How Does Dante's Contrapasso

Dante's contrapassi serve to reflect the sin of the condemned through their inflicted punishment. On top of this, Dante ingeniously displays the Divine Justice, Wisdom and Art through his contrapassi. In the circle of the suicides, the sinners are transformed into a forest of shrubs devoid of life. In the bolgia of the schismatics, each sinner is cut up pertaining to how they commited their sin. In the circle of suicides and the bolgia of sowers of discord, Dante displays Divine Justice, Wisdom, and Art through the detailed description of the landscape and contrapasso, as well as the Pilgrim's interviews with the condemned.

To begin, the contrapasso of the suicides illustrates the perfection of divine justice, wisdom, and art, through Dante's

description of the suicides and the Pilgrim's interview with Pietro della Vigne. In the second sub-circle of the eighth circle of hell, the suicides exist as transformed brambles. The contrapasso for the sins of the suicides involves many different elements, unlike many of the other circles. First, Dante reduces the sinners to brambles and in turn steals their human intellect. Next, due to their disregard for their own well-being in life, the suicides are expected to endure pain when the harpies rip off their branches which serve as gnarled limbs. Dante places an important detail of the suicides in their way of communication: they are only able to express their feelings when harm is done to them. Likewise, in life, they were only able to articulate their emotions through self-injury. Finally, the suicides will not regain their bodies fully after the second harrowing of hell. Instead, they will be forced to dangle from the brambles because they were willing to discard their bodies in life.
Through Dante's interview with Pietro della Vigne, quite literally Peter of the Vine, the perfection of God's justice is established.

The Pilgrim speaks with Pietro della Vigne and "pity chokes his heart" (13.84). However, God knows Pietro is unrepentant and for this reason he remains in hell. Thus, Divine Justice is able to see through the lies of the sinners and aptly deliver punishment. Divine Justice is further illustrated through his explanation of the contrapasso. The suicides must endure the pain brought on by the harpies. Their branches, like limbs, are torn and blood replaces what is normally sap. Harming themselves in life, Divine Justice forces the sinners to suffer bodily mutilation in death. Similarly, Pietro states that the suicides will "never again to wear them-wrong it is/for a man to have again what he once cast off" (13.104-105). Instead they "shall hang forever more,/each one on a thorn of its own alien shade" (13.107-108). Therefore, because they discarded their bodies in life, which are creations of God, they will not regain their bodies in death. Divine Justice punishes the sinners for their actions in life with fitting

consequences.
An example of God's wisdom, upon entering the circle Dante compares the suicides to a forest similar to the original forest of sin from which the Pilgrim escapes from in the first canto. However, this forest is "not marked by any path at all" because the sinners cannot repent and lead a new life after suicide; whereas, the everyman can discard their life of sin for the hope of salvation (13.3). Later, Dante notes that the forest contains "no green leaves," but is instead "rather black in color" (13.4). Other evidence of Divine Wisdom lies on the Poet's description of the scrubs. Due to the sins of suicide produce no beauty or good in this world, the suicides have "no smooth branches, but twisted and entangled, no fruit, but thorns of poison bloomed instead" (13.5-6). Thus, suicides, like thorns of poison, bring harm to those around them including their friends and families.
God's art is apparent in the forest of brambles through its comparison of the results of suicide and the motives of the sin itself in relation to other sins.

When Dante follows Virgil's instructions to break off a branch, the Pilgrim realizes that the soul of men are trapped in each scrub. The human soul has become that of a plant, the lowest life form possible. The suicide's contrapasso further displays Divine Art through the expression of the brambles. The sinners' only mode of communication is through bleeding and thus through are only able to articulate their emotions through bodily harm. In conclusion, in the circle of the suicides, Divine Justice, Wisdom, and Art is displayed through the Poet's description of the landscape, and the Pilgrim's interview with Pietro delle

Vigne.
Another contrapasso that demonstrates Divine Justice, Wisdom, and Art is the counter-suffering in the ninth bolgia of the eighth circle of simple fraud. In this bolgia, Dante describes the fraud of the Sowers of Discord and Schism. A true contrapasso, their punishments directly reflect their sins in life. In fact, the Poet even mentions that this circle contains the "perfect contrapasso" in Betran de Born (28.134). As committers of fraud, in life these people were responsible for the factions that separate man, and in turn they caused wars and destruction. Consequently, a demon slices the sinners according to how they committed their fraudulence. For this reason, those who split-up other members of the human race are separated themselves.
As an example of Divine Justice, Bertran de Born has his head split from his body. In life, Bertran was a troubadour who caused Prince Henry to rebel against King Henry II, his father. Just as he split the King, the leader and decision maker, from the empire and the father, the head of the family, from his son, Bertran "bears his head cut off from its life source" (28.140). Similarly, Curio has his "tongue hacked off as far down as the throat" because he convinced Ceasar to cross the Rubicon and bring civil strife to Rome. God does Curio justice because he used his tongue to commit the act being punished.
To show Divine Wisdom, Dante describes the landscape of the ninth bolgia. Using metaphors, the Poet describes the area as bloodier than all previous wars combined and cannot effectively describe it himself: "Who could, even in the simplest kin of prose/describe in full the scene of blood and wounds/that I saw now-no matter how he tried!" (28.1-3). Only factions with differing opinions fight wars and the schismatics of this Bolgia are responsible for the separation of people into factions. Thus, Divine Wisdom exists in this bolgia because the sinners are responsible for much of the bloodshed in history and in turn for all of the blood in their contrapasso. Divine Art, an expression of Divine Wisdom is displayed in the punishments of the sinners. In this canticle, Dante the Poet introduces many characters who all suffer from different cuts. Although each shade is a sower of discord, they suffer from slices that specifically pertain to how they committed their sins in life. God has designed a different cut for each sinner. In the ninth bolgia, the contrapasso of the Sowers of Discord and the Schismatics exemplifies Divine Justice, Wisdom, and Art through separating those who are responsible for the splits in the human race.
As a poet, Dante is able to create punishments for the sinners specific to their sin. This contrapasso not only reflects the reason they are suffering, but also illustrates Divine Justice, Wisdom and Art. The circle of suicides contain sinners transformed into brambles; whereas, the ninth bolgia punishes those responsible for discord and factions. In conclusion, through the contrapassi of the circle of suicides and the bolgia of schismatics, Dante is able to display Divine Justice, Art, and Wisdom through a description of the punishment, a description of the landscape, and interviews with the sinners.