In Dante’s Inferno, the ideas of justice, good and evil, and suffering in hell are implied. The idea of suffering in hell and the idea of justice are closely related. Dante indicates that those suffering in hell have committed crimes that are being punished in a reasonable way and that we should not have pity for them. He uses the setting and his organization of hell to transmit these ideas and his philosophy regarding these ideas. The organization of hell helps us understand that Dante believed it was a person’s poor decisions and not cruel fate that got a person in hell.
Dante ensures this happens by using the concept of contrapasso, which describes the relationship between sin and the resulting justification in Hell. The literal definition of contrapasso is the 'counter-strike' or the 'counter-suffering which translates literally as "counter-penalty." And in Dante’s Hell, sinners are punished according to the nature of their sin, so that their punishment fits their crime. And as we see throughout the story, some sinners literally become the personification of their sins while others become victims in Hell of the crimes they committed while on
As distorted as that is, there are sometimes far worse outcomes than over punishing the guilty. In some instances, we punish the innocent. In 2004, a man was put to death in
Contropasso refers to the punishment of the souls in Dante's Inferno. Specifically, contrapasso refers to punishment as a process, "either resembling or contrasting with the sin itself". Limbo The souls residing in Limbo include virtuous non-christian adults and unbaptized infants. Included in Dante's vision of limbo are Homer, Socrates, and Plato.
Cantropasso of the sinners in Inferno suffer equivalent to their crimes committed during their lives. Watching the sinister souls endure their contrapassos furthers Dante’s understanding of what is expected of Heaven and what the consequences of each sin are. Traveling through the Fifth Circle of Hell, Dante and Virgil encounter the wrathful and the sullen (those who allowed anger overcome them) at the Synx River. Souls of the wrathful sit naked in the Synx’s muddy water, while “striking each other: with a hand But also with their heads, chests, feet, and backs, Teeth tearing piecemeal,” while the sullen, submerged in the mucky water of the Synx, “gargle from the craw, Unable to speak whole words,” ( VII . 97-100 ) ( VII .
With Dante’s journey through hell he examines the sins of others, these supposed wrongdoings, such as murder are overall worse for the population, causing, over time, a
Him being betrayed makes it the biggest punishment as where it fits contrapasso. These insights of the bottom of hell support the theme that contrapasso is always just. The worse the sin is, the greater the punishment is. In Dante’s Inferno the worst sin was Betrayal in which the worst punishment was given. The bottom was where hell was depicted but it wasn’t full of fire as many people think.
1. In the epic poetry, The Inferno of Dante translation by Robert Pinsky (1320), Dante Alighieri implies that whatever punishment the sinners get it is well deserved due to the actions and decisions they made in the mortal world that got them a place in Hell. Alighieri supports this claim by introducing the backstories and the sins that the sinners committed to compare it to the punishment they receive in Hell to show how they are related to each other. The author purposely emphasizes the sinner’s sins in order to show how their punishment is based off those sins and that the sinners are not just getting random punishments but actual well-deserved ones instead.
The screams and bludgeonings are the relative normal, and evil is left to be the only residing party. Therefore, in this circle, life knows no similarity with reality, and for eternity, this violence is numb. The true punishment is to reduce the value of the inmates consciousness and actions, above the endless physical
But, as the poem continues to progress, it becomes quite clear the there is a perfect balance within God’s justice as the degree of each sinner’s punishment perfectly reflects upon the gravity of the sin. Furthermore, the inscription on the gates of Hell explicitly states that Hell exists as a result of divine justice; “ll. “ Justice moved my great maker; God eternal / Wrought me: the power and the unsearchably / High wisdom, and the primal love supernal (III.4-6).” Prior to delving into the structure of Hell and how it displays God’s divine justice, one must first familiarize themselves with both the historical context of Dante’s life, along with the beliefs of the medieval church.
In the Inferno, Dante describes the different levels of hell and the punishment which corresponds to the sin. Dante categorize hell into three major sins consisting of incontinence, violence, and fraudulent. Fraudulent is portrayed as the worse sin in the Inferno while incontinence is seen as a less serious sin. Each category has sinners which have all been punished for their wrong doings in life. The three major sins consist of circles where Dante separates the different sinners.
The punishment fits the crime. That statement conforms to the ideas of a system know as retributive justice. Retributive justice is rooted in proportionality. This means that a punishment should be to the same degree of ones sin. This system appeals to me personally because it avoids giving people the chance to seak revenge.
Those unlucky souls who were cast into the seventh circle of Hell were sentenced there because of the sin of violence. However, the sin was further broken down into three categories: those violent against others, themselves, or God. The violent against themselves were guilty of suicide, while those guilty of violence against others were condemned for sodomy or usury. The reason these seemingly unrelated sins were grouped together by Dante is that they were seen as going against what was natural. What is interesting to note upon reading Inferno is how the author used the sins of the damned to reflect in their punishment.
Dante discovered two group of sinners: the wrathful and the sullen. Wrath and sullenness are basically two forms of a single sin. “The souls of those whom anger overcame; And likewise, I would have thee know for, Certain” (Canto VIII). Anger that is expressed(wrath) and anger that is repressed that becomes ill-tempered(sullen). The two groups suffered different punishments appropriate to their type of anger, for the wrathful beating in frustration and fighting each other and the sullen stewing below the surface of the of the muddy swamp, however, both are confined
In conclusion, many of Dante’s punishments depicted for the sinners within Dante’s Inferno are fitting for their sins. Although some are not entirely exact, I do understand why these are the punishments depicted for
