Entry 1

In Dante’s Inferno, the author Dante Alighieri shows hell through nine circles, each circle representing a different sin. Dante also asserts that he thinks this sin isn’t as bad as he puts it right after Limbo, and does have sympathy for Francesca and Paolo’s story Through contrapasso, Dante shows how the sin is reflected in hell. Circle 2, lust, is one example of sin with a fitting contrapasso.

Circle 2 is the sin of lust, is “a smaller circle of much greater pain”(Alighieri 35). It is also described as “stripped bare of every light”(36) and that the sinners are “wracked by a war of winds” (36). In this hell, the punishment is that the sinners are trapped in a tempest, forever to fly around without control. The contrapasso for this hell is that because the sinners fell to their whirlwind of emotion, they are trapped in a whirlwind in hell. The whirlwind represents their emotions and how they were taken hold by them. Dante feels sorry for two of the sinners Francesca and Paolo, who tell him their story. Dante also gives the sin a personification, Paolo and Francesca, and a story that is meant to move the reader and question the seriousness of the sin. Because Dante feels sorrowful about their story, he asserts the fact that it isn’t as bad a sin compared to others. This idea is reinforced by its location in hell, Circle 2, one of the earliest circles.

Circle 2 of the 9 Circles, lust, is not considered as serious a sin compared to the others, according to Dante. Dante believes that it is a relatively minor sin, as shown by its location, and Paolo and Francesca story . With the punishment of the sinners, being trapped in a whirlwind represents their emotions. Because they let their emotions take hold and throw them around, they are thrown about in the wind.