My Rock, Flawless: The Perfection of God in Dante's Inferno Anonymous 12th Grade

Dante Alighieri uses Hell in his epic poem,The Inferno, to show the perfection of every act committed and idea thought by God. Dante’s purpose in writing the first part of his Divine Comedy was to demonstrate that God's action in human history can be extended from one man to all men, showing sinners the path back to God through his journey with Virgil. Despite the fact that Hell is the absence of God, His divine wisdom is evident through Dante’s experiences as well as descriptions of the punishments and architecture of Hell.

The very notion that a place such as Hell exists may suggest to some that God only cares for the righteous, that he cruelly dumps sinners, taking perverse pleasure in their pain. However, if God was so barbaric that he stopped loving humans as soon as they sinned, Hell would not be as well thought-out as Dante’s portrayal. A God with no compassion would throw anyone who disobeyed into one fiery pit, not caring whether they deserved the level of punishment they received. Dante’s God obviously never stops loving humans, even after they defy him, since he created Hell so thoughtfully. The punishment always fits the crime, as determined by Minos and doubled-check by God himself at the Final Judgement.

After a...