Divine Grace and Justice in Dantes Inferno Essay

Divine Justice and Grace in Inferno The purpose of the pilgrims journey through hell is to show, first hand, the divine justice of God and how Christian morality dictates how, and to what degree, sinners are punished. Also, the journey shows the significance of Gods grace and how it affects not only the living, but the deceased as well. During his trip through hell, the character of Dante witnesses the true perfection of Gods justice in that every sinner is punished in the same nature as their sins. For instance, the wrathful are to attack each other for all eternity and the soothsayers are forever to walk around with their heads on backwards. Furthermore, Dante discovers that hell is comprised of nine different circles containing†¦show more content†¦Since these souls lived their lives in a windstorm of emotions and feelings, their penalty represents the literal way in which they sinned. In addition to the punishments relating to the sins of the sinners, there are also punishments which contrast with the act ions of the sinners and represent what the sinner was lacking in life. For example, the neutral souls were people who could not choose between good and evil during their life, being untouched by cares of religion and faith. As punishment in hell, they have to forever chase a blank banner in circles and are constantly stung by wasps and hornets. By taking no action on Earth in regards to their faith, they have to spend an eternity running after a banner with no hopes of catching it. And because they were untouched by cares, hornets and wasps symbolically sting them forever. The neutral souls retribution was opposite of their sin, but most punishments represent the crimes in an ironic fashion. 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