Its not all black and white. .
Andy Phung, another critic I chose, had the same idea for this symbolic punishment. He uses many examples to support his statement. One that he used as an example was when he discussed lust. Phung states, "In the circle of lust, where an infernal whirlwind, which never rests, drives the spirits before its violence; turning and striking [them]," one such spirit, the adulterous Francesca, tells her story of lust to the Pilgrim (Inf. 5, 31-32). Their punishment, the "infernal whirlwind", embodies the contrapasso" (Phung). This being Dante's punishment towards the lustful. He then goes on to say that, "By employing this parallelism, Dante creates a punishment that mirrors the sin in terms of both their might and their burden. It is that effect of mirroring the sin that defines contrapasso" (Phung). Phung is defining what he thinks Dante is trying to portray with his said punishments. Phung agrees with this so called symbolic punishment when he states, "Contrapasso gains its strength from the symbolic meaning of the punishments, rather than the punishments themselves. It carries its message by creating a punishment that mirrors the sin and makes the souls feel the pain they caused by replicating it" (Phung). .
Another critic, Laila Khan, states her opinion on Dante's punishment. She states "The allegory in the punishments that Dante inflicted upon the sinners is carried through all nine circles of hell. Dante ensured that each punishment symbolized the sin that had been committed" (Khan). Here she is reinstating that Dante symbolized these specific punishments for individualized sins. Each person had their own placement and punishment. Khan, then using a particular Canto, goes on to support her claim. "In Canto XIII, in one of the most compelling allegories, those who committed suicide, and threw away their god-given bodies, are stripped of their bodies and instead spend eternity as trees, rooted in one place" (Khan).
