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Divine Comedy, Inferno, Cantos XI-XXII

How the text depicts justice

The theme of justice has been widely explored in Dante’s Inferno.  According to him,

justice is not entirely cruel and an unlikely punishment that has been established to provoke

fear from spectators even though it does. The author depicts God’s justice as an action that is

driven by primal love thus it is accompanied by compassion even though it is hardly seen that

way. The primary mission of justice as depicted in the inferno is punishing the wrongdoers. In

the text, Dante ascertains that justice is attained using contrapasso which refers to counter-

penalty. As he was moving from one circle to another, Dante saw sinners being punished based

on the level and nature of their sins. The reason for this is to make sure that the punishment

someone is accorded matches the crime or crimes that they committed. Therefore, it can be

deduced that justice, according to the text entails the punishment that people are given or rather

the price paid after committing certain wrongdoings in order to make them even or rather an act

of restoring balance. 

How the text distinguishes justice from vengeance

As stipulated, justice entails paying through punishment for wrongdoings in an equal

measure. On the other hand, as deduced from the inferno, vengeance entails inflicting
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punishment basing on biased feelings. Also, when it comes to vengeance, the type of

punishment does not necessarily have to be an equal measure of the crime committed. A

similarity between the two; justice and vengeance is that in both, punishment is used. In the

composition of the text, the author’s constructed hell seems to have a minimal relationship with

actual Christian theology but rather a place set aside for his enemies so that he can mock them

as a way of vengeance. An example of this can be deduced from the fact that, since Boniface

VIII was not dead, Dante creates a scenario that shows that he will definitely come to hell once

he dies. This can be deduced in CANTO XIX

“And he cried out: “Dost thou stand there already,

Dost thou stand there already, Boniface?

By many years the record lied to me.

Art thou so early satiate with that wealth,

For which thou didst not fear to take by fraud

The beautiful Lady, and then work her woe?” (C A N T O X I X , 5 2 - 5 7 ) .

Here, Nicholas III mistakes Dante for Boniface since he was sure that his successor was

doing the wrong things and would obviously face hell. There is also mention of people who

wronged him on a personal level such as Gianni Schicchi having forged his relative’s will.

There is also Filippo Argenti, a famous politician that Dante hated so much. Therefore, from

these examples, the punishment administered by God and the one administered by Dante are

very different and that is also what distinguishes justice from vengeance.

Mercy
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In the context of justice and vengeance as deduced from the inferno, mercy is an act of

showing love and compassion as God showed the ones he was punishing. Even though he

punished them, he still loved them and had given them a chance to change their behavior while

still living. Therefore, mercy can be deduced as the act of giving a second chance for someone

to change before justice is administered.