"The Inferno" is the first book in the epic poem called the “Divine Comedy” by the Italian politician Dante Alighieri and it is followed by "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso”. The book "Inferno", which is the Italian translation for Hell, tells the journey of its author through what he believes is Hell, which consists of nine circles of pain and suffering. In his journey, he is guided through the nine circles by the Roman poet Virgil. Each circle in the book represents a different type of sin with a different type of punishment, varying according to the degree of the offense they committed in their life. By the end of his journey through all of the circles, Dante realizes and emphasizes the perfection of God's Justice and the significance of each offense towards God’s unconditional love.
‘Could you find pleasure only in what was forbidden, and only because it was forbidden? (Confessions Book II, page 1186).’ One of Dante’s rules in the inferno is contrapasso, which states that for every crime there must be a befitting and equal punishment (Dante, Durling and Martinez 70-71). Punishment is always derived from the offense and not from the consequences of the crime itself. ‘Even when they sin against thee, they are also committing impiety against their own souls (Augustine and Outler 42).’This is to say that there are various levels of crime which are all punished differently.
In Dante’s Inferno, many rules are presented. One of the few rules is Contrapasso, the “law of nature,” that states for every sinner’s crime there must be an equal and fitting punishment. It is expressed that the punishment must fit with the crime that was committed. With this in mind, a level of Hell that best represents contrapasso is The Gluttony.
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 .
In lecture we discussed the lovers Paolo and Franchesca who were doomed to eternity together in the 2nd circle of hell. Paolo and Franchesca’s eternal life together in Hell appears to fulfill the lovers’ wishes, but in fact it is a punishment. This punishment is known as contrapasso, literally meaning “counter-suffering.” In Dante’s Inferno, Dante depicts hell as a place of sin unmasked, where people eternally suffer through continued, eternal acts of the same sinning they committed on Earth and failed to repent while they lived. Sin, in Dante’s society, refers to a human perversion of God’s given gifts.
Limbo is a fairly pleasant region of Hell reserved for righteous pagans or those that were never saved but never committed a grave sin. This serves as a sort of middle-ground afterlife between the good that is in Heaven and the evil that is in Hell, but still resides within Hell geographically. Those in Limbo remain in Limbo for eternity, similar to those on Earth that might receive immortality. The only punishment for those sent to Limbo is the soul's deprivation of God and Heaven. Virgil in Dante’s “Inferno” is acts much like Rufus in that he provides insight in to the world of Limbo
The principle of “an eye for an eye,” exemplified by Dante’s use of contrapasso in the Inferno, is not a viable justice system in the modern world. In Dante’s Inferno, there is a specific punishment, that goes along with each sin, that the perpetrator must endure. Each punishment is a direct reflection of its corresponding sin, almost like a mirror image showing the same crime being committed on the sinner. For example, the lustful and carnal sinners are blown around in a violent, never-ending storm with no rest. This is an example of contrapasso because the sinners lived life uncontrolled, purely with emotion, and never settled down.
Abstract Dante’s Inferno is one of the most famous comedy known. The writing of this story began in 1308 and was finished in 1320, 12 years after. This story was finished a year before Dante’s death, and he died by contracted a fever while he was traveling to Venice. Inferno is also followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso.
Dante's Inferno has a recurring theme: the sinner's punishments match that person's sin. This theme is called contrapasso, which in Dante's Inferno, every sin should have a punishment that represents that sin. Throughout the cantos and circles of hell, the reader sees how Dante used a motif of symbolizing the punishments of the sinner.
The prisoners receive a thematically equivalent punishment to their actions in their previous lives. As the deeper circles of hell are populated by the worst inmates, the concept of contrapasso elicits exceedingly jarring punishments the further Dante travels. The nine total circles of hell are large enough to populate a lifetime 's worth of the world’s sins. When Dante is introduced to the first circle of hell, reserved for pagans, it is clear that the inmates are bound eternally to live in the Inferno, for even those who did not conciously commit sin, are forced to stay in this realm. In his real life, Alighieri was highly vocal about political stances.
In Canto IV, Dante addresses two theological issues of salvation. According to Christianity, all souls that lived sinless life but were not baptized, are denied salvation. Dante designates his first circle of hell, called Limbo, for those poor souls. In Limbo, they are not tortured, but the cannot have salvation. It was a very simple and brilliant solution.
The idea of Hell itself in most Judeo-Christian denominations begins with the simple premise of being a place for those who have either sinned or turned his or her back on God, damning them to an eternity of punishment and suffering. A major idea presented in Inferno is the idea of the contrapasso. Justin Steinburg in his essay “Dante’s Justice? A Reapprasial of the Contrapasso” summarizes the idea by explaining it as a balance of crime and punishment in Hell. In canto 28 in the Inferno, the Dante first poses the idea in text when Bertran de Born must carry his own head in his arms after separating father from son.
Unfortunately, Dante’s journey transitions from the wood into the depths of Hell where he and readers discover the Christian view of sin, repentance, and the need for a savior. The author introduces his readers to Jesus Christ during Virgil and Dante’s conversation about the lost souls in Limbo. In the First Circle of Hell, known as Limbo, the lost souls that did not have an opportunity to meet Jesus Christ dwell in this place. Although they did not sin, they did not have a proper relationship with God through Jesus Christ. However, Virgil testifies about Jesus’ decision into Hell when he says, “ I saw a mighty lord descend to us…
No one that forever belongs in Hell has hope of being saved, but other souls do possess hope through salvation. The loss of hope is the one common punishment of every sinner in Hell. Dante the pilgrim, in his spiritual traveling throughout the Inferno, encounters a plethora of different punishments distributed out to the damned souls that occupy the nine rings that form Hell. Each punishment is a kind of poetic justice suited for each kind of sin being punished and always includes the
In Christian Theology, the term “hell” is commonly understood as a place where wicked souls are tormented after the death
