Explain how and why Dante classifies sins into 3 major categories of incontinence,
violence and fraud and explain how Dante uses the idea of contrapasso, literally counter-penalty,
meaning “an act of divine justice that redirects the essence of a crime back against the
perpetrator” to reveal the true nature of the sins. In other words, in Dante’s hell, sinners are not
punished by having to witness or endure the effects of their sins on others but by having to
symbolically commit their sins forever.
Sample Solution
