Crime And Punishment In Dante's Inferno

Dante wrote Inferno in 1321, it was published shortly after his death. During this time there were a lot of wars and political conflicts going on. Which means there were people who betrayed each other. The author of Inferno reveals his contempt for political and religious traitors by putting them through severe punishment in circle nine, and through the use of literary devices. Dante enters the first round of circle nine, Caina, here are the people who were treacherous against their family, their punishment is to have their necks and heads out of the ice. This is Dante’s symbolic of the final guilt.“If I had rhymes as harsh and horrible as the hard fact of that final dismal hole which bears the weight of all the steeps of Hell.” Dante and

Here he met Friar Alberigo and Branca d’Oria and also discovered the terrible power of Ptolomea. “‘I am Friar Alberigo,’ he answered therefore, “the same who called for the fruits from the bad garden. Here I am given dates for figs full store.’”(pg.274) Friar Alberigo got into an argument with his brother, he pretend to let it go. He invited his brother and his nephew to a banquet and murdered them. Because his crime were so great, his soul were forced into Hell before his time and demons occupied his body. “How my body stands in the world i do not know. So privileged is this rim of Ptolomea, that often souls fall to it before dark Atropos has cut their thread.”(pg.274) Dante couldn’t believe what Friar Alberigo told him, so Alberigo told him about Branca d’Oria. “ You surely must have known his body: Branca d’Oria is its name, and many years have passed since he rained down.” (pg.274) His sin is similar to Friar Alberigo, he invited his father-in-law to a banquet and murdered him and his

The sinners in circle four are the traitors to their masters, their punishment is they lie completely sealed in the ice, so they couldn’t speak to any of them. As he entered the center, Virgil showed him “the foul creature”. Dante decided not to use his name because they’re in his domain. He has three faces, and there are three sinners stuck inside each mouth. Judas Iscariot is in the central mouth, Brutus and Cassius in the mouths either side. “‘The soul that suffers most,’ explained my Guide, ‘is Judas Iscariot, he who kicks his legs on fiery chin and his head inside. Of the other two, who have their heads thrust forward, the one who dangles down from the black face is Brutus, there with the huge and sinewy arms, is the soul of Cassius. But the night is coming on and we must go, for we have seen the whole.’” (pg. 281)This imagery shows that these three sinners are the worse human kind, because Judas betrayed Christ and Brutus and Cassius betrayed Caesar. “There is a space not known by sight, but only by the sound of a little stream descending through the hollow it has eroded from the massive stone in its endlessly entwining lazy flow.” This is Dante’s symbolism of the River Lethe which flows down from Purgatory where it has washed away the memory of the sinners. Dante ends each book in the Commedia series with the word “Star”. This is his symbol of every conclusion of