Parallels between Bungou Stray Dogs and Divine Comedy
I believe that in the current chapters Asagiri is purposely sneaking in parallels to Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. This post will cover the similarities and possible references between bsd's current arc and that book. At first I thought the Meursault prison corresponds to Hell, but now I believe it's actually Purgatory.
Introduction
Similarities
Final thoughts
Divine Comedy (in which the author - Dante - made himself the main character) talks about one's path to breaking free from sin and their growth as a person. It's divided into three parts: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. During the first two parts, Dante's guide is Virgil (Beatrice comes at the end of Purgatory). In Hell they're going downwards, to the lower circles; in Purgatory they're going upwards, to the higher terraces.
The difference between those two places is that in Hell the souls are suffering endless tortures for their sins, meanwhile in Purgatory they're atoning for them and will eventually leave that place. Depending on what we think is more similar to what's happening in the Meursault prison, we could either interpret it as Hell or Purgatory.
As I said, I believe that it's Purgatory, as the characters are going up, starting from the lowest floor, and that journey helps them (Sigma and Dazai) to grow as a person.
When it comes to Fyodor, I'm not so sure. His goal is to get rid of the abilities, which he compares to a sin. This point acts more as an argument for the Meursault prison, or even his arc overall, to be Hell (not that it's like Hell for him, but more like that's how he thinks of the current events other characters are going through), as his idea of making the ability users free of the the sin is killing them and that's nothing like Purgatory. One could argue tho, that it is similar to the latter, because he wants to release the people from the sin, his idea how to do it and methods are just different.
His character and ability are based on Crime and Punishment and that's literally what Dante's Hell is - endless punishment for one's sins. Moreover, Fyodor sees himself as the God's subordinate and Divine Comedy talks about the souls' sufferings because of their wrongdoings to God. It also talks about Dante's path to getting closer to God (metaphorically and literally), and Fyodor thinks of himself as someone between God and the people.
This analysis won't focus on him, but I wanted to point out the (important) religious themes in both of the stories.
What's also interesting is that Dazai and Fyodor (as the most dangerous ability users) had their cells located on the lowest level - similarly to Hell, where the worst people, traitors, were at the lowest ring. Although Dazai is a traitor to the PM, I don't think he parallels those from Dante's work, as they were meant to symbolize that betrayal is bad, but Asagiri shows that what Dazai did was good for him. They correspond to them in their "lack" of humanity and various commited crimes.
Now more of the similarities!
1. Briareus
Purgatory, Canto XII; bsd chapter 98
The prison officer's nickname is "Hundred ability Briareus". In Greek mythology Briareus is one of the Hundred-Handers, who helped Zeus and the Olympians to overthrow the Titans.
Quick comparison to bsd: while bsd! Briareus gets killed by a person who's "working" for a prisoner, og Briareus eventually becomes a guard of those he was fighting against.
Briareus is also a character in Divine Comedy. He has two appearances: in Hell he's a giant inhabitating the Ninth Circle; in the first terrace of Purgatory he's one of the giants whose sin was pride. I'll focus on the latter, as it's more similar to the scene from chapter 98.
Dante's Briareus is a sympol of pride and bsd!Briareus says how powerful he is. Moreover, they're both more or less carved into the ground / wall (Dante's Briareus as a form of penance, bsd!Briareus by Chuuya's ability) of the first terrace / floor.
That would mean the Meursault prison is our Purgatory.
(more under the cut)
7. Dividedness
After Dante and Virgil part, Dante watches the procession of the church (Purgatory XXIX - XXXII). It heads towards the Tree of Knowledge. Beatrice presents a vision of a sinful and divided church. Similarly, in chapter 108, Sigma witnesses Fyodor's second nature. Fyodor has already talked about ability users and their connection to sin (and what he says doesn't always add up - that alone can be called the dividedness), but now we see the "good" and the "evil" sides of him. Obviously, we don't know whether he was faking it or being honest, but what's important is that such a situation did happen.
(I think DOA can also be the "church". All of its members have different goals, meaning it's divided).
8. Knowledge
When Dante sees the procession of the church, he sees light that he can't grasp with just his mind (Canto XXIX). In chapter 109 Sigma gets to know all of Fyodor's secrets and, because such an amount of knowledge is too big to handle, faints.
Just thinking about the last paragraph... Wouldn't Fyodor be both God and the 'demon'? Since his alter said he was an 'akuma' in the Japanese version (which is translated as devil, but since the Japanese vision of this word doesn't imply it's the devil, a unique being, but something more like a devilish antity... I don't know in chich way asagiri used this word but I wanted to point it out), the 'evil' Fyodor we've known until now, the one that wants to make the crime that ability users are disappear could be the Demon, and his other self could be God, which aligns well with your theory
















