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Dante's Inferno Research Paper

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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

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