Practice question · Multiple choice
Dante conceives of damnation as a description rather than a sentence imposed from without. How does this distinction shape the moral architecture of the Inferno?
Hints
- What does the nature of contrapasso imply about the relationship between sin and its penalty?
- Why does Dante view damnation as an intrinsic continuation of the sinner's earthly state?
Show the answer
D. Sinners merely experience the natural fruition of their own choices.
Why
Contrapasso shows that eternal suffering is sin fully realised rather than an externally calculated legal penalty. Dante bases severity on the corruption of uniquely human reason and trust, not on external harm caused or corrective deterrence.
Practise Dante’s Divine Comedy: an Architecture of the Afterlife
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