How Just Is God’s Justice

            In Inferno, it’s evident that God’s justice is meant to be seen as “perfect” and fair. The inscription above the gates states that Hell was made by a, “divine authority”, with, “the highest wisdom, and the primal love.” Justice was clearly God’s prime motivation for creating a place that’s sole purpose is to eternally punish all sinners.

The specific punishments that the sinners receive correlate with the sins that they committed during their time on Earth. The gluttonous are constantly bombarded with excrement. The wrathful endlessly attack each other. Dante’s description of these punishments outlines the connection between the sin and the punishment, which in turn highlights the idea that God’s justice is ultimately perfect.

The idea that God’s punishment is just is also manifested in the physical structure of Hell. Hell is divided into descending circles, each of which holds a different set of sinners and their corresponding punishment. The first circle houses the least serious of sinners and continues down to the last circle, which is home to the most grave of sinners. The different degrees of punishment that each circle represents convey a sense of balance to Dante’s Hell.

 Dante’s reaction to the sinners in each circle is similarly progressive. Initially Dante is confused and expresses a great deal of sympathy for the sinners in the first few circles of Hell. His compassion soon fades away as he progresses through the deeper circles of Hell. He feels that the sinners in these lower circles deserve the punishment they receive and comments from Virgil support his change of heart. This transformation yet again underlines the idea that God’s justice is indeed just and Dante’s previous sympathy was a result of a lack of understanding of Hell’s necessary evils.

 Although the idea that God’s justice is perfect is extremely prevalent in Inferno, I personally have a hard time accepting many of the punishments that were dished out in the circles of Hell. In my opinion, Dante’s initial sympathy was a completely appropriate reaction to what he was experiencing. The black and white version of God’s justice that Dante describes seems archaic and unnecessarily cruel.