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The Three Most Significant Punishment In Dante's Inferno

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Crime and Punishment
(An Analysis of The Three Most Significant Punishments in Dante’s Inferno)
“They couldn't bear the idea of death being a big black nothing, couldn't bear the thought of their loved ones not existing, and couldn't even imagine themselves not existing. I finally decided that people believed in an afterlife because they couldn't bear not to.” (Green) The Divine Comedy is a text that is divided into three parts, the most famous of which being Inferno. Inferno follows Dante through his epic journey through the nine circles of hell in his attempt to achieve a higher understanding of the afterlife. Dante is a man that seems to have, both physically and metaphorically wandered into a very dark place. He has begun to sin without …show more content…

Murder is something that, to most individuals, is a sin deserving of a pretty harsh punishment, which is precisely why when Dante develops the punishment of having these individuals drown in a river of blood surrounded by horrific creatures, people are left feeling as though the murderers deserve it. This is completely shocking to most because individuals feel a little bit dehumanized when they begin wishing bad things on others, and Dante really plays on this aspect of humanity. “’But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near / The river of blood, within which boiling is / Whoe'er by violence doth injure others.’ / O blind cupidity, O wrath insane, / That spurs us onward so in our short life, / And in the eternal then so badly steeps us!” (Inferno, Canto XII) Dante forces these souls to boil in a river of blood, the level of the blood varying depending upon the extent of their sins. Not only has that, but he then sends Centaurs around the banks of the river to beat on the souls every time they try to climb out. This punishment is far from the most shocking when it comes to the gore. The place in which this punishment tops the list is in viewing the ways in which it causes readers to feel upon its interpretation. “Increasingly …show more content…

The punishment for the fortune tellers within the Inferno is by far the most traumatizing do to the way it appeals to the emotions. Dante himself seems moved when he first witnesses these individuals, though he is soon reproached by Virgil, his guide. These individuals are doomed to walk backwards for eternity, their heads having been attached on their bodies so they were facing backwards, most of these souls constantly crying as they are simultaneously attacked and beaten. The entire aura of the situation is one of sorrow that seems to radiate through Dante himself as well as any reader of the text. “And people saw I through the circular valley, / Silent and weeping, coming at the pace…Wondrously each one seemed to be distorted / From chin to the beginning of the chest; / For tow'rds the reins the countenance was turned, / And backward it behoved them to advance, / As to look forward had been taken from them.” (Inferno, Canto XX) These souls are placed in a punishment worse than those who had decided to murder, which is one of the most traumatizing aspects of the punishment. Most of the souls in inferno spend their time filled with rage or frustration at their punishments, or have reached a place where they have given up, but these souls just cry endlessly, and the fact that they seem to experience emotion, is horrifying. “Each punishment that

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