Symbolism and Symbolic

Retribution
Throughout the Inferno, Dante uses symbols to evoke “the will of God.”
What this means is that the way Dante created the structure of Hell
supposedly was the way God wanted it. It also means that the way each
sinner was punished was a reflection of their errors in sin against the will of
God on earth. This is called Symbolic Retribution. Here are the forms of
Symbolic retribution in circles 6-7.1

The Heretics
Heresy, to Dante, was the unnecessary act of denying Christianity. The
Heretics believed that the soul died with the body. To Dante, this was a sin.
Their punishment was to lie forever in an open fiery grave of God’s wrath
until the judgment day when that grave would be sealed shut. The symbolic
retribution here is that since they denied the possibility of life after death in
Paradiso and that their bodies and souls lied in a grave for the rest of
eternity, that is exactly what their souls were sentenced to in Hell; to lye in a
grave of God’s wrath for all eternity.

Recognition of the Living/Dante

While walking through Circle 6, Dante is recognized by one of the damned
from their fiery graves. Dante is recognized quite a few times in this book.
The only reason they call him over when they recognize him is because he is
living and obviously that’s a pretty big deal in Hell, a place full of dead
sinners. The symbolic retribution of this recognition is how Dante sees
himself as an important fixture not only in life but also in Hell.

Farinata Degli Uberti

The man who recognizes Dante from the grave is Farinata Degli Uberti, who
was also a Florentine and recognized Dante by his accent. Uberti was not
only one of the people that believed that the soul died with the body, but he
was also a member of the opposite political party than Dante, the
Ghibellines. The symbolic retribution of the punishment of this man is that
Dante obviously had some hard feelings towards the opposite political party
and believed that any Ghibelline that denied god should be put in hell.

Cavalcante Dei Cavalcanti and Guido

Cavalcanti
There was another shade that rose from the same grave and interrupted
Dante and Ulberti after awhile. This was Cavalcante Dei Cavalcanti, the
father of Guido Cavalcanti, a rival poet of Dante. Guido obviously did Dante
some wrong for him to be his rival. The symbolic retribution of the placement
of Cavalcanti is that Dante respected other poets until they did him wrong
and that his rival poetsd and their families belong in Hell.

The Vagueness in Dante’s Answer to

Cavalcanti (Cavalcanti’s swoon)
Cavalcanti rose to ask Dante a question about his son. He asked why Guido is
not with him since he viewed him as just a special as Dante. The damned
have no sense of earthly present tense. They only have knowledge of the
past and far into the future, and since Dante was living he decided to check
up on his son. Cavalcanti Dante replied with a vague answer saying that
Guido was not sought out for special help like he was. His vagueness implied
that Guido was not helped, and therefore was dead, and Cavalcanti swoons
back into his fiery grave. After talking to Uberti for alittle while longer, Dante
decided it was time to go and the last thing he said was that Guido was not
really dead. The fact that he waited until after Cavalcanti had fainted is a
form of Dante torturing the damned. The symbolic retribution of this torture
is that Dante believed that he was doing God’s will by torturing the souls of
these people.

The Violent Against Neighbors

The sinners of circle 7.1, the Violent Against Neighbors, were the people who
shed the blood of their equal men, not necessarily their friends, but infinite
amounts of their equals. They were immersed in a river of blood each set to
different depths according to intensity of their sin. The symbolic retribution
of these sinners is that as they chose to wallow in a life of killing those who
were equal to them, they will forever wallow in their blood after death.

The Centaurs
Centaurs patrolled the banks of the river of blood, armed with arrows to
shoot at any sinner who moved to an unjust are of the river. The symbolic
retribution of this supervision is that since these people set flow to the blood
of their equals, and since they were equals, they need to stay at that level of
equality and it is not right of them to move to a shallower level.

The Challenge of Virgil

When the centaurs notice Virgil and Dante, strolling past their parts
obliviously as if they are going to be permitted without a hassle to pass by,
they are outraged. They challenge Virgil and they are both almost shot with
an arrow by one of them. The symbolic retribution of this challenge is that
human reason is not always justified in Hell.