How Does Dante Use Contrapasso

Contrapasso is the idea that the punishment of an individual's soul in Hell and the cleansing in purgatory corresponds to the sin that person committed on earth. Literally meaning “suffer the opposite” contrapasso is used frequently in both Hell and Purgatory by Dante for many reasons. Dante’s greatest work The Divine Comedy coined the term contrapasso for the frequent and brilliant ways Dante uses contrapasso. The reasons include Dante giving an illustration of the nature of sin, Dante trying to teach us about the severity of sin, and Dante trying to help us understand God and His justice. Dante uses contrapasso often in the Inferno, some key examples are in circle 2, the carnal, the sinners are punished within a whirlwind unable

Another example of contrapasso is in circle 2, the hoarders and the wasters, these sinners are forced to push heavy weights against each other representing the dead weight of their obsessions (Inferno, Canto VII). Another example of this is in circle 8, where the sinners who attempted to see and tell the future now have their heads turned (Inferno, Canto XX). Along with this Dante uses contrapasso to demonstrate how sin correlates with punishment. The deeper Dante goes down into Hell, he sees more and more severe sins and the punishments that come with them. The sinners who are bound by their lesser sins are forced to spend eternity in the upper circles of Hell which is still horrible beyond our imaginations, but more tame than those who committed more severe sins and are forced to spend eternity in lower Hell and suffer far worse punishment. Dante is introducing the concepts that the graver the sin, the more we are separated from God and the harsher our suffering is after our death. Dante also uses contrapasso to show that sin itself is its own punishment. The sinners in Hell are not just eternally suffering from the horrible physical pains inflicted on them but also feel the guilt and weight of their sins. An