Punishment In Dante's Inferno

Undoubtedly, the underlying theme that resonates throughout the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy is the notion that all worldly sins against God are balanced by punishment in Hell. In Dante’s eyes, crimes committed against God and Christianity are destined to be penalized with some type of corresponding retribution. This so-called symbolic retribution is vital to the theme of Inferno, because it provides imagery and symbolism of God’s judgement and power. For example, the Gluttonous are showered with sewage and excrement, representing how they showered themselves in life’s pleasures during their time on earth, and the Heretics lie in open flaming tombs to symbolize how they claimed a mortal spirit. Especially the latter punishment illustrates

how not following the ways of Christianity is at the root of all sins.
The inscription on the gates of Hell -- “Justice moved my great maker; God eternal Wrought me: the power, and the unsearchably High wisdom, and the primal love supernal,” indicates that God created Hell with all of its grotesque, miserable sufferings as part of his great plan to bring justice to wrongdoers and sinners.

In other words, God was moved by justice to create a place that punishes people with varying levels of torture, pain and agony in order to balance out the sins, in Dante’s opinion. This is proven when we see that the punishments which sinners receive are comparable and corresponding to what sin they committed. An interesting part of the inscription is the “primal love supernal.” Although it does not seem like it at first, Dante is implying that God’s judgement in founded in love and compassion. Justice in Hell is not simply cruel punishment for the sake of being cruel, but rather shows God’s justice for those who have done wrong in their life. Heaven represents God’s mercy and forgiveness of sins. Without Hell, there would be no motive not to sin in an earthly life, so by punishing those who sin God creates a pretty compelling motive not to sin. This in turn brings him closer to his goal of a world without

sin.
It very quickly becomes obvious that Dante’s version of Hell is very centralized around Christianity given some of the people who are put in Hell. For example, in Limbo--the first circle, the theoretical sinners are punished for being born before the time of Christ, such as Virgil, Ovid, Homer, and plenty of others. Furthermore, babies who died before they could be baptized are also put in this circle. This is the only circle that has a passive punishment--the members are not physically hurt or traumatized, but they live an eternal life without hope of salvation through God. To most modern readers, this seems unfair to have a circle where the sin is uncontrollable, especially when some of the members of the circle have contributed enormous services to the world, but Dante’s depiction of Hell is based off a person's correspondence and relationship with Christianity, whether or not they have control over it.