Cantos XIII-XX

"I kept his secrets from almost any other.
To this, my glorious office, I stayed so true
I lost both sleep and life. The harlot that never

Takes its whore's eyes from Caesar's retinue--
The common fatal Vice of courts--inflamed
All minds against me; and they inflamed so,

So inflamed Augustus that the honors I claimed
In gladness were converted into pain.
My mind, in its disdainful temper, assumed

Dying would be a way to escape disdain,
Making me treat my juster self unjustly."

In the realm of hell in which souls who "robbed [themselves] of" their bodies dwell, one soul thoroughly understands the sins he has committed. He has a complete understanding of what rules caused his actions to be considered sins. He's essentially gotten the point, which his punishment was intended to make, and molded himself accordingly.

However, "Justice" is still running it's gruesomely relentless course.

The initial Hammurabi-style punishments usually fit the crimes: they make complete sense. But, it's safe to say that at a certain point, most souls have served their sentence. At some point, the lesson has been learned. Eventually, all of the souls, with the exception of those few unfalteringly belligerent souls, will have given their hands in retribution for their thievery. Why, then, does the punishment that "justice" allows continue, relentlessly, eternally?

It seems like the punishments should, generally, become milder and milder. Souls should be able to transcend the rings of hell according to the progression, stagnancy, or digression of their moral healing.

If "justice" is right in its unrelenting punishments, I am forced to either reconsider what the purpose of punishment is or what serving justice is supposed to accomplish.

If "justice" is not right in its unfaltering ugliness, why, then, does God seem to just let it happen in The Inferno of Dante?

justice in The Inferno of Dante : real justice :: wife stabs her husband 357 times, causing his death : wife kills husband with one bullet straight through the temple

One simply gets the job done, while the other obviously has some underlying issues that it's aimed at taking care of.

In The Inferno of Dante, implementation of just punishment turns bad.

I guess the role that punishment plays in The Inferno of Dante is understandable if God doesn't actually have a hand in punishments at all. I guess Satan can be expected to be cruel and unusual to his constituents. I guess that idea is what makes the inferno so utterly undesirable: God has said "To hell with you" and washed his hands of all of its dwellers. They're Satan's constituents. And Satan has an all access pass to break all of the rules: the essence of the inferno's darkness.