Emma Cisneros

Mr. Munoz
English IV AP, 4th
22 September 2014
Inferno Draft
In his epic, Inferno, Dante describes hell as having nine circles and in those nine circles
different sinners are placed. He uses contrapasso to fittingly punish each sinner according to
his/her crime. The word contrapasso means, punishment fits crime so there will be a lot of
punishments almost identical to the crimes. By using contrapasso in Inferno, Dante is able to
establish a sense of justice in a place where justice does not exist.
Often times, people wonder about what happens after they die, about how their lives on
earth will affect us after we pass. They question whether heaven is really this magical place
above the clouds, the place where those who have lived a good; prosperous life go. When upon
entering, souls are greeted by St. Peter at the pearly gates. This concept leads to the question,
where do you go if your life is deemed unworthy of eternal happiness? Some believe the answer
to this question is hell, the place where those who were not baptized but lived virtuous lives or
who have committed the worst sins against God go. There are many stories, both biblical and
fictional, that lead people to believe that hell is a place of fire and hate and anger and suffering.
The entrance to hell is the Ante-Inferno and the Neutrals. In Inferno, hell is divided into nine
circles: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Avaricious and Prodigal, Wrathful and Sullen, Heretics,
Violence, Fraud, and Treachery. All of the circles house the sinners who sins are deemed the
most offensive to God by Dante. Limbo would be the only exception because that is where the
virtuous, unbaptized pagans are kept.

When the souls sent to hell arrive, they are placed in one of the nine circles. Depending
on the sin they have committed, Minos wraps his tail around himself a certain amount of times to
determine what circle of hell the soul will be placed in. For example, if a person was gluttonous
in their past life, Minos would wrap his tail around himself three times and the soul would be
sent to the third circle of hell. The third is where the gluttonous are forced to eat vile filth for
eternity, which represents their greed with food on earth. In the eighth circle, ninth pouch, sewers
of scandal and schism are held. As their punishment for causing separation among people on
earth, they are split in half, from their chin all the way down, in hell. All of the punishments
seem to fit each circle except in the ninth circle.
In Dantes eyes, betraying your benefactor is the worst sin a person can commit. He
divided the ninth circle, Treachery, into four categories or rings. The first ring is named Caina,
after Cain who killed his brother. In Caina, traitors to kin are held, where the sinner's punishment
is being covered in ice up to their chin. The second ring, Antenora, was named after Antenor
who betrayed Troy to the Greeks. Here, traitors to homeland and party are submerged up to their
chin in ice. The third ring, Ptolomea, is named after Ptolemy who killed his guests at a dinner. In
Ptolomea, traitors to guests lay supine in ice that covers everything but their faces. The fourth
ring, Judecca, is named after Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus by trading him for 30 pieces of
silver. In this ring, the souls are completely submerged in ice while their bodies are possessed on
earth by a demon. . In the final ring of hell, we see Lucifer. He is described as this huge monster
with three heads and in each head he is chewing on a person. In one of the heads he is chewing
on Judas Iscariot, head first, the man who betrayed Jesus then hung himself because of the guilt.
In the other two mouths he is chewing on Brutus and Cassius, feet first, who killed Julius Caesar.
Now even though contrapasso means, punishment fits crime, in the ninth circle of hell, the

punishments seem to not fit the sin at all. It could be that Dante felt so strongly against the sin
that he came up with a punishment that is far worse than the other punishments in hell.
While Dante was living in Florence, there was a war going on between the White and
Black Guelphs. The White Guelphs did not want to follow under the popes rule and the Black
Guelphs did. When the Black Guelphs finally took control of Florence, all of the White Guelphs
were exiled, including Dante. Since Dante was exiled by the church, he felt that treachery was
the worse sin a person could commit. He gets revenge on all of the people who betrayed him by
writing Inferno. He places them in a circle and punishes them so that when they read the epic,
they know he is talking about them. He establishes a sense of justice because he feels that all
those who were cheated deserve justice since he was betrayed by the church and knows how it
feels.
In Inferno, souls are punished for what they have done, not for who they are. Dante
places important people, even popes and bishops, in hell to show that once a soul reaches hell,
whatever they did on earth does not matter anymore. He places quite a few figures from the
church in hell to get his revenge for his exile. In Canto III, page thirty-eight, Virgil says to Dante,
The world will let no fame of their endure. Whether they were a king, a queen, rich, poor, a
pope, a prostitute, all the souls are there for eternal punishment. He tells Dante this so he can
understand that these souls are getting what they deserve and to not feel sorry for them. They are
all judged the same way and receive the same punishment according to circle.
By using contrapasso, Dante tries to establish some kind of justice in a place where there is no
justice. Dante comes up with clever and fitting ways to punish the sinners in hell. He even places
both political figures and figures from the church, which were still alive at the time, in hell. He

felt betrayed by the church and wrote this epic during a very sensitive and emotional time in his
life so that he could have some type of revenge.