"Dante Alighieri" and The Divine Comedy.
Starting with Canto V, Dante, the narrator, encounters sinners being punished for their sins. Choose one and analyze the sinner's punishment. In your response, you may want to discuss one or more of the following:
Is the punishment just?
What purpose does the punishment serve?
How does the punishment relate to the sin that was committed?
In The Divine Comedy, Canto VII, Dante and Virgil enter the fourth circle of hell. As they enter , they encounter Plutus who is enraged. It is reserved for sinners guilty of avarice (greed) and prodigality, through wasting too much or hoarding too much, all done for material gain.The spenders and the hoarders are in two opposite sides and have been punished to carry weight that they usecas weapons against each other pushing the weights with their chests, shouting 'why do you hoard?' and 'why do you waste?' at each other.Virgil talks about them being corrupt Clergymen, Popes and Cardinals.
The hoarders and the wasters have been put on opposite sides as they will torment each other as their actions are in complete clash of the other.However both are in the same circle as they have failed to maintain a balance in their lives using resources judiciously without material greed. The weights they push at each other represents the weight of the material wealth they had wanted for themselves.The weights and the constant shouts are to remind them of their sins as they continue clashing with each other just like they would have on Earth. Both avarice and prodigality represent imbalance and the punishment of the two extremes being together is apt.
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