Logan Rader
Ms. Pugh
CRW B4
12 May 2023
A subtitle for the Inferno could be "the punishment fits the crime." Give some examples of this from the text and discuss whether or not you agree with Dante that these are appropriate punishments for the crimes committed. Explain why you think this concept of the punishment fitting the crime was important to Dante. Support your comments with specific examples from the text.
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.
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So it ran on, and still behind it pressed a never-ending rout of souls in pain" (III). These sinners of being uncommitted are being stung by hornets, which cause oozing maggot-infested sores while chasing around a banner. I found this punishment of chasing the banner around fit because the sinners were neither good nor bad, making them "uncommitted." The other side of the punishment is that they are being stung and have infected sores which I found unfit because they did not sin too severely to have a punishment so …show more content…
The hypocrites are punished by wearing beautiful and luxurious cloaks on the outside, but on the inside, they are lined with lead. Dante describes these cloaks as," The outside is all dazzle, golden and fair; the inside, lead, so heavy that Frederick's capes, compared to these, would seem as light as air”(XXIII). Just like on Earth, where they put on a fake face and say they would follow certain beliefs and then go back on their word and act in a way that contradicts the beliefs they said they followed. I agree with Dante that this punishment was appropriate because they are punished as they had acted on Earth. With a fake outside that the sinners would say they had and acted a certain way to make them look good, the luxurious cloak had a different way of acting that countered their original looks, the inside of the cloak being lined with