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 . 110-111 ). For being full of anger and hatred during their time on earth, the contrapasso of the wrathful sit atop of the boiling water eternally attacking each other while the sullen boil under the water as a result of being submerged in internal anger in their lives, who Dante is unable to see. …show more content…
As Dante and Virgil continue their voyage deeper into Hell, they reach the Eighth Pouch of the Eighth Circle, home to the sinners of fraud (heresy). The sufferers are walking around in an endless circle, while a “devil waits with a sword back there to carve Each [soul] open afresh each time [they’ve] gone” around the circuit, until they complete the circuit and meet with the devil again, their wounds close up and heal ( XXVIII . 37-38 ). Because they committed the sin of heresy, the sin of division, their contrapasso consequently has the souls being divided in half by a devil every time they heal to a whole again in the