How Does Dante Use The Contrapasso

Within the first of three canticles, The Inferno, Dante creates a tool, named the contrapasso, in order to warn the readers of the gruesomeness and reality of a life engulfed with habitual sin. The contrapasso essentially conveys what sinners are condemned to do for all of eternity after bodily death. Sinners remain exactly who they were when they were living, except they are continually condemned to a punishment that is fitting for their sin. The damned are forced to be exactly who they were in life and act eternally surrounded by their sinful nature, caused by their faulty disposition of soul. These contrapassi represent a moral allegory for Dante, either complex in its interpretation or simple (complex as in that which needs a further level

In any specific case, “the relationship between punishment and sin is not always immediately obvious” (Montemaggi, Treherne, Rowson). This ambiguity emphasizes the complex, moral allegory that forces the reader to deeply ponder the use of these punishments. However, like a punishment the contrapasso is, it is not the actual action that will happen when habituating one’s soul to a specific sin, but is merely a repetition or ironic allegory that strips down the sin to show its true nature. These contrapassi are employed to do the same operation as the others, but they have a different effect on the reader. He must gather for himself what should be implied about the nature of sin. An example of this ambiguous contrapasso is that of the heretics: they “see, even as men who are farsighted, / those things … are remote from us… / But when events draw near or are, our minds / are useless; were we not informed by others, / we should know nothing of your human state” (Inferno, X.100-101, 103-105). On the first reading of this passage, it is difficult to understand why the heretics are damned to only see the future and not able to see the present. However, upon deeper inspection, and reflection of the role of the contrapasso, one can reason from what a heretic was in life, and see the connection that he is now damned only to see the future and rely on others for the present. Again, this type of analysis and