Prompt 3

Prompt: 3) Choose one circle that Dante visits in Upper Hell and carefully analyze how the punishment of the sinners embodies the law of contrapasso. To develop this topic to the proper degree, you will need to very closely analyze specific language and imagery utilized in this circle. Make sure to consider the description of the circle itself, the way the sin is described, and the way the punishment is described. What does Dante seem to be asserting about this sin specifically through the punishment he chooses?

The laws of contrapasso means that the punishment of the souls reflects the sin that they committed. All of Dante's circles of Hell follow this law. As Dante travels down into the third circle he finds a new set of sinners with a new set of punishments. He sees the perpetual frozen rain pouring down. Dante finds himself in the middle of putrid slush, hail, and black snow that met the dirty water and slush below. The souls live in this dirty world. Cerberus, the ravenging, three-headed beast, lives in this circle. He barks furiously, like a dog, and he bites and claws at the souls who are within his reach.  In life these sinners were excessively greedy in their eating and drinking. Now in death they must be treated as if they were the food for the monster Cerberus. Dante describes, " Then, as sharp set with hunger barks the hound, but is appeased when at his meat he gnaws (41)." Cerberus is hungry every day and yearns for meat and food, never stopping, like how these souls always wanted more and more and over-indulged. The next punishment consisted of "large hail and turbid water, mixed with snow, keep pouring down athwart the murky air (40)." This punishment is quiet the opposite to the feelings that they got in life from food. Food and drink created a warm feeling during life so now they must live in the freezing weather. The image of snow is thought of as white, pure, and clean. It is continuously falling from the sky. In life the sinners were not bad people but their love for food and drink dragged them down, falling like snow. Starting out so pure they were dragged down and they land in Hell, or the dirty slush that the snow lands in. The hail is constant and painful so that they can never ignore it. In life when they found themselves in a time of trouble food and drink were ways of escaping them and now in death the hail, their ignored troubles, can never be ignored.