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Examples Of Contrapasso In Dante's Inferno

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Dante’s purpose for writing Inferno is to warn humanity about all of the sins they commit and the effect that they will eventually have. Contrapasso contributes to Dante’s purpose because it helps portray Dante’s view on the ethics of various sins. This helps the reader to reflect on the cultural and political state of Italy at the time. God renders justice through imagery and power in Dante’s Inferno. Dante’s major theme in Inferno is the perfection of God’s justice. God’s justice moved Him to create Hell, “The inscription above this gate--ending with the famous warning to "abandon all hope"-- establishes Dante's hell as a creation not of evil and the devil but rather of his Christian God, here expressed in terms of the Trinity: Father (Divine Power), Son (Highest Wisdom), and Holy Spirit (Primal Love).” (Dante’s World), In Dante’s world, Hell is the holding pen for all sinners. However, all sins are not equal in the eyes of God. Early in Inferno, the relationship between God’s justice …show more content…

One example of contrapasso is found in the fourth Bolgia of the eighth circle of Hell. This is where the magicians, astrologers, and fake prophets have their heads gnarled backwards around their bodies, so that "They had their faces twisted towards their haunches/ found it necessary to walk backward, / because they could not see ahead of them.” (Alighieri, XX 13-15). This is an attempt to see in the future, although it also exemplifies the twisted nature of magic. There is a twisted nature of magic because magic was not being accepted and was thought of as a crazy idea. This contrapasso acts not only as a form of divine revenge, but as the achievement of a destiny willingly and openly chosen by each soul during his or her life. Dante finally realizes that the people in the circles of hell deserved to be there as a punishment and that it was their own

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