of the work itself (Marx and Engels 1975 vol. 1:84). In its inner workings,
Capitalconstitutes an Infernofor the capitalist era. Fully substantiating this
claim requires an extended, point-by-point analysis; however, the major struc-
tural relationships – schematized in Figure 1 – can be narrated fairly succinctly.
Beginning at the beginning, just as the outer circles of Dante’s Hell house
the sins of incontinence – desire beyond the proper measure – so too the first
major part of Capital, which recapitulates the Contribution, treats the market,
a place of boundless desire. Bourgeois wealth is first encountered as “a mon-
strous collection of commodities” (1976:125). These commodities enter into
exchange, where they give birth to new desires and new commodities. The
desires treated cease to be human desires, and come to be the desires of the
commodities themselves. Marx discusses the flirtation of the coat with the linen
(1976:139–44), and the willingness of a commodity “to exchange not only
soul, but body, with each and every other commodity, be it more repulsive
than Maritornes herself” (1976:179). The limitlessness of this readiness for
exchange transforms the commodities’ desire for one another into their desire
for money, for “commodities are in love with money” (1976:202). Thus does
the incontinence of exchange spread and intensify; “the lust for gold awakens”
(1976:229).
In both Inferno and Capital, it is difficult to move beyond this realm of incon-
tinent desire. Dante and Virgil must confront the devils and furies at the gates
of Dis, where Aeneus turned aside. Dante must descend further than his pre-
decessor. Likewise, Marx must transgress a boundary here, leading us deeper
than the political economists ever went. The marketplace, that “noisy sphere
where everything takes place on the surface, and in full view of everyone”
(1976:279), cannot account for the growth of capital. The market seemed to
be limitless, but circulation is always limited externally by consumption and
formally by the exchange of equals. Circulation cannot generate the “more”
that exhibits itself in all of these commodities. Beyond the market, Marx must
lead us into the realm of capitalist production.
In Dante, the violence punished in the second division, the outer circles of
Dis, is the denial or perversion of the divine order of generation. The epit-
ome of this violence against natural generation is the figure of the usurer, the
last sinner encountered at this level, who makes money grow unnaturally
(Inf. 17.34–75). The problem of usury confronts Marx as capital; money has
become perversely productive. Marx cites Aristotle’s paradigmatic critique
of money-making, which also underlies Dante’s treatment of usury (1976:253n6,
46 • William Clare Roberts