Hell is a place where the soul is separated from God. So the soul or consciousness of that particular being/individual is disembodied and is in a state of consciousness darkness. It is a solitary confinement for the soul. Imagine seeing nothing, hearing nothing, tasting nothing, smelling nothing and feeling nothing, yet being in a state of conscious darkness. The individual like the rich man who was serving in hell was frothing at the mouth in a state of absolute terror, because after one day the individual will say when is this nightmare going to end, then after one week the person wants a way out, after a month the person becomes insane and after a year the person is in continuous pain of terror and after a 100 years the person/soul is being killed slowly with no hope of an end in some get of the night terror.
Fortunately for those disembodied souls serving in this conscious state of terror, they have a release when they go into oblivion and cease to be. The lake of fire is the second death, where death and hell itself is erased after the millennium ends, because hell and death cannot continue past this point.
From Christ's ascension onwards we have the first resurrection where many souls of the departed are being clothed with the heavenly bodies and being reunited with their Lord in his Father's house in heaven. During the time from Christ's ascension until his brilliant return, we see many who are not raised are being chained in outer darkness of hell, reserved for the final judgment, the second death in the lake of fire.
Purgatory although appealing to those who hold to this doctrine to heart, need to be aware that between heaven and hell after the earthly tent is dissolved, there is no middle ground. Some churches have incorporated purgatory as a midway point between heaven and hell and in this regard try to appease the masses in a political way, as to say that all will be saved and none shall be lost. This is the appeal that all shall be saved and none shall be lost. The truth be told by Jesus himself, as he stated
many are called yet very few are chosen. In this regard many are lost.
The confusion that the church has introduced is not biblical but more to appease the masses in giving them a false hope after death. So that when a bad person who is related to such and such dies, then his relatives by their own penance can alleviate the pains of purgatory and the duration of the person's stay in purgatory (midway point) by offering penance in the form of monetary/gift. The church then started to cash in on this as it became quite lucrative.
Truth be told, that if your brother or sister or mother or father dies an enemy of Christ, then there is nothing that you can do to save that person. Since the Lord doesn't change and is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, we see that no family member or relative can save another through their deeds of penance. Scripture is adamant about this point.
16as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved, but the land would be desolate. (Ezekiel 14:16)
Three times in the same chapter God declares that no one can save their sons or daughters by their own deeds. What purgatory has done is to appease the masses and play at the heart strings and purses of families who are led to believe that they can save their sons and daughters by their deeds of penance.