Actions that a person commits usually have some sort of consequence to follow them. If someone commits a good deed then they are rewarded. On the other hand, if someone commits a bad deed then they are punished. The punishment should reflect the sin in some way for that punishment to be just. Dante and Virgil go on a journey through the underworld and look at each circle. Each circle represents a different sin, and every soul that comes into Hell is told which circle to go to. Each circle also has it's own punishment or punishments. Each punishment in Dante's Inferno is just because each soul that experiences the punishment they deserve can see that eternity would have been easier if they did not commit the sins that they did. The sins and punishments that stick out the most to me are the ones about the gluttons and the wrathful. The souls punished for gluttony are punished in so many different ways and each way fairly reflects their sin. The fairness of the punishment for the souls that were filled with anger on Earth is not as easily seen, but it is the only …show more content…
Joseph Kameen explains Dante's view of Hell and how it slightly differs from that of the Bible. He also explains Dante's view on the fairness of each punishment in Hell. "Contrapasso is one of the few rules in Dante's Inferno. It is the one 'law of nature' that applies to hell, stating that for every sinner's crime there must be an equal and fitting punishment" (37). Kameen tells us that the only law of nature that applies to hell is Newton's third law, which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This can relate to the punishments of the gluttons and the wrathful because their punishment must be equal and fitting to the sin they committed. This tells us that Dante thought that each punishment fairly reflected each
The purpose of the pilgrim's journey through hell is to show, first hand, the divine justice of God and how Christian morality dictates how, and to what degree, sinners are punished. Also, the journey shows the significance of God's grace and how it affects not only the living, but the deceased as well. During his trip through hell, the character of Dante witnesses the true perfection of God's justice in that every sinner is punished in the same nature as their sins. For instance, the wrathful are to attack each other for all eternity and the soothsayers are forever to walk around with their heads on backwards. Furthermore, Dante discovers that hell is comprised of nine different circles containing
In Dante’s Inferno, part of The Divine Comedy, Canto V introduces the torments of Hell in the Second Circle. Here Minos tells the damned where they will spend eternity by wrapping his tail around himself. The Second Circle of Hell holds the lustful; those who sinned with the flesh. They are punished in the darkness by an unending tempest, which batters them with winds and rain. Hell is not only a geographical place, but also a representation of the potential for sin and evil within every individual human soul. As Dante travels through Hell, he sees sinners in increasingly more hideous and disgusting situations. For Dante, each situation is an image of the quality of any soul that is determined to sin in
Imagine a place where tyrants stand up to their ears in boiling blood, the gluttonous experience monsoons of human filth, and those who commit sins of the flesh are blown about like pieces of paper in a never-ending wind storm. Welcome to Dante 's Inferno, his perspective on the appropriate punishments for those who are destined to hell for all eternity. Dante attempts to make the punishments fit the crimes, but because it is Dante dealing out the tortures and not God, the punishments will never be perfect because by nature, man is an imperfect creature. Only God is capable of being above reproach and of metering out a just punishment. While Dante 's treatment towards the tyrants is fitting, his views on the
Dante explains a little bit why the lecherous are punished the way they are. He states that he “understood that to such torment / the carnal sinners are condemned, / they who make reason subject to desire” (V. 37-39). Desire governs the wantons’ reason instead of reason governing their desire. Since will instead of reason governed the sinners’ choices in their lives, then in hell they are experiencing the physical representation of the choices their souls made. The lustful are at the will of the wind, which blows them anywhere without any direction. This parallels the choices they made in life as their wills guided them without the direction of the intellect. The
Dante’s The Inferno is his own interpretation of the circles of hell. The people that Dante places in hell tried to validate their offenses and have never seen the injustice of their crime or crimes. They were each placed in a specific circle in Hell, Dante has nine circles in his hell. Each circle holds those accountable for that specific crime. Each circle has its own unique and fitting punishment for the crime committed. There are three different main types of offenses; they are incontinence, violence, and fraud. These offenses are divided into Dante’s nine rings of Hell. Each of these rings has a progressively worse punishment, starting with crimes of passion and
In Dante’s Inferno, Dante is on a journey through hell in which he sees the different versions of sins and what consequences come after the immoralities. The person who commits a sin usually has to suffer in some way that would show revenge for the law of God. Dante threatens the people and tells them that they basically have nothing to look forward to except for having to suffer being separated from the will of God. Since these works were written by Dante, he had the power to judge others and decide how they will be punished for their sins. These visions that he had could very well be all false prophecies and may not be believed by every person. One thing that Dante did was to give enlightenment to sins that people did not know and made people
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.
Most Christians these days see every sin as equally bad. In other words, no one sin is worse or should draw worse punishment than another. In Dante's The Inferno, however, this is not the case. In The Inferno, the deeper one delves into Hell, the worse the sin that has been committed. The punishments that the souls incur are representative of the sins they committed in their corporeal state of being. Sins that affect others are considered worse then those that only affect ones self by Dante. The Wrathful in Canto 8 are lower down then the Hoarders and Wasters in Canto 7 because according to Dante, The Wrathful commit violent acts, or sins against others, while the Hoarders and wasters only against themselves. This is how one sin is
As demonstrated would be the second circle of hell which consists of the lustful. As their punishment for their unholy desires, they are being blown violently back and forth by strong winds which prevents them from getting rest in comparison to a higher level such as the fifth circle which contain the wrathful who live in the mud river and is constantly fighting and hurting each other because they could not manage their anger in life. The punishment reflects the type of sin committed during their lifetime. All of this organized based on the severity of the sin. Dante teaches us that whatever you do will always come back regardless. Justice is considered one of the most important theme and concept that it comes with. The term “right of law” means that a person does what is “just” or “ morally right” and for things to be overall fair which ties in with the concept that involves people getting what they had coming for them.
Especially in the circles of Hell. In Dante’s first circle, which is for those who are not baptized, contradicts the ideas and preaching’s, that all those who shall believe in Christ shall have immortal life. Why would one be sent to the fiery, pits of Hell if they believe in Christ but because they aren’t baptized? The understanding that Dante expresses on 7 Deadly Sins, which in truth are Roman Catholic doctrines that are used to help live a more God like life, but should have been the 10 Commandments. The 10 Commandments were the original rule set by God for his people. So if there were to in actuality be levels of Hell, there would be a level for each of those broken rules, but remember if you ask for forgiveness, then you are forgiven and your sins wiped clean resulting in your acceptance to Heaven instead of to the fire pits of
In his poem, Inferno, Dante Alighieri meets the damned souls in hell. His mentor, Virgil, a well-known poet and a good friend of Dante’s, guides him through out their journey of hell and encourages him to farther question those souls damned in hell. Virgil also explains the structure of hell, how it is divided into circles and each circle is the place where those guilty of certain sins are being punished. Through out the poem, the souls that Virgil and Dante encounter, all try to justify their sin and they indirectly ask for pity. Here is where Dante the poem leaves the decision up to the reader, whether or not the punishment fits the sinner and the sin and whether or not they deserve
The major themes in Dante’s Inferno are religion, punishment, and sin. The seven deadly sins: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth originated from the Holy Bible. Dante Alighieri is a devout Christian; therefore Dante’s Inferno is based on his Christian theologian beliefs. “The visit to the underworld seems to say that, in the pattern of Christ, ascent first requires descent, a deeper understanding of the possibilities of degradation and of demeaned actuality before consciousness can be converted to conviction”(Quinones). Dante journeyed through the depths of hell in Inferno, then repents his sins in Purgatory, and finally reaches Heaven in Paradiso.
At one point, or another you might have asked yourself, “What in the Hell, is Hell?” Well According to Dante Alighieri’s’ epic poem, The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Hell is where those that have sinned are punished, but the punishments for each sin depends on the sin committed. The reasoning for this is, because God is just with his punishment, and Dante created a visual of these punishments for his readers so they can get an idea of what specifically is in store for them if they do certain sins.
In Dante's Inferno, Dante places people of all types into one of the nine different circles depending on what they had done in their life and what punishments they deserve. His religion is what said which sins made someone have to spend eternity in Hell and what sins were worse than others. Some of the sins Dante chose to be included in his own version of Hell are wrath, sloth, greed, lust, and gluttony. These sins were seen as some of the worst in the Catholic religion, which influences Dante’s decision to have them in Dante's Inferno. Some of the other sins Dante chose also exemplified his strong Catholic faith. For example, the people who fall in Limbo did not believe in God and in the Catholic religion, this means they were not saved and would therefore end up in Hell (Brantl 208). Dante, just like all catholics, believed that going against God was a sin. In Dante's Inferno, there are punishments for people who go against the catholic religion and the Lord as well as betray them. Dante’s religion also influenced his choices for whom he put in hell and where. According to Dante, no madder how good of a person you are, if you didn't believe in God and Christianity, you were sent to hell. Hawkins says that “…Limbo, the first circle of hell. It is beautiful, refined, civil, and dead. Knowledge may well be perfection, but it is the knowledge of God, the beatific vision, that is the journey’s true end” (107).