that which Dante borrows from Emperor Frederick II. Frederick II was well known for his lead capes with which he punished criminals. Dante places all of the hypocrites in “gilded” cloaks that “dazzled; but inside they were all of lead, so heavy that Frederick’s capes were straw compared to them.” Dante uses this analogy to Frederick to demonstrate the extent of cruelty of his cloaks in The Inferno. The way that Dante compares one of the most evil punishments to those in his Inferno effectively demonstrates how horrible Hell truly is. Although this punishment for the hypocrites is quite physically painful, it contains a rather brilliant metaphor. For Dante, the hypocrites were those who were seemingly virtuous and good, but beneath their facades they were quite sinful. The cloaks are a metaphor for the hypocrites’ characters: dazzling on the surface and cloaked in lead or sin underneath. These examples of punishment that are physically painful are only some of the punishments that Dante borrows from forms of torture. Dante also creates more original punishments for other sinners. It is possible for some of the creative punishments to inflict both a physical and psychological suffering. One of Dante’s most ingenious punishments are those for the avaricious and the prodigal. The avaricious sinners are those who were miserly on earth, and the prodigal were squanderers. Dante’s punishment for them is one of the avaricious sinners was to be paired with a prodigal sinner. Then, the two individuals would roll the weights around in a semi-circle until “they [the weights] struck each other; at that point, each turned around and, wheeling back those weights, [cried] out: ‘Why do you hoard? Why do you squander?’” These sinners are condemned to forever roll these weights back and forth and yell at each other every time the weights collide. These punishments involve no...
