The Inferno of Dante.pdf

11/2/2009
Dante Alighieri
The Inferno of Dante
Through Hell and Back
• Born to well to do parents in Florence,
Italy in 1265.
• Probably educated at the University of
Bologna, center of religious and
rhetorical training.
• Was a city of great poetical tradition, so
he became a poet himself.
• Wrote many lyrical poems and
formulated poetic language that
culminated in The Divine Comedy
Dante cont.
The Divine Comedy
• He became embroiled in the politics of
Florence, became a part of the political
party opposed by Pope Boniface VIII.
• Was exiled in 1302 for his political
allegiances and never saw his beloved
Florence again.
• Died in Ravenna in northern Italy in
1321.
• Finished The Divine Comedy shortly
before his death.
• Dante was preoccupied with the number
three: FATHER, SON, HOLY SPIRIT
• Divided into parts: Inferno, Purgatorio,
and Paradiso, three parts
• Begins on Good Friday and ends on
Easter Sunday, three days
• Each book is divided into 33 cantos
• Stanzas are divided into terza rima,
composed of three lines
The Divine Comedy
• Tells the story of a spiritual quest
• Dante is lost in a dark forest and is met
by the Roman poet Virgil
• Virgil is sent by Beatrice, Dante’s love,
from heaven to guide Dante
• Virgil leads Dante through hell, up the
mountain of purgatory, to the gates of
heaven
• This quest teaches Dante, and us, to
change our lives for the better
The
Circles
Of
Hell
Further
Down,
Greater
The
Sin
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Hell
Purgatory and Heaven
• The gravity of the sin correlates with
which circle the sinner is in
• All of Dante’s enemies who were
responsible for his exile found a place
• Each circle has it’s unique punishment
for the sin
• Lesser sins are separated from greater
sins by the Wall of Dis, the bloody river
Phlegethon to finally Lucifer himself
• Purgatory is set up the mirror of hell,
worst sins at bottom, lesser sins at the
top
• You climb the mountain of purgatory
and reach redemption at the top: the
Gates of Heaven
• Paradise: Dante sees the angels and
saints, Virgin Mary, God, and Beatrice
• Goes back to earth renewed in his quest
for redemption
Allegory
Imagery
• Discussion of one subject by disguising
it as another, which resembles the first
in some striking way
• It teaches some kind of moral lesson,
uses the visible to express and explain
the invisible
• Can be read on two levels, the literal and
the symbolic
• Dante’s The Divine Comedy, is an
allegory of redemption
• Use of words to create vivid pictures
inside the mind of the readers
• Also images can be created by appealing
to the senses of the reader
• Dante uses images so that we can follow
him through his journey into the pits of
hell
• Tries to give us sights and sounds that
are unfamiliar to us
Personification
• Portrayal of a concept by giving it a
human identity
• Look at the punishment of each sin, the
punishment correlates with the sin
perfectly
• Example: The lustful were blown by
their passion in life so are blown on
torrential winds for all of eternity
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