Dante begins The Inferno by embarking on a journey to Hell with his poet guide, Virgil. During the journey, the reader gets a taste of the gruesome images and depictions of punishments for different levels of sinner. During this journey Dante encounters many sinners that he knew or knew about in the real world, and at first the sinners wanted their name to be spread throughout the world when Dante emerged from Hell. But, as Dante explored more and more of the underworld, the sinners became less and less enthusiastic about themselves, which eventually turned into outright shame among the sinners in the depths of hell. Dante uses exaggerated examples of punishments for sins committed and the different levels of shame sinners feel to make the reader reevaluate their lives in the context of religious wrongdoings. Exaggerated punishments and shaming are necessary in this artwork to convey the predominant meaning. The intense and imaginative punishments that Dante conveys to the reader cause the reader to look at his own life and think about the sins he has committed. The punishments for sin in Hell increase in severity the greater the sin. In the vestibule of Hell Dante encounters opportunists. They run in circles chasing a waving banner while constantly being stung by wasps and hornets that cause a constant flow of blood onto the bodies of sinners. Dante then meets the sinners of limbo in the first circle. Dante sees these “virtuous pagans” as the least serious of sins. “They did not worship the Trinity of God in full duty,” so the punishment for these sinners is that they have no hope (Dante, 28). This fits the story and the reader well because I… center of the paper… a much less enthusiastic tone than the previous characters. This example follows the same pattern mentioned above regarding Dante's reactions to sinners. The further you go to hell, the more contemptuous people become. This is because sinners are further from the Light of God and live in eternal damnation. Dante's purpose, including the sinners' reactions when they encounter Dante, plays an important role. Dante wants the reader to know that committing a less serious crime results in better treatment in Hell, and therefore a desire to be remembered in the real world. Dante is not saying that a less serious sin should be committed. He's just saying that if one were to do so, the punishment would be much better than ending up in the depths of Hell. This gives the reader a sense of examining his own life and pushes him not to commit sin..