Contrapasso In Dante's Inferno

Often, we cannot see the good until we have experienced the bad. Dante Alighieri, a poet who makes himself the main character in his Divine Comedy, finds himself lost in a dark wood at the start of The Inferno. Though he sees a safe path out of the wood towards an alluring light, he is forced to take an alternate route through an even darker place. As the ending of the pilgrim Dante’s voyage is bright and hopeful, Alighieri the poet aims to encourage even the most sinful Christians to hope for a successful end. Thus, Dante the pilgrim goes to hell in The Inferno to better understand the nature of sin and its consequences in order to move closer to salvation; his journey an allegory representing that of the repenting Christian soul.

In Dante’s Inferno, a permeating theme of the work is the idea of contrapasso. Contrapasso is only mentioned once and late in the Inferno in Canto XXVIII of XXXIV by Bertran de Born: “In me you may observe fit punishment / Cosí s’osserva in me lo contrapasso” (XXVIII. 142). Although the literary device of contrapasso is only mentioned once and late in the Inferno, the tool is used in every circle and subdivision in hell. Contrapasso is seen in the punishments of the damned in a physical manifestation, which represents an appropriate mode of retribution in terms of a kind of divine justice. In Dante’s Inferno, contrapasso, while it describes the physical agony of the damned as fit punishment for their habitual sins, represents the damage

What goes around comes around. When sinners reach hell they are forced to experience the counter-suffering of contrapasso. For each sin, Dante gives a specific punishment relating to that sin. Some of these sins include violence towards self, violence towards God, sorcery, and hypocrisy. For the despicable lives they lived on earth, they are doomed to suffer relating consequences for all of eternity.

Dante Alighieri, on the other hand, takes separating the supernatural world from the physical world to great lengths. Simply the setting of the book in a place which does not physically exist anywhere on earth, but solely in a metaphysical plane, makes the reader aware that purgatory has nothing to do with earth. This differs greatly from the viewpoint of the Greeks and consequently the Romans where the gods resided in actual places the can be seen such as the `Milky Way' (Ovid, 6) or Olympus (Ovid, 7). Dante stresses that he and Virgil are `pilgrims' in Purgatory - their being in

Contrapasso is the one “law of nature” that applies in hell, basically, being fair with each sinner's punishment due to their sin. In circle 3, the lustful are tormented by raging winds blowing them around the circle representing the “love” or “thrive” that had moved them in the time of action of their sin. For example, this punishment is suited best for these sinners because while they were alive they decided to ignore reason and not control their lust when they could have, so now “ the sinners caught in its grasp go high or low and from side to side with no control over their speed or position” (Alighieri 17). They will remain forever in the winds having no control whatsoever of anything when they had the chance when they were

Reason, logic, and pure thought are the compasses of humanity. Unfortunately, today no one even bothers to look at the compass or to ask for directions. The lack of logic and reason in our everyday decisions leads to the larger scale chaos that results from apathetic actions. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, as in Dante's case, we have slipped from our guide of Reason and shown pity to people, like Francesca and Paolo, who fall to carnal lusts, or to those like in the Wood of the Suicides. Like Dante, we are only too eager to hear their stories and report back to those above, still in the Dark Wood, of their fate. We feel as though the punishment which God, in His great Wisdom, has dealt out for them were unfair. And we fear for our own

Journeys can be taken many ways. Some people take the path less traveled and some people take the easy way out. Dante happens to be on journey that is less traveled, by exploring the depths of Hell in the Inferno. The epic poem’s story is about self-realization and transformation. It sees Dante over coming many things to realize he is a completely different person from the start of the Inferno journey. Dante sees many things that help him gain courage in order to prove to himself and the reader that accepting change and gaining courage can help one to grow as a person and realize their full potential. After seeing people going through certain punishment Dante realizes that he must not seek pity on himself and others in order to fully realize his true potential.

With his writing style and the implementation of some literature firsts, Dante assured his name in history. His mastery of language, his sensitivity to the sights and sounds of nature, and his infinite store of information allow him to capture and draw the reader into the realm of the terrestrial Hell. His vast store of knowledge of Greek mythology and the history of his society assists Dante in the

In Dante’s “Inferno’, he incorporates many elements, ideas and personalities from the ancient world and merges into a Christian framework. Dante had to get his ideas for an endless suffering in hell for sinners from somewhere and he got most of his ideas from the ancient world. Dante’s guide through the circles of hell was Virgil. Dante takes a journey through hell and back as a student.

As Dante makes his ascent through hell and purgatory, he is guided by two figures. The first is Virgil, who saves him from peril and accompanies him, as a friend, through the layers of both afterlifes. The second is Beatrice, who inspired Dante’s journey of salvation in the first place, and who he longs to be reunited with. Yet although these guides are leading him towards God, Dante mistakes their guiding as the end itself. He makes a God of Beatrice, sees her as the ultimate good towards which one strives, and makes a Jesus of Virgil, the man through whom this ultimate good is reached. In this way, Dante creates his own trinity, much to the detriment of his ascent to the True God.

As Dante explores the Second Circle of Hell, he is horrified by the punishments that the sinners must suffer through. When he hears the story of Francesca and Paolo’s lustful actions, Dante relates deeply to their stuggles because he reflects on his own sins and believes he may be cast to a similar fate in the afterlife. Dante reacts to the story when he says, “I fainted, as if I had met my death. / And then I fell as a dead body falls” (5.142-143). Dante faints from compassion for the two sinners’ pitiful story. Dante struggles to grasp the wrongdoing these people have participated in to be placed in Hell because he continues to search for the noble qualities in everyone. On the one hand, Dante believes God’s punishment for the lustful sinners, relentless winds and storms, is unethical. On the other hand, this belief is naive because it is known that all of God’s punishments are just. The lustful are condemned to an eternity in Hell because they did not care about their actions on Earth, so the raging storm that torments them is not concerned with what is in its path. Dante is not only attempting to discover the possible consequences of his own actions, but also learning to trust in God’s judgement.

Solely based on moral beliefs Dante's poem is obviously a deeply Christian standpoint. One might be surprised, then, to find that it is filled with allusions to pagan mythology and is populated not just by biblical figures, but also by characters of Greek and Roman myth and history. However taking place in hell on the evening of Good Friday through the morning of Easter Sunday in approximately the year 1300. The Inferno is an evil that is a contradiction to God's will; as most of the punishments of the sinners correspond symbolically to the sins they committed themselves. The walk through a dark and confusing world represents the life journey of men and women. Dante’s extensive literary treatment of death and afterlife aims to both comfort and warn; envisioning rewards for the

Often when we set out to journey in ourselves, we come to places that surprise us with their strangeness. Expecting to see what is straightforward and acceptable, we suddenly run across the exceptions. Just as we as self‹examiners might encounter our inner demons, so does Dante the writer as he sets out to walk through his Inferno. Dante explains his universe - in terms physical, political, and spiritual - in the Divine Comedy. He also gives his readers a glimpse into his own perception of what constitutes sin. By portraying characters in specific ways, Dante the writer can shape what Dante the pilgrim feels about each sinner. Also, the reader can look deeper in the text and examine the

Dante's `Divine Comedy', the account of his journey through hell, purgatory and heaven is one of the worlds great poems, and a prime example of a most splendidly realized integration of life with art. More than being merely great poetry, or a chronicle of contemporary events, which it also is, the `Comedy' is a study of human nature by a man quite experienced with it. The main argument I will make in this essay is that Dante's `Comedy' is chiefly a work of historical significance because in it lies the essence of human life across all boundaries of time and place. I feel that such a reading is justified, nay invited, by Dante himself when he says;

Dante, the pilgrim, meets a man in Purgatory named Marco Lombardo, and he explains to Dante how everyone has free will, and that, “intellect” (Dante, Purgatorio XVI. 80) is what frees him “from the heavens’ influence” (Dante, Purgatorio XVI. 81). Lombardo is telling Dante that the more intellectual knowledge one has, the more control one has over their own fate. Lombardo goes on to tell Dante that, “The spheres [are what] start your impulses along” (Purgatorio XVI. 73) and that the soul “turns eagerly to all that gives it pleasure” (Purgatorio XVI. 90). Thus, our souls are drawn towards beautiful and pleasurable things first, and in order to make sure that these beautiful things aren’t coming from a “simple soul” (Purgatorio XVI. 87), which will deceive, one must “guide its love to higher things” (Purgatorio XVI.93). But thankfully Lombardo reassures Dante that he is “headed the right way to reach the stair that leads above” (Purgatorio XVI. 49). By following his desire for Beatrice, he is on his way to the divine. The idea that love is what is leading Dante in the direction of heaven is evident in Lombardo’s words.