Reflecting Shadows: Seven Deadly Sins
The Capital Vices. The seven Deadly Sins.
They hold a strange appeal. They interest us. They fascinate us. They chase us day and night, awake and asleep. They haunt the back of our minds, even if we are not aware of them, a continuous temptation.
Why?
Because they are forbidden.
We know they are forbidden for good reason, but forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest. E know they will be our ruin if we give in. We know it is wrong. We know it is dangerous. But still we crave to give in, just once.
But that danger is just the root of our morbid fascination. Where does sin, the iframe of our depraved craving, stem from? And is a sin in itself deadly, or just losing yourself in it?
Many unanswered questions. The samples below may simplify each sin to a single aspect, but nonetheless attempt to capture its danger, while the introductory poem examines the origin of sin.
Hence thou mayst comprehend that love must be
The seed within yourselves of every virtue,
And every act that merits punishment.
- Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Purgatory, Canto 17, Tercet 35; translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow