer's class has an oral presentation section in the beginning of the course, my partner and I are doing ours on Dante's Inferno, Canto X- Heresy. Originally we chose to focus on the last circle of hell because they were for the highest crimes(betrayal of friends, lying etc.) I suggested this to my partner to do our presentation on because in the last year I have experienced so many things from people grouped in that circle. The first as previously mentioned was my cousin(Hina). However in the same year it happened again with another friend who I thought I could trust and was really my friend. Though I am pretty sure many people think that of her, we went to high school together and then the same college and she even lives near me which made for nice rides home on the train in the evening. However she has so many dark things about her and her betrayal runs so deep towards others she calls friend I should not have been surprised when it finally hit me. Her name was Corlette.
In Dante's inferno Dante takes a tour through hell and all its circles, in the beginning circles he finds adulterers, murders and those guilty of sloth. However the deeper Dante is lead through hell the stranger the crimes become, the lower two circles of hell within a guarded city and divided into rings within the circle are the 8th and 9th circles of hell. Here Dante is told and learns the greatest crimes you can commit upon humanity is betrayal of friends. The difference with the people in these circles is that they lie and betray friends yet they know better, there is no naivety in the action only in the assumption that no one would get hurt. I never thought I would have to deal with that because those close to me are not like that, but I should have realized that the way she spoke about other people she pretended to be friends with is how she must speak of me when I am not around, and the same with personal information given.
Corlette and I were 'good friends' at one point, and I liked that, she seemed lonely in that same sense a person that it is okay to talk to, however I should have realized that way she betrayed her other friends relflects how she would act towards me one day. I feel sorry for the people that call her a friend mostly because of the personal information she tells about the, the secrets she gave and the horrible things she said about them. Some I feel worse for than others because they genuinely thought she was their friend but she wasn't...I literally know so many things about people I barely speak to because of the things she had said in conversations concerning them. I know about Nadia and Amanda's break up and why it happened, Yesenia, Jelly and Karen's attempt to steal a dress from a major department store, Yesenia's finances when it comes to FASFA, how malicious she thinks Jennifer is, how Kelly cheated in a hall of art contest with Yesenia's help, how Yesenia planned to switch the results of a contest based on the person who made the piece, who has shitty art work, how Keysha is black and not dominican the list goes on and on.
The worst were the things said about people who I would less than an hour before the conversation see her laughing and joking with as if they were the best of friends. I'm not sure who I feel sorry for more , the people she talks about or me for actually thinking she was a friend. I have met and know most of the people she says these horrible things about and honestly...they're not the bitchy, annoying or stupid people she says they are. Her co-worker Jennifer for example is not a bitchy person and tries to just undermine her work schedule, neither is the other person she calls an idiot behind his back yet can't follow any of his political conversations, nor is Steph a disrespect sluty girl. They may have their moments of negative behavior but they're not these vile people she makes them out to be. Honestly she is more vile than anyone else.
It becomes awkward knowing all these personal things about people who I see almost everyday and then pretending not to know what is going on their life. This related greatly for me to the lower circles of hell because it is not just that the people did something wrong like lying, but that they knew it was wrong and it would hurt people and they tried to cover their tracks. I had a conversation with Corlette one day where she specifically asked if I had erased all the conversations we had, because if they ever leaked out a lot of people would be upset. This time I lied- and said yes I did. When I think back to this 'friendship' I think only now of Canto
XXXIV where it is revealed in the lowest final circle of hell are for those that betray their benefactor(Friend) Judas and Brutus are among the most famous there. I intended to use this for my oral presentation but that would require my partner and I to wait a month before presenting it. It seems to make a better blog post in stead.
