The Inferno

The Inferno

The definition of justice revolves around what society defines as being fair and what gives equality of deserved consequences. The concept of justice takes its basis on several fields that include ethics, law, religion, and equity. The theme of justice carries a significant part of literature where authors give different definitions of justice or leave the meaning of justice at the discretion of the readers. The administration of justice by various institutions such as courts tends to suffer from contradiction from other institutions such as religious beliefs. In Christianity for example, a disagreement arises when a choice has to be made between serving justice and embracing forgiveness. The bible favors forgiveness instead of administering justice since forgiveness represents love. However, the definition of justice differs significantly between denominations since different denominations have different laws of government. The Inferno is an Italian poem written by Dante Alighieri in the 14th century about Dante’s experience in hell. In religion, hell represents a realm that serves as punishment for the rebels of spiritual values. In the poem by Dante, nine concentric circles of torment situated beneath the earth represent hell.

In literature, justice gives a platform to award virtues while punishing the deviation from truth. The moral behavior of an individual is rated according to the rules and regulations set out in a given society. According to (Pereira, p. 174), justice can be explained according to five theories like utilitarianism, libertarianism, intuitionism, Rawls’ egalitarianism, and Capability approaches. In a literature setting, the definition of justice varies considerably depending on who is advocating for justice. An example of justice advocacy in literature involves characters who administer justice among themselves, or where the author administers justice. Also, the author can deliberately leave the readers to decide the type of justice to offer. The theme of justice can be transformed to fit into the requirements of the author to pass a particular message to a given audience. The characters do not have the power to affect their fate and thus administering justice cannot be left at the discretion of the characters. In developing the theme of justice, an author chooses what is right according to them and society. The judgment of the author must coincide with the norms of society to avoid unnecessary reactions. Also, the extent to which justice is administered depends on the religious setting of the story.

The administration of justice gets the attention of several individuals. Justice is both a goal and a process (Bell, p.22). Justice as a goal involves equitable participation of different groups of people in a bid to meet their needs. The process of delivering justice involves democracy and participatory to respect humanity. According to (Lee Anne, p.30), justice can be restored in terms of four myths; restorative justice is the opposite of retributive Justice, restorative justice used indigenous justice practices and was the dominant form of pre-modem justice, restorative justice is a care response to crime in comparison to a response, and restorative justice can be expected to produce significant changes in people.

The theme of justice is developed in Dante’s Inferno to represent the service of justice in the religious field. Hell, as explained by Dante is made up of nine circles, which represents different levels of serving justice according to the sins committed. The division of hell into different levels means that justice cannot be similar for different actions. For example, the first circle was a realm of punishment for individuals who did not commit to either good or evil during their stay on earth. The intensity of punishment for different offenders increases with the movement into the interior hell. The implementation of divine justice is apprehended by Virgil who takes Dante through the process of hell. Divine justice takes into consideration the steps of natural justice in that the punishment for an offence depends on the severity of the offence.

The implementation of justice suffers from interruptions of religious interruptions. For example, Dante is rescued by a figure who announces himself as to have born during the era of Julius Caesar and is protected by grace during the journey through hell. The decision of following Virgil is affected by the mention of Beatrice who Virgil says to have sent him to protect Dante. Beatrice had been moved to help Dante by the Virgin Mary (representing compassion), Saint Lucia (representing grace) and Rachael (representing contemplative life). In Canto 3, Dante fails due to the suffering happening to the deviators of moral standards. The sailor of the ferry to the real hell is not willing to allow a willing being in for reasons best known to them, but the declaration by Virgil makes Charon change their mind:” It is so willed there where is power to do”. Canto IV begins with an explanation of the nine circles of hell. The arrangement of the circles symbolizes the increase in wickedness and also the way the weight of administering justice changes with the severity of an offence. The individuals in each of the nine circles receive eternal punishment, but the intensity of the punishment depends on the crimes committed. Dante uses the punishments on each circle to symbolize poetic justice. An example of punishment is when Dante and Virgil encounter fortune-tellers are walking with heads facing backwards without the ability to face ahead since they had been using forbidden means of seeing ahead of them. The punishments to individuals in the outer circles seem lesser than the circles explained in canto V. Dante describes the latter part as the hell proper, where nothing gleamed. Canto v explained the administration of justice for individuals with severe crimes like lust and sexual love.

The theme of justice revolves around what society defines as being fair and what gives equality of deserved consequences. The concept of justice bases its argument on several fields that include ethics, law, religion and equity. The theme of justice takes a significant part of literature where authors give different definitions of justice or leave the definition of justice at the discretion of the readers. The definition of justice differs significantly between denominations since different denominations have different laws of government and what one society views as justice might be viewed as an injustice by another society. In the poem Inferno by Dante, nine concentric circles of torment situated beneath the earth represent hell and the different levels of punishment that befit different types of crime. The implementation of justice suffers from interruptions of religious interruptions such as forgiveness and grace but subject to repentance and submission by the offender. The use of symbolic hell allows Dante to develop the theme of poetic justice.