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Examples Of Contrapasso In Dante's Inferno

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The Law of Contrapasso; Torments of Sins, a Fit or Not?
In Dante’s Inferno, there are nine circles of Hell, each incorporate a different punishment for the crimes of their resident's sins, yet many fail to depict the law of contrapasso. The law of contrapasso ensures that that every soul suffers in afterlife based upon a logical comparison with the sin he/she had committed on earth. In the circles of Hell, the damned are forever petrified in the sins that they committed on earth, reflecting retributive and eternal suffering. Dante didn’t invent the contrapasso, but he uses the law throughout Inferno. Although many circles of Hell incorporate the idea of contrapasso and reflect the punishment of crime, like circles three and seven, others, specifically circle six, do not have a punishment that fits the crime of the damned. …show more content…

The heretics are punished for their sin of heresy. This means that their opinions and beliefs are contrary to the Christian religion, denying God and the teachings of the church. Dante explains that the sixth circle is taken place in the City of Dis, outlined as a cemetery. There, the souls of the sinners are placed in uncovered tombs and graves lit on fire, "Between the torments and the city wall" (Canto X: 2). The main heretic and his followers share a tomb, enforcing the main sinner to look carefully at his sins and creations: "Their cemetery have upon this side, With Epicurus [and] all his followers" (Canto X: 13-14). This punishment displays eternal and retributive suffering, however doesn't reflect the law of contrapasso. Thus, the main focus of the sixth circle of hell is eternal purification of heresy by flame, "through the city of fire", where "unpleasant [makes] its stench" (Canto X: 22 and

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522 Words | 3 Pages

In Canto 10, Dante and Virgil are still in the sixth circle of hell, the Heretics' circle. While walking by the tombs, Dante asks Virgil

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324 Words | 2 Pages

The level of hell that shows contrapasso in Dante’s Inferno is the 3rd level of hell which is gluttony. The guard of the third circle is the three headed dog Cerberus. He is best fit for punishing the souls because he has a swollen belly just as you can imagine a glutton would be. Also , his job is to howl to make the sinners deaf.

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Destiny over Free will Free will is a term unheard of nowhere days because of how much the media portrays that we have to do what other people say such as politicians. Some people are destined to think that everything we say and do has already been written out in a script somewhere in heaven and that God already knows what we are going to do before we even do it. People do not possess free will but are governed by fate because in Dante's Inferno the people who were brought down to hell were brought down because they were destined to go down the wrong path and that's why they are in hell and there are special places for people whose fate was a little too heinous and they were forced to go in the middle of heaven and hell and sometimes other people are also destined to lead us to our fate such as Virgil in Dante's inferno. People do not possess free will but are governed by fate because we think we have a choice to change our decisions but what if

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480 Words | 2 Pages

In the classic epic poem Dante’s Inferno the residents of Hell receive eternal punishment. However, each sin has a different everlasting consequence. The method of justice used to decide the tortures is called contrapasso. Contrapasso is an Italian term meaning to suffer the opposite. Damned souls in Dante’s Inferno suffer retributions that are exactly opposite or closely related to their crimes against God and man.

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All the punishments are awful. However, when Dante describes the punishments of those who committed violence against god he clearly shows his anger towards these people through the punishment he gave them. Those who are: simonists, fraudulent, magicians, diviners, and fortune tellers. The punishment for all the fraudulent is to be boiled in pitch and furthermore to have devils jab them with pitchforks. As for the other sins they have four punishments any of them could get such as: Face down in holes while their feet burn, being integrated with others forever, to wallow in ordure, and lastly being covered with sores and scabs from head to toe.

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In brief, Dante was described by Foscolo, as an angry, bilious detractor of the Roman Church who, in the Inferno of the Divine Comedy, condemned Pope Niccolo III (Giovanni Gaetano Orsini - member of the prominent Orsini family from Rome) to spend eternity in the Third Bolgia of the Eighth Circle, headfirst in a hole, whose punishment was due to those who committed simony, such as greed for power and other ecclesiastical crimes. In a first time Pope Niccolo' III had been appointed head of the Inquisition as Giovanni Gaetano Orsini (1282), and only after his election as Pope (1277), he took name Nicholas III. This Pope is remembered in the official Italian history, because he was able to expand the papal political control also on parts of Romagna, as far as north Bologna and Ferrara.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Most people depict hell as a place consisting of lava and fire. Dante Alighieri had a different vision when he wrote The Inferno. Dante envisioned hell with nine circles in which you would end up in based on what sins you committed in life. The first circle of hell is limbo, where unbaptized citizens and virtuous pagans reside. The second circle of hell is where the lustful went.

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140 Words | 1 Pages

The purpose the author had in mind when he made Dante’s Inferno was to provide entertainment throughout the story. One way the author made the story entertaining was that he added action to the storyline. “Already I had twisted round my palm a length of hair, and pulled some clumps right out” is one part in the story that contains action(Dante 281.102-103). Another way the author could provide entertainment could be the use of suspense for his readers. “ Who first opposed it, all now turned their eyes to the other shore” is a good example of suspense because the people do not know what’s coming next(Dante 183.116-117).

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876 Words | 4 Pages

Once again, this leads to the belief that she did not deserve to be placed in Hell. Now, this is not to say she is blameless of any or all sin, but her sins did not warrant her punishment. The contrapasso bestowed on her is invalid. Forced to into the furthest depths of Hell and encrusted in human excrement seems like a vicious punishment for someone who allegedly did nothing more than Dante did himself.

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1181 Words | 5 Pages

When someone commits several wrongdoings during their lives, it is very problematic to decide a specific punishment. In the novel The Inferno, Dante categorizes the sinner’s punishment by the severity of their crimes. As for Nero, the Roman Emperor, it is fairly evident that he would be placed in multiple circles of hell, due to the heinous crimes that he has committed while being in charge of Rome. Nero has been linked to several crimes including murders, homosexual acts, and even being directly linked as betraying Rome during the Great fire. Therefore, the Roman emperor is evidently placed in the seventh, eighth and ninth circles of hell, where he would ultimately subside into his rightful place in the inferno.

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God’s Justice in Inferno One of the most significant themes, if not the most significant theme within Dante’s Inferno is the perfection of God’s divine justice. Dante expressees divine justice within Inferno in a multitude of ways, with one of the the most prominent examples being the overall structure of Hell and how the punishment for the sinners (perfectly) reflects upon the sin. To the modern reader, Hell likely seems more like an act of cruelty than divine justice, much less a product of God’s love. At first,the torments that the sinners are subjected to seems extreme and grotesque.

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1087 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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