The Inferno’s Illustration of the Theme “The Perfection of God’s Justice” Essay Example

punishment differed depending on the type of offense one committed while living their lives. However, while traveling through the nine trips, Dante discovered and stressed on the theme of the Perfection of God’s Justice and the consequence of each offense towards God, the creator of life. In Canto XIX, Dante agreed that the justice in the hell gets ordained by God. However, in Canto XX, he suggested that God should show pity towards the sinful souls.footnoteRef:2 However, in Canto XIV, he stated that he saw the hands of justice at work where God punished the sinners harshly. In fact, Dante received scolding from Virgil who pointed out to him that God’s Justice was perfect, and not biased when he projected to his audience an image of a cruel and vengeful God, in Canto XX.

Therefore, when thinking of the offenses get punished in hell, it is understandable that Dante regards hell as a venue of suffering and pain as human beings do not have the same reasoning as God. It is obvious that as a Christian Dante realized the perfection of God’s justice as he could create a connection between the sins that got committed on earth and the type of punishment the sinful soul receives in Hell. Dante believed that God used justice when he created hell and the specific example he used was the sign on the gates of hell. In Canto III, Dante credited the creation of hell to God, and he believed his divine justice is what shaped the nine circles and their punishments.

Moreover, he discovered that the seriousness of a sin sent a soul closer to the devil. Dante recognized the

attributes of God that he extracted from the bible. For instance, he found God to be Just according to the book of Exodus 34:7 and that he is merciful from the book of 1 John 4:8. At the end of his journey, Dante came to the conclusion that God’s justice was fair as the Bible described.

In fact, in accordance with the Law of Moses that was given to him by God to protect the Israelites in the Old Testament, Dante believed that the punishment and penalties received were a compensation for the damages and sins committed in one’s life. Therefore, the Law of Moses is a depiction of the perfection of God’s Justice in the Bible.

The Nine Circles of Hell

The perfection of God’s justice is evident in Dante’s journey starting on the Dark Wood. In the first circle, Dante illustrates the mercy and justice of God through the characters of the non-Christians and the unbaptized infants.

Moreover, he used the creative minds and heroes of ancient Greece such as Horace and Lucan in the first circle who did not suffer due to the honor and merits they found in heaven and on earth. However, he portrayed them to be hopeless as they could not enter heaven just because of their merits. However, Virgil pointed to Dante that some of the important people in the Hebrew Bible got liberated following the crucifixion of Jesus. A sacrifice that God made to save the sinful souls. Dante used the second circle to examine the power of love over desire.

He attributed God to be caring and merciful but his justice being the most important aspect. The circle consists

of the lustful people on earth who get punished first in hell. Their sinful souls are blown by the winds of a terrible storm without a glimpse of hope for a rest. Through the lustful soul’s punishments, Dante insisted that love should not get confused by lustful behaviors such as sexual desires. The third circle encompasses the lustful people. The gluttons, given out through carnal desires are the main characters in the circle.

In Canto VI, Virgil creates awareness to Dante that the souls would only rise during the judgment’s day to receive a fair trial. The characters in the fourth circle include the Wasters and Hoarders who got punished as per their sins. They carried heavy weights that they rolled back and forth to one another creating vicious cycle. Dante felt pity for the souls and got surprised at the power of Gods Justice.

For a minute, Dante doubted God’s justice system as the Wasters and the Hoarders seemed to be in much pain. However, he learned that sympathy represented the lack of understanding of how the justice system worked. On the other hand, the fifth circle consisted of people who committed the sin that relates to both the expressed and repressed anger. Dante belonged to this category. He learned from Virgil that as the plot progresses, he got inclined into pity elaborating the art of divine justice where a sinner gets the punishment that is proportional to the level of sin.

God sent Philippo Argenti to take Dante from Hell symbolizing God’s justice. The sixth circle depicted a scenario where the punishments became harsher compared to the other circles. The characters included the heretics who got

tormented because of their lack of acceptance of the soul’s immortality during their stay on earth. The use of the heretics elaborated how God decides to the extent of the punishment one gets symbolizing the perfection of God’s Judgment. The sin of violence gets located in the seventh circle.footnoteRef:5 The violence towards others like the act of killing people got punished through the river of blood.

The violence of committing suicide or any other form of violence against once oneself got punished in more painful ways. They got turned into trees and could only speak when a limb gets cut from them. The violent sinners include the usurers and the blasphemers who got placed on a burning ground as they got tormented by endless fire from heaven. The characters in the eighth circle include the seducers, fortune tellers, thieves and hypocrites who were full of malice on earth and were aware of what they were doing but did nothing to change their ways.

They received different severe punishments and Dante made the reader witness God’s justice because despite being in the same circle of hell, they received different punishments by the degree of their sins. For instance, the thieves got bitten by snakes while the fortune tellers got permitted to walk with their heads backward. The final circle, the ninth circle, had characters who were perceived to be the most evil together with the traitors and the Devil. Dante divided the circle into different sections; the Caina that received its name from Cain in the Bible who was the son of Adam and Eve. According to the book of Genesis, Cain killed his brother out of envy.

The

Antenora that received its name from Antenora, the Trojan prince. The Ptolomea that got named after Ptolemy, the captain of Jericho. Ptolemy murdered his guests while honoring them in Jericho. The Judecca named after Judas Iscariot representing those who betrayed their countries and families. The four groups illustrate a group of people who were aware of their actions but did nothing to stop themselves from inflicting pain on others.

The views in the book The Inferno are built from Dante’s point of view and biased towards his religious beliefs. However, the journey through the nine circles made him change his mind as he begun to view the perfection of God’s Justice. In fact, he acknowledged that Divine justice was fair and just towards the sinful souls.

Character Analysis

Dante the character is used to symbolizing the path of sinners go through when they get sent to Hell.

He shows human traits such as sympathy as he observed the punishments in flinched on the sinners. However, through his encounter with Virgil, he learns that the punishments were just and that God had ordained them. His journey through the nine circles showed that God punished people according to their mistakes and not according to his will. Dante observed that the level of punishments through the circles was harsh but equivalent to the nature of the sin.

Therefore, he created an understanding of The Perfection of God’s justice. Virgil the character is a ghost that symbolizes the thoughts of human beings. The sins that get committed on earth begin from the mind before they develop into actions. Virgil was the guide to Dante the character through his journey in Hell as

he guided him in making the correct choices. He helped Dante understand the perfection of God’s justice when it came to the punishments the sinners received.

The Church’s Theological Position on the theme

The inferno is very influential when it comes to the European literature. The plot of the poem helps create a vivid image of Hell. However, when thinking about religion, the poem got accepted in the community as it elaborates much of what the Bible describes. Moreover, the poem helps Christians question their actions after the description of hell they get from the poem. The Bible claims that the thought of an after-life exists. It states that Heaven and Hell are the two places that people go once they die.

Where a person lands depends on the life they lived on earth. The Church believes that God’s wrath and judgment upon sinners are just as it gets ordained from Holiness. Moreover, they believe that God gave human beings the Ten Commandments to help guide their ways and avoid the sinful paths. The righteous life allows them to escape Hell, but once they divert from it, as they face the wrath of God through His punishments. Moreover, according to the book of Mathew, God sent His son Jesus Christ to save the sinners and give them a second chance in living a righteous life. God does not want to punish people, but when they commit sin, they force his hands proving that He is Just and fair in His justice system.

Today, the church supports Dante’s theme on The Perfection of God’s Justice through its beliefs and activities. First, the Bible describes God’s existence to dwell around

justice. For instance, in the book of Deuteronomy 32; 4, God is described to be just and right. In the book of Job 37: 23, God is described to have plenty of justice in him. Secondly, Christians believe that God’s justice is the goodness of his nature where he judges people in an equal way. The book of Psalms 96:13 clearly states that God would use fairness and truth when judging people.footnoteRef:6 Moreover, they believe that the judgment of God is Impartial as he judges the cause and not the person, unlike human beings.

Human beings are biased, and in most situations, they tend to judge people when they do something. Christians find the poem to be a reminder for them to watch their ways and actions on earth. The description of the nine circles reminds people of the sinful ways on earth that they should avoid escaping the inferno.footnoteRef:7 Moreover, they conquer with the theme as they believe that according to Psalms 45:7, justice is God’s nature and he can neither get bribed nor forced as he does it out of the passion He has towards justice.

Historical Influences

Historically, Christians believed that when one disobeyed the Ten Commandments that were given to Moses in the Bible, they would be sent straight to hell where they suffered eternal suffering. Christians lived a Holy life due to the fear of Hell. Dante utilized the key beliefs of Christianity and the fear of Hell to deduce his conclusion of what Hell entailed.

Since decades ago, people have had different versions of what happens after one dies. There are those who believed that there was life after death while

there are those who did not believe in the existence of a new world after death. Arguments occasionally erupted on the existence of Heaven and Hell with different philosophers holding onto their opinions. The different debates initiated Dante’s imagination of the question of life-after-death in the 13th century. Moreover, as Dante lived in Florence as a Christian, the concept of Hell was vivid, but nobody knew what transpired in Hell.

In the era of 1300, Dante got influenced by the corrupt political nature that existed.3Being exiled from the politics made him bitter and angry towards the other politicians. His bitterness led him to write the Inferno where he used the theme of the perfection of God’s justice against his enemies. His characters were a representation of the politicians at that time. He mixed imagery with actual characters in the society to make people rethink of their behavior. To conclude, the theme of The Perfection of God’s justice has had significance both in the past and in modern times.

Historically, Dante’s life and the society’s evil doing influenced him to write on the Inferno. Moreover, the religious theme of the Life after death at that time allowed him to come up with an idea on how to address the issues at hand. Dante’s description of Hell through his journey in the nine circles creates a clear image to the readers on the severity of the punishments that people face in Hell. However, he did point out that the punishments that they received were fair as they deserved them. The majority of the people believe that they will receive equal punishments when they go Hell. However, Dante discredits the

ideas and insists on the different types of punishments depending on the sin one committed while on Earth.

The different punishments only confirm the theme of the Perfection of God’s Justice. God punishes people in accordance to the mistakes. According to Dante, no punishment was too little or too much for an individual. Rather, they were proportional to the amount of sin one committed.

Today, Christians believe in life after death. Moreover, they believe that God possesses the virtue of being just when it comes to punishing sinners. They believe in the scriptures in the Bible that define God to be Just and thus, agree with Dante’s idea of the perfection of God’s justice. Dante’s point of view gets triggered by the debates on the life after death. As a Christian, he made it his mission to research on what Hell entails and how punishment gets administered there.

His imagination and adequate knowledge of the Bible enabled him to write the book the Inferno, a part of the divine comedy series. Dante’s work reflects Divine justice in many forms. However, he proved that the punishment each person received was proportional to their sins. At the beginning of the Inferno, Dante focuses on the personality of God comparing it with the human personality of sympathy.

However, as the poem progresses, the personality changes to understanding of the reasons why the punishments gets inflicted on the sinners. The description elaborated the wisdom on divine justice as sinners receive the punishment that is equal to their sin. Therefore, building the theme of the Perfection of God’s Justice.

Bibliography

1. Church of England, and Simon Kershaw. 2008. Common worship: daily Eucharistic lectionary. London:
   

Canterbury Press Norwich. Crisafulli, Edoardo. 2003. T