In Dante’s epic poem, The Inferno, he conveys anguish in the passage through similes and both visual and sound imagery. After entering hell and passing through the first three circles, Dante and his guide, Virgil, reach the fourth circle containing the hoarders and wasters. Here the guardian, Plutus, seeks to block their way, yet Virgil speaks to him and, “As puffed-out sails fall when the mast gives way/ And flutter to a self-convulsing heap/ So collapsed Plutus into that dead clay.” Dante compares how puffed sails collapse in a self-convulsing heap when their mast falls to how Plutus collapses to the ground in the clay. Comparing Pluto’s fall to a self-convulsing heap, Dante demonstrates Pluto’s distress, beginning with the anguish evident
