The Law of Contrapasso

The law of contrapasso in Dante’s the Inferno demonstrates how the punishment of a person in hell relates to their sin in life. In each circle of hell there is a different sin and punishment that Dante has thought of. The contrapasso in circle three is clear with the carnal, or lustful.

            In life these people put their lustful needs in front of everything else that was important, like God. Dante uses Dido as an example of one of these people, “The other is Dido; faithless to the ashes of Sichaeus, she killed herself for love" (37). He also uses the famous Cleopatra, and Achilles to show the other people of lust. It is as though these people lived their life being lifted off their feet by love, “As mating doves that love calls to their nest glided through the air with motionless raised wings borne by the sweet desire that fills each breast" (38). Through the sky the lovebirds fly together, swept off their feet.

            Their punishment is being beaten around by winds, almost tornado-like. As Dante approaches he describes the sight, “Here, there, up, down, they whirl” (37). The people are being lifted off their feet and blown around. Dante see the sin as people being swept off their feet in lust during their life on earth, which leads to the contrapasso of the sin and punishment.

            The carnal were lifted off their feet in their life and flew away with their lovebirds, now as they are in hell they are whipped off their feet and lashed by the wind forever. The figurative has become literal for these lusty people. No longer is being swept off their feet for pleasure but for punishment and in Dante’s words, “perilous paradise” (39). The punishment embodies the law of contrapasso, as it is the literal action of their lustful life with pain instead of bliss.