Punishment in Dante’s Inferno Essay

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Getting What They Deserve: Punishment in Dante’s Inferno

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 …show more content…
All ten of these crimes have an appropriate punishment in their sub-circle in the eighth ring of Hell. The panderers and pimps are whipped while the flatterers are covered in excrement. Those that committed simony are upside down while their feet are on fire, sorcerers and false prophets literally have their heads on backwards so they can not see where they are going in relation to foreshadowing. Corrupt politicians are punished by being smothered in hot pitch as the hypocrites are wearing cloaks weighted down with led. The thieves are bitten by snakes and burned only to be reborn form the ashes. The fraudulent advisors are engulfed in fire while the scandals are wounded by demons with swords. Last but not lease the falsifiers are plagued with diseases.

The last and final ring in Hell holds the traitors and Lucifer. There are four rounds in this circle which include the traitors against family, country, guests, and lords. The first sub-level has the sinners that are stuck in ice up to their necks for not being loyal to their family while the traitors to their country are iced up to the bottom of their skulls so they cant move their heads. The third sub-circle holds those that betrayed their guests. These sinners are punished by being frozen half way up their face so that when they cry their eyes become
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