The law of the contrapasso in Dante’s Inferno is one of the laws of nature with an application to hell. It denotes that for individuals crimes committed by every sinner there must exist an equal punishment, The punishment according to the law of the contrapasso is neither simple nor obvious. It is a punishment that is related to the crime on a metaphoric rather than literal basis on sin. The law of the contrapasso can also be defined as divine retribution. This paper seeks to examine and analyze the law of the contrapasso as it relates to complex crimes that human beings have a problem in defining. It further explore the relationship crime and punishment as envisaged by Dante in Inferno.
The exploration of the world of evil is at the center of Dante’s Inferno. It is in this world of evil that sin operates and questions about crime and punishment are asked. Jacoff argues that Inferno is “a voyage through the immense historical archives of the world’s evils ordered according to type and severity in the subsoil of the dark forest” (77). Dante understands that the world of sin is very complex and man’s perchance for crime is difficult to understand even when they read the bible. The place where crime is ultimately punished is Hell. It is a place where all human action finds judgement. Most of the choices that individuals take find their way to hell and what is deep inside can be revealed. As Jacoff rightly notes “evil has no remedy, truce, or hope of relief; it has no other boundary than its everlasting present” (77). In Hell, there are two occurrences which are poena damni or the inability to see God and poena sensus which is the never ending torture of the soul. The contrapasso relates to the second occurrence in Hell - the never ending tormenting of the soul. The main idea behind the contrapasso is that all beings suffer post death and they suffer depending on the nature of the crimes committed when one was still part of the world.
It is argued that the Contrapasso has its basis in the biblical laws of retaliation. Scholars like Jocoff observe that the idea can also be found in Virgil’s works (78). Even in mythologies like that of Virgil, human beings want to see justice done both on earth and in the afterlife. Those who sin cannot expect to see something change in the afterlife. The violent nature of one’s existence on earth continues in their punishment on earth. Some scholars think that Dante’s relationship between sin and punishment sometimes does not match. The whipping of seducers by demons (34-39) and the throwing of those who flatter into human waste seem not to be a good relation between crime and punishment.
The law of the contrapasso assigns souls to their rightful place afterlife. Brand and Pertile argue that the contrapasso is a “retributive principle whereby everyone must suffer in the afterlife according to the sin he or she has committed on earth” (63). The suffering from the law of contrapasso is eternal. It is quite different from the world of purgatory where individuals can get redemption. It is a way of manifesting and administering God’s justice. Brand and Pertile further argues that the contrapasso is not exactly a new invention. It existed in other forms in different cultures and mythologies.
Like in some of the mythical tales, the contrapasso is not merely the exacting of God’s revenge, it is also a form of the realization of an individual’s destiny, a destiny that was created by freely chosen actions on earth. Lansing argues that in Dante’s afterlife, “far from being canceled or diminished or even altered, the historical identity of each soul is revealed in its very essence and intensified” (220). Punishment for crimes committed on earth is not the same. There is some realism to Dante’s proclamation. All human actions and misgivings and sins define the punishment they get in Hell. The law of the contrapasso is also designed to make sure that human beings think carefully about their decisions on earth because even crimes that are easily hidden to man can be punished in Hell. The contrapasso is a reliable instrument of justice.
In Inferno, Dante argues that Inferno was created by God to punish those who are unrepentant and sinful. The punishment that is bestowed these sinful souls is appropriate or befitting for the crime. When an individual’s sins become bad, the punishment also gets bad. Hell before Dante’s Inferno was understood to be a place where people who had not established a true relationship with God would go. With the contrapasso, charged that punishment should reflect on an individual sin. To understand the contrapasso as a metaphorical rather than literal basis of sin, it is important that we understand Dante’s geography and conception of the inferno.
Dante managed to bring about his own version of justice that derived from the bible but was not sorely based on it. The contrapasso is directly related to the question of an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. In reconfiguring hell and creating a new understanding of how it looks, Dante wanted to create new standards of judgement. Hell became a more complicated place rather than one pit of fire that everyone went do irrespective of the nature of the crime. Dante’s contention in the inferno is that a crime can be said to be severe depending on how God judges it not on how it affects parts of society. What was important was the nature of crime and God’s punishment. Dante was aware of man’s desire for retribution when injured on earth and he created a new way of understanding justice that bridged the bible and society.
This brings us to the reasons why Dante tries to redefine Hell. Inferno is filled with beasts and beings that are absent in the bible. His depiction of folk heroes like Ulysses is one of trying to augment his story about hell. He uses all these references so that he can bring human beings to a better understanding of what Hell looks like.
According to Dante, Hell is divided into three distinct places. These subdivisions are based on the nature or type of sin. There also exist two other critical areas outside of Hell. These are the Vestibule. The Vestibule is a place where individuals who had failed to take a stand between good and evil go. There second place outside Hell proper is The First Circle which is a place where individuals who die before exposure to the word of Christ go. These people cannot be saved but they also cannot be punished the way those who know Christ and had sinned are punished. People who are inconsistent in their conduct get their punishment in Circle Two to Five,
In his discussion of the Inferno, Dante’s first area of exploration is the Vestibule. This is the place where individuals who had committed to nothing in their life on earth end up. People in the Vestibule are always seeking and they never find. Their deeds are not distinguishable by good or evil. According to Dante, people in the Vestibule can not be said to have lived because they committed to anything, therefore they could never really die.
In the Second Circle, the contrapasso shows that those who lived lustful lives were punished by being tossed around in a dark place. This is to show that they allowed passion to rule their lives. For individuals who are unable to control themselves. In the Second Circle, the punishment for lustful behavior is to be blown away by the storm. In the Third Circle, individuals who were gluttonous on earth are duly punished. They have to deal with the beast called Ceberus who has the structure of a dog and has three mouths that need to be fed. There is also a lot of mud in the place where the gluttonous are punished. There is even punishment for wasters and hoarders. Wasters are individual who are unable to control themselves and manage their money while hoarders are individuals who live miserable lives while saving every penny without trying to make themselves live more comfortably. The hoarders and the wasters were generally disparate groups on earth and that condition continues in Hell. As for heretics, Dante argues that “all our knowledge / will be completely dead at that time when / the door to future things is closed forever” (x.106-108). In all these circles we see Dante try to create equal punishment for an equal crime. Because of some of of the punishment and imagery from non-Christian mythology, it is difficult to take Dante’s forms of punishment at the literal level.
In conclusion, the law of contrapasso is the law of divine retribution which sought to change human beings’ relation to the afterlife. It also tried to make clear the relationship between crime and punishment. In making the distinction between Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, Dante tried to push human choice towards good. The Hell portrayed in Inferno is not a place where any human being want to find themselves. Even the punishment for hoarding is severe. At the core of Dante’s message was that every sin is paid for.
Works Cited
Brand, Peter and Pertile, Lino. The Cambridge History of Italian Literature. New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Dante. The Inferno. Signet Classics.
Lansing, Richard. The Dante Encyclopedia. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000.
Jacoff, Rachel. Inferno, The Cambridge Companion to Dante. New York, NY: Cambridge
