Inferno - ContrapassoIn Dante's Inferno, Dante embarks on a journey with Virgil through the many levels of Hell to experience and see the different punishments that sinners must endure throughout the 'eternity. As Dante and Virgil descend into the bowels of Hell, it becomes clear that the suffering increases as they continue to move further down into Hell, the conical recess in the earth created when Lucifer fell from Heaven. Dante values ​​the health of society more than himself. This becomes evident as sinners against society experience greater suffering than those who were responsible only for sinning against themselves. Dante uses contrapasso, the Aristotelian theory that states that a soul's form of suffering in Hell counteracts or extends its sins into its life on earth, to ensure that sinners never forget their crimes against God. Even though While some of the punishments meted out to sinners in Hell seem arbitrary, they are appropriate because contrapasso forces each sinner to relive the most horrific aspect of their sin to ensure they never forget their crimes against God. Like Dante and Virgil, the guide to Dante through Hell, approach the Gate of Hell, Dante reads the inscription above the doors: “For me the way to the suffering city, for me the way to eternal pain, for me the way that runs among the lost. Justice exhorted my high craftsman; my creator was divine authority, the highest wisdom and primordial love. Nothing but eternal things were done before me, and I endure eternally. Abandon all hope, whoever enters here.” (III, 48)This message accurately describes how those souls will experience relapse into Hell. They will never be released and will experience suffering for eternity. The first line talks about a......medium of paper......souls to exist. It is a fitting punishment because he wanted to rule as God. Now he does, but he rules over souls who could not reach the presence of God after death. Dante efficiently uses contrapasso to punish souls who have sinned during their lifetime. All sinners experience extreme suffering as they act to prolong or continue their sin into eternity. Suffering in Hell is ultimately unbearable, regardless of the nature of the sin. Sinners have no hope that their condition will improve because the only change will come at the Final Judgment. Then their punishments will be perfected because then they will have bodies and a new way to experience suffering. Contrapasso assures that these souls will exist in an eternity of complete desperation. Works cited: Alighieri, Dante. Hell. Trans. Marco Musa. New York: Penguin Books, 1984.