by Wendy Fraser

Created on: August 13, 2009   Last Updated: May 28, 2010

The Divine Comedy: Types of punishment in Dante's Inferno

The types of punishment in Dante's Inferno are those of 'contrapasso' , literally translated from the Italian as 'counter-suffering', where the punishment fits the crime. Dante's sinners are burdened with a penance commensurate with the sins they have committed; they re-enact their sins, re-create them and so continuously embed themselves in their punishment.

The sins encountered by Dante, the traveller, accompanied by the Greek poet and philosopher, Virgil, as his mentor and guide, are both Pagan and Christian, but all are sins that would be recognised as such in any human world. Dante, the author, expresses and illustrates contrapasso by means of allegories. However, the word itself appears only once in the text, spoken by the beheaded Bertran de Born, Cosi s'osserva in me lo contrapasso. (Canto XXVIII, 142), variously translated as 'retribution' or 'counterpoise'.

Inferno is composed of nine concentric circles forming a funnel reaching down into the centre of the universe. The circles are not randomly placed by Dante, the author; the more serious the sin, the lower the circle is located. In each circle Dante and Virgil encounter a distinct class of sinner enduring their punishments.

Vivid examples of the contrapasso are presented to the reader as Dante and Virgil make their descent through the nine circles. Francesca and her brother-in-law Paolo are in the Second Circle (Canto V) having committed the sin of lust. They have become a pair of cranes, as out of control in Hell as they were on earth. As birds they are now buffeted by a giant whirlwind created by the forces of the icy winds in Hell and the heat of the passion of their illicit affair.

The Sixth Circle is called the City of Dis (City of the Dead), the city walls dividing upper and lower hell. The city is guarded by Fallen Angels, those who had been exiled or banished from Heaven. This is the stronghold of Satan, the entrance to the deeper Hell of wilful sin. In the lower circles of Inferno sins of wickedness are punished, the sinners being those who committed active, rather than passive, sins such as heretics, sorcerers, hypocrites, suicides, blasphemers, usurers, falsifiers, thieves and traitors. Here, entombed in fire-filled monuments, are the Heretics only sufficiently alive to recognise God as a consuming fire, the God they had previously refused to acknowledge. This is the execution of excommunication being burnt at the stake.

In Dante's

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