The Divine Comedy describes author/protagonist DanteÆs journey through the Inferno (Hell), Purgatory and Paradise to explore the theme of divine justice. This paper will contrast DanteÆs presentation of sins and sinners in the Inferno and Purgatory, the first two sections of his epic poem. DanteÆs classification system was rooted in the precepts of the Catholic religion and the worst punishment that can befall sinners is therefore not physical, but spiritual. The unrepentant sinners presented in the Inferno will never be able to see God and therefore live without hope. The repentant sinners in Purgatory, who have accepted moral responsibility, will, after a time, be able to achieve harmony with God in Paradise. This is the major difference between treatment of sinners in Hell and in Purgatory.
In the Inferno a variety of sinners representing a gradation of sins and punishments are presented as Dante and the spirit of his guide, the classic poet Virgil, travel through the nine circles of Hell. The sinners they meet will forever remain in Hell as they are damned to eternal punishment and alienation from God. The sign over the entrance to Bell says it all: ôAbandon all hope, you who enter hereö (III, 7). The progression of sins revealed in the Inferno range from the least to the greatest. The lesser sins, which are really sins of omission rather than commission, belong to those spirits who inhabit Limbo, the first circle of Hell. The sinners here are Virgil and other great pagan writers who lived and died before Christianity, and therefore, through no fault of their own, were never baptized and never knew Christ. ôThese sinned not but the merit that they achieve helps not, since baptism was not theirs....For such defect and for no other offence, we are lost, and only in so far emerced that without hope we languish in suspenseö (IV, 34-42).
As Virgil and Dante enter the second circle of Hell, Dante sees pain, terror...