Contrapasso means suffer the antonym. It refers to the penalty of psyches in Dante’s Inferno by a procedure either resembling or contrasting with the wickedness itself. There are many illustrations of contrapasso in Dante’s Inferno. as he travels of all time deeper into the deepnesss of snake pit. In the Inferno. we are given a circuit through Hell by Dante. who is a middle-aged adult male. The Inferno is a narrative of a journey given by two different Dante alighieris: Dante the pilgrim and Dante the writer. He has a natural emotion of commiseration. which he is frequently reprimanded for. At the beginning of his journey. he is confronted by three animate beings.

These animate beings represent the three rings of Hell. The first 1 is the she-wolf. stand foring incontinency. the 2nd is the king of beasts. stand foring force. and the 3rd is the leopard. stand foring fraud and misrepresentation. Harmonizing to Dante. fraud and misrepresentation are the worst wickednesss. followed by force. so incontinency. Virgil is Dante’s usher throughout this unreliable journey. Dante uses the construct of contrapasso to show his ain positions on moralss of assorted wickednesss. reflecting on the cultural and political province of Italy at the clip. Before Dante and Virgil enter Hell proper. they find the self-seekers in the anteroom.

They are running about wildly trailing a streamer. while bare being stung by hornets and WASP. When the split came between Satan and God. they tried to remain impersonal. and now they must endure their penalty. Here. the streamer symbolizes a leader. functioning as a direct penalty for their indecisive nature. They come across oblivion following. where the virtuous heathens are. These are the psyches of good non-Christians. who are stuck in oblivion because they were ne’er baptized and ne’er went to church to analyze Jesus. This is where Virgil and the poets reside.

Limbo is non a bad topographic point to be. and their lone penalty is that they will ne’er acquire to see the face of God. This is a fitting penalty because while alive they ne’er knew of God. and now they are forbidden from him. They encounter the least violative evildoers in the first ring of Hell. represented by the she-wolf. Once inside the Gatess of Hell. Dante encounters the Carnal ( or lustful ) . The psyche who are in this first subdivision of Hell are so because they let their lecherousnesss control them in life. The penalty of the Carnal is that they are trapped in a whirlwind. snowstorm storm.

They see the object of their lecherousness. but they can non hold sex in Hell. They are doomed to trail their love around in the whirlwind. and they can non fulfill their demands in any manner. Contrapasso is appropriate here because while life they could non command their impulses and ever satisfied their demands. but now in Hell they are non allowed to. In circle three of Hell. we find the gourmands. Ciacco is a representative of the gourmands whom Dante knows personally. Ciacco means pig in Italian. Because gluttony is a wickedness of incontinency. their penalty is wallowing about in a slushy hill of refuse.

The gourmands are in a storm of rot. Gluttony was considered a major wickedness back in Dante’s twenty-four hours. Besides in this circle are the hoarders and wastrels. They contribute to each other’s penalty as they are in a changeless stone war. Hoarders and wastrels are two extremes. This is contrapasso because the hoarders are invariably seeking to take the stone. while the wastrels are seeking to acquire rid of it. Following. they come across the wrathful and sullen. They are stuck in the Marsh of Styx. The sullen were drawn within themselves and tried non to tie in with others in life. they took a rancid temperament towards life.

Their penalty is appropriate because they are stuck at the underside of the fen. beneath the slimed surface. Traveling along through Hell. Dante and Virgil come across the misbelievers. This is a kind of a transitional phase between the wickednesss of incontinency and force. A heretic is anyone who doesn’t adhere to strict Catholic philosophy. Heretics committed some of the worst offenses. harmonizing to Dante. Their penalty was to pass infinity in a grave on fire. Contrapasso is in consequence here because misbelievers thought that the psyche dies with the organic structure. and since they believe their psyches died. they are entombed.

Some of them even have to portion graves with people they hated. The 2nd class of evildoers is the violent. There are three types of force: force against neighbours. force against ego. and force against God. The violent against neighbours are stuck in the river Phlegethon. This is a river of boiling blood. and if the evildoers try to get away. centaurs shoot them with pointers. This is contrapasso because these violent psyches left their victims in a pool of blood when they murdered them. and now they are stuck in a pool of blood. Violence against ego is the following signifier of violent wickedness.

Those who committed self-destruction became trees. Since they rejected God’s gift of organic structure. they are forced to stand still and see the human life they rejected. This is their contrapasso. besides whenever a limb from the tree falls off. they feel it. The concluding signifier of force is that against God. These blasphemers. who curse God. are punished in circle seven. round 3. They are forced to lie in a field of firing sand and a fire rain invariably falls down on them. This is dry because it is the first clip while Dante is in Hell that we really see fire. Circle eight of Hell begins the worst wickednesss. those of fraud and perfidy.

These wickednesss are the worst because it breaks the trust of the person. The loan sharks are loan sharks. They do non farther world. they merely want money. Harmonizing to The Holy Bible. it is unnatural to bear down vigorish. Their penalty is to transport a pouch with lead weights around their cervixs. They invariably have to contend off fire and ironss from floging Satans with their custodies. This is their contrapasso because they used to utilize their greedy custodies to mistreat people by taking their money. The pimps and seducers are punished by holding to constantly run from one side to another. and devils are at that place floging them.

The 2nd subdivision contains the adulators. Because they lied and figuratively slung body waste from their oral cavities. they are punished by wallowing in body waste. which they flatter. This is a perfect illustration of contrapasso. The luck Tellers and diviners presumed to hold the power to see God’s hereafter. but most of them are merely pranksters. Their contrapasso is that their caputs are distorted wholly around. and they can no longer see what’s in front of them. Dante sees crying sunglassess easy processing in individual file. each one covered from caput to pes with a aureate cloak lined with lead.

It is appropriate because on the outside the cloaks expression beautiful. but on the interior they are atrocious. like the dissemblers. and they are weighed down by their guilt. Contrapasso for stealers is depicted as snakes trailing bare evildoers. and when the serpent bites them. they burst into incriminations and disintegrate. Sometimes they become the snake. and the snake becomes them. This sets out to demo that thieves can’t even claim their ain organic structures. Besides. the snakes represent hocus-pocus. and the snakes steal the thieves’ organic structures. merely as they stole.

Bertrand de Born was guilty of dividing male parent and boy ( King Henry II and boy ) . which caused war. His contrapasso is walking around with his caput separated from his organic structure. transporting it like a lantern. It is besides symbolic of the male parent being the caput of the household. and his organic structure is separated from it because he separated them. In the 9th circle of Hell. Cocytus. Dante encounters the absolute worst evildoers. including Satan. These evildoers are frozen with the memory of their wickednesss. and they can non travel. These evilest of evildoers are in a sea of ice. Sins of treachery are in the 9th circle.

They were cold hearted and forge in life with no heat of bosom. A alone brush Dante has is with Count Ugolino and Archbishop Ruggiere. In life. they made a trade. but it went amiss. Now. the count provenders on the caput of the archbishop. Since the archbishop imprisoned him and boies. they starved to decease. therefore his contrapasso is that Ruggiere is Ugolino’s last repast for all of infinity. At the terminal of the journey. Dante encounters Satan. He is bigger than the giants with three caputs. Each caput is masticating on the worst evildoers in history up to that point: Judas. Brutus. and Cassius.

They represent hatred. powerlessness. and ignorance to contrast the three highest virtuousnesss of Heaven. Satan is at the centre of the existence. His chief penalty is that he is frozen and can’t do anything. This is the ultimate contrapasso. Dante high spots that Satan himself is an illustration of contrapasso as Satan’s wickedness of seeking God’s topographic point as swayer of Heaven ensuing in him everlastingly opinion over the damned. Here. the wickedness reflects the penalty as Satan purposes to raise himself higher and as a consequence is cast down into the deepnesss of the Inferno. Dante takes us on an challenging and eye-opening journey throughout his Hell.

He uses contrapasso as a manner to demo the many different wickednesss and how he thinks they should be punished. Dante besides places existent people in his Inferno to indicate out the cultural and political province of Italy at that clip. While he does this. he is pretty just and impartial about who belongs in which country of Hell. Near the terminal of his journey. Dante eventually realizes that the evildoers got what they deserved. and he no longer pities them. By holding Satan frozen in ice. Dante is portraying the message Satan can non make anything. unless you let him because he is non that powerful.