Essay: Crime and Justice in Dante's Inferno

Dante's Inferno deals almost completely with crime and justice. Dante's walk through the circles of Hell shows that different circles deal differently with punishing sinners for the sins they committed while on earth. The justice that all of the sinners faced was basically the opposite of whatever it was that they had done wrong while they were living.

For example, the churchmen described in Cerberus and Plutus were said to have been so avaricious and indecisive that their eternal punishment was to roll giant weights across a circle and collide with others before making it to the other side. Even if justice hadn't been served to them when they were on earth, they were paying for their evil deeds by suffering in this manner for eternity. Divine Justice is referenced to in this part of the unit, because Divine Justice is responsible for the punishment that the sinners must endure for their past deeds.

(Cerberus, a punisher in Hell)

Justice is served more and more severely as the circles of Hell deepen. One of the first circles that Dante visits is Limbo. In this part of Hell, people are simply made to dwell there because, although they were people of worth, they weren't baptized and therefore couldn't be saved. Since they weren't saved or didn't worship God correctly, they are made to live without hope and are overwhelmed by a desire to get the afterlife that they will never get.

One of the most twisted examples of justice can be found in Ugolino. Count Ugolino made a pact with Archbishop Ruggieri, but then the Archbishop betrayed him and imprisoned the Count and his children. Since no food was given, everyone began to starve, and eventually Ugolino's children began to offer themselves as food to their starving father. When Dante sees Ugolino in Hell, he sees that justice has been served in an awful way. Since Ruggieri starved Ugolino during their time on earth, he has become eternal food for Ugolino in the afterlife.