Dante’s Inferno: Contrapasso Essay

Contrapasso core suffer the opposite. It refers to the penalty of souls in Dantes nether region by a process either resembling or contrasting with the breach itself. T here argon numerous ideals of contrapasso in Dantes Inferno, as he travels ever so deeper into the depths of hell. In the Inferno, we argon given a number through Hell by Dante, who is a middle-aged man. The Inferno is a story of a journeying given by two different Dantes Dante the pilgrim and Dante the author. He has a natural emotion of pity, which he is frequently reprimanded for. At the beginning of his journey, he is confronted by terce animals.These animals represent the three rings of Hell. The first hotshot is the she-wolf, representing dissoluteness, the wink is the lion, representing emphasis, and the third is the leopard, representing imposture and deception. According to Dante, fraud and deception be the overcome sins, followed by violence, hence incontinence. Virgil is Dantes guide thro ugh pop out this tr distributivelyerous journey. Dante uses the innovation of contrapasso to express his own views on ethics of as formed sins, reflecting on the cultural and political state of Italy at the time. Before Dante and Virgil enter Hell proper, they find the opportunists in the vestibule.They be running a go wildly chasing a banner, while nude being stung by hornets and wasps. When the split came between the Tempter and graven image, they tried to quench neutral, and now they must suffer their penalization. Here, the banner symbolizes a leader, serving as a direct punishment for their indecisive nature. They come across limbo close, where the pious pagans be. These are the souls of good non-Christians, who are stuck in limbo because they were never baptized and never went to church to direct Jesus. This is where Virgil and the poets re billet.Limbo is not a bad institutionalize to be, and their only punishment is that they will never conk out to see the face of God. This is a fitting punishment because while alive they never knew of God, and now they are forbidden from him. They encounter the least offensive sinners in the first ring of Hell, represented by the she-wolf. at a time inside the gates of Hell, Dante encounters the brute (or lustful). The souls who are in this first fraction of Hell are so because they let their lusts control them in tone. The punishment of the Carnal is that they are trapped in a whirlwind, rash storm.They see the object of their lust, nevertheless they cannot clear devolve on in Hell. They are doomed to chase their sleep with around in the whirlwind, and they cannot satisfy their needs in any way. Contrapasso is appropriate here because while lifespan they could not control their urges and always satisfied their needs, but now in Hell they are not allowed to. In circle three of Hell, we find the gluttons. Ciacco is a representative of the gluttons whom Dante knows personally. Ciacco means hog i n Italian. Because gluttony is a sin of incontinence, their punishment is wallowing around in a slushy mound of garbage.The gluttons are in a storm of putrefaction. Gluttony was considered a study sin back in Dantes day. excessively in this circle are the hoarders and wasters. They contribute to each others punishment as they are in a constant rock war. Hoarders and wasters are two extremes. This is contrapasso because the hoarders are constantly trying to move out the rock, while the wasters are trying to get relinquish of it. Next, they come across the wrathful and sullen. They are stuck in the Marsh of Styx. The sullen were drawn within themselves and tried not to associate with others in life, they took a thorniness disposition towards life.Their punishment is appropriate because they are stuck at the bottom of the marsh, beneath the slimy surface. Moving along through Hell, Dante and Virgil come across the heretics. This is a sort of a transitional stage between the sins of incontinence and violence. A heretic is anyone who doesnt adhere to strict Catholic doctrine. Heretics committed some of the worst crimes, consort to Dante. Their punishment was to spend eternity in a grave on bang. Contrapasso is in effect here because heretics thought that the soul dies with the body, and since they believe their souls died, they are entombed. or so of them even have to share tombs with people they hated. The second category of sinners is the violent. There are three types of violence violence against neighbors, violence against self, and violence against God. The violent against neighbors are stuck in the river Phlegethon. This is a river of boiling blood, and if the sinners try to escape, centaurs have them with arrows. This is contrapasso because these violent souls left their victims in a kitty of blood when they murdered them, and now they are stuck in a pool of blood. Violence against self is the next form of violent sin.Those who committed suicide bec ame trees. Since they jilted Gods gift of body, they are laboured to stand still and see the human life they rejected. This is their contrapasso, also whenever a limb from the tree locomote off, they feel it. The final form of violence is that against God. These blasphemers, who feller God, are punish in circle seven, round 3. They are forced to lie in a field of burning sand and a fire rain constantly falls pile on them. This is ironic because it is the first time while Dante is in Hell that we actually see fire. Circle octette of Hell begins the worst sins, those of fraud and treachery.These sins are the worst because it breaks the trust of the individual. The usurers are loan sharks. They do not further mankind, they yet want money. According to The sanctum sanctorum Bible, it is unnatural to charge usury. Their punishment is to carry a pouch with lead weights around their necks. They constantly have to fight off fire and chains from thrashing devils with their hands. Th is is their contrapasso because they used to use their greedy hands to contumely people by taking their money. The panderers and seducers are penalize by having to constantly run from one side to another, and demons are there whipping them.The second section contains the flatterers. Because they lied and figuratively slung excrement from their mouths, they are punished by wallowing in excrement, which they flatter. This is a perfect example of contrapasso. The fortune tellers and diviners presumed to have the power to see Gods future, but most of them are just tricksters. Their contrapasso is that their heads are twisted completely around, and they can no longer see whats ahead of them. Dante sees weeping shades slowly marching in sensation file, each one covered from head to substructure with a golden cloak lined with lead.It is appropriate because on the outside the cloaks look beautiful, but on the inside they are horrible, like the hypocrites, and they are weighed down by t heir guilt. Contrapasso for thieves is depicted as serpents chasing nude sinners, and when the snake bites them, they burst into blames and disintegrate. Sometimes they become the serpent, and the serpent becomes them. This sets out to show that thieves cant even produce their own bodies. Also, the snakes represent trickery, and the serpents steal the thieves bodies, just as they stole.Bertrand de Born was guilty of separating forefather and son (King hydrogen II and son), which caused war. His contrapasso is walking around with his head stranded from his body, carrying it like a lantern. It is also symbolic of the father being the head of the family, and his body is separated from it because he separated them. In the ninth circle of Hell, Cocytus, Dante encounters the inviolate worst sinners, including fiend. These sinners are snappy with the memory of their sins, and they cannot move. These evilest of sinners are in a sea of ice. Sins of betrayal are in the ninth circle.Th ey were cold hearted and fake in life with no warmth of heart. A remarkable encounter Dante has is with Count Ugolino and Archbishop Ruggiere. In life, they made a deal, but it went awry. Now, the count feeds on the head of the archbishop. Since the archbishop lag him and sons, they starved to death, thus his contrapasso is that Ruggiere is Ugolinos last repast for all of eternity. At the end of the journey, Dante encounters Satan. He is bigger than the giants with three heads. Each head is chewing on the worst sinners in history up to that bespeak Judas, Brutus, and Cassius.They represent hate, impotence, and ignorance to contrast the three highest virtues of Heaven. Satan is at the center of the universe. His main punishment is that he is polar and cant do anything. This is the ultimate contrapasso. Dante highlights that Satan himself is an example of contrapasso as Satans sin of seeking Gods place as ruler of Heaven issuanceing in him forever public opinion over the damned. Here, the sin reflects the punishment as Satan aims to raise himself higher and as a result is cast down into the depths of the Inferno. Dante takes us on an fascinate and eye-opening journey throughout his Hell.He uses contrapasso as a way to show the many different sins and how he thinks they should be punished. Dante also places real people in his Inferno to point out the cultural and political state of Italy at that time. While he does this, he is pretty fair and impartial about who belongs in which area of Hell. Near the end of his journey, Dante finally realizes that the sinners got what they deserved, and he no longer pities them. By having Satan frozen in ice, Dante is portraying the message Satan cannot do anything, unless you let him because he is not that powerful.