Experiecne Hell To Get to Heavan

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Recommended: Dante's experience in purgatorio and inferno

In The Inferno, Dante journeys into Hell to find redemption for his sins because he chose to live a life less virtuous. His trip to Hell is to help him conquer his sins and discover God’s love. Dante represents the everyday sinner, and The Inferno is a poem that gives the reader hope for redemption while also depicting the what happens when redemption is not reached, the wrath of God’s perfect justice. Dante’s tour of Hell is to gain insight of the very difference between sins on Earth and the punishment for sins in Hell, or contrapasso. In order for Dante to elude contrapasso, he must go through Hell and see God’s punishment for each sin and truly repent to avoid the fate of sinners.
Virgil represents the ability to reason that everyone has, Dante’s ability to reason, or Virgil, is taking him through Hell to seek redemption for his sins. At the beginning of the poem, Dante has lost his way in life and this is symbolized by Dante walking through the dark forest and attempting to find the path again but is encountered by a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf and forced him to his inevitable journey through Hell and later to Heaven. Dante, hesitant at first, is told by Virgil that he must travel through Hell first, but will eventually to Heaven after he sees God’s perfect justice on sinners. With Dante, Virgil, and the many other symbols it can be conveyed that in order for the everyday man, or Dante, to get what he truly desires, or God’s grace, then he must be guided by his ability to reason, or Virgil.
The way that Hell is set up in Dante’s Inferno is that each level of sin has a specific punishment involved that a sinner must endure. God was in charge of making Hell to provide justice for those who sin, therefore Hell is God...

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...ere are many rings in this circle, but each contrapasso is unique in its own. The eighth circle of Hell contains those of fraud, including but are not limited to: the flatters, hypocrites, and the thieves. The ninth and final circle of Hell is those of betrayal. Betrayal of family, country, guests, and worst of all benefactors.
After Dante goes through the circles of Hell and understands the punishment for the different types of sin, he wants to live a life more virtuous and repent in order to get to Heaven. The contrapasso or God’s perfect justice is used for offenders to relive their sins they chose over serving God. Dante relates to the reader because he too chose sin over God, but finds redemption as the poem suggests the reader can also. The Inferno is a message to the readers of God’s punishment to sinners and that redemption is obtainable if they repent.

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