Examples Of Punishment In Dante's Inferno

Conner Willis

Mrs. Pugh

English 12

05/05/2023

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. In Donte’s Inferno there are many punishments “that fit the crime” but one that stood out to me in particular was in “The Vestibule '' where above the gate it states “Abandon all hope ye who enter here”. This is because for this punishment “The Uncommitted '' are running after banners/ guidons while getting stung by hornets,

Here are the misers that hoard money and the spendthrifts that waste money. The punishments for these actions are pushing weights. Dante writes, “ they destroyed the light of God within them-selves by thinking of nothing but money. Thus in death, their souls are encumbered by dead weights (mundanity) and one excess serves to punish the other” (XI). I think that this is a fair punishment and fits the crime because it proves that money is not to be hoarded or wasted but instead used and shared within a group or community to make the “team/ group”

The crime in this circle is for the flatterers. This is where people who praise other people to get what they want go. The punishment is being submerged by feces. In the text, it says “I saw among the felons of that pit one wraith who might or might not have been tonsured one could not tell, he was so smeared with shit” (XVIII). I think that this is a fair punishment for the crime because it shows that even if you wish you have what someone has and or what it looks like they have doesn't mean they actually have it. For example if you are looking at a person's social media and they are all happy, that is just what they post aka “the good times” but there like in reality could be a living hell. The Pounderers and the Seducers are also in the eighth circle along with the flatterers. The punishment for the Seducers and Pounderers is marching, as if to St. Peter’s whipped by demons. I think that this is a brutal punishment for the crime because I just couldn't imagine marching and getting whipped every time you do something wrong are as the demons pleased. According to the Inferno, “These make two files, one along either bank of the ditch, and are driven at an endless fast walk by horned demons who hurry them along with great lashes'’