The InfernoDante Alighieri
Dante: Poet Exiled from Florence
White Guelph
1265 – 1321
Places enemies in hell Politicians Poets (Ovid , Lucan) Church figures
Commentary on corruption Popes
Dante: Character
Travels through hellNature of sin
Symbolic of human race
Sympathy towards shades suffering
Emotional, fainting
Contrasts the feelings of the author
Virgil
Condemned to Limbo(1st circle)
Master, Guide, Teacher
Guides and protects Dante through hell
Teaches morals and God’s justification
Represents human rationality and reason
Deliberate, determined, wise
Canto IDark wood, facing sunlit hill
Leopard, Lion, She-wolf
Back to the wood, Virgil
Can’t pass the beasts,
propose as a guide through Hell
Canto II
• Feel not worthy
• Virgil comfort him => how he has been send to him
Canto IIIVestibule, hear sighs from the damned souls
Souls rejected by Heaven and Hell => no hope of truly dying
Meet Charon
Strong wind disturbs Dante’s senses => fall on the ground
Canto IVFirst circle : Limbo
Meet people around the only light
Reach a castle => “bearing told of great authority” and “master sage”
Canto VSecond circle : Lustful
Minos
First time see souls being punished
Constantly whirling without hope of rest
Francesca and Paolo => pity => faint
Canto VIThird circle : Gluttons
Punishment = discomfort
Cerberus
Ciacco
Plutus
Canto VIIConfronting Plutus – fourth circle :Prodigal and Miserly
2 semicircles – clashing
Fortune
Fifth circle (river Styx) : wrathful
Fight forever
Tower
Canto VIIIBefore reaching the tower => Phlegyas
Attacked by Filippo Argenti
City of Dis => fiendish angels threating
Virgil comfort, argue
Slam doors
Canto IXGate of Dis
Lack of Divine aid
Three furies
Call for Medusa
Heavenly messenger approaches
Enter into sixth circle- vast setting
Torment by Heretics
Canto XTombs of heretics
Epicureans
Farinata interrupts
Canto XIEdge of seventh circle
Explanation of next three circles and subdivisions
Canto XIIFirst ring of seventh circle
River of blood
Navigate around the river
Guard (Nessus) names 3 shades within the river
Canto XIIISecond ring
Enters forest (Shade trees)
Formation of Shade trees
Canto XIVEdge of third ring
Divisions (zones)
Explanation of blasphemers (zone 1- within)
Happen across another “Red River”
Canto XVSecond zone
Explanation of sodomites
Happen across Latini (Shade)
Canto XVIStill in second zone
Sinners from Florence
Virgil asks for Dante’s belt
Canto XVIIGeryon (Fraud)
3rd Zone
UsurersPreventing art
Greed/Money
Furthering Mankind
Rain of Fire
Purses/Emblems around Neck
Down to 8th Circle
Canto XVIIIMalebolge (Evil Pouches)
Wall, 10 ridges, pit
1st Pouch
Panderers/Seducers
Demons with whips
2nd Pouch
Flatterers
“Foul sight”
Canto XIX3rd Pouch
Simoniacs (pardoners)
Pope Nicholas III
Dante’s Criticism
Canto XX4th Pouch
Astrologers, Magicians, Diviners
Continuous line
Face backwards
Canto XXI5th Pouch
Grafters/Conmen
Positions of power
Greed
Tar Pits
Malebranche (evil claws)
Malacoda (leader)
Time frame: Good Friday
Canto XXIIStill 5th pouch
Speak with Barterer
Virgil and Dante run from Malebranche
Canto XXIIISlide down to 6th pouch
Escape Malebranche
Hypocrites
Lead lined clothing
Caiphus (preist to Pontius Pilate)
Crucified
Dante gets directions
Canto XXIVRocky descent to 7th pouch
Thieves
Serpents chasing shades
“Stealing” formsCatch, bite, burn, recreated
Dante’s Political Party
Canto XXVThree shades
Six footed serpent
Merge forms
Canto XXVIEighth Circle, Eighth Pouch
Flames-contain souls of sinners that committed a fraud
Ulysses and Diomedes – Trojan Horse
Canto XXVIIGuido de Montefeltro – advisor to the Pope
Release from guilt cannot come before repentance, which cannot come before the sin
Canto XXVIIIEight Circle, Ninth Pouch
Sowers of Discord
Dance in a circle as a demon hacks them to pieces
Canto XXIXEighth Circle, Tenth Pouch – 4 zones
Zone 1. Falsifiers of Metals
Canto XXXZone 2. Falsifiers of others’ Persons - Myhrra
Zone 3. Falsifiers of Coins (counterfeiters)
Zone 4. Falsifiers of Words (liars) - Potiphar
Canto XXXIInto the Ninth Circle
Chained giants
Canto XXXIICocytus – Frozen Lake
4 rings
Ring 1. – Caina – Traitors to kin
Ring 2. – Antenora – Traitors to homeland
Canto XXXIIICount Ugolino, Archbishop Ruggieri
Ring 3. – Ptolomea – Traitors to guests
Canto XXXIVRing 4. – Judecca – Traitors to lords and benefactors
The Devil – Brutus, Cassius, Judas
Virgil leads Dante out the other end of Earth
Qualities of an EpicBegins in medias res - Canto 1 (l. 1-3) “Midway upon the journey of our life”
Vast setting – Canto 34 (l. 112-113) “And now beneath the hemisphere”
Begins with a statement of theme – Canto 1 (l. 112-117) “Therefore I think and judge it for thy best “
Begins with an invocation to a muse – Canto 2 (l. 7-9) “O Muses, O high genius, now assist me!”
Includes the use of long lists – Canto 4 (l. 121-144) “Mongst who I knew”
Ship references
Qualities of an Epic: 2
Features long and formal speeches – Canto 2 (l. 43-126) “Tell me, my master, tell me”
Shows divine intervention on human affairs - Canto 9 (l. 89-90) “He reached the gate”
Features heroes that embody the values of civilization – Canto 5 (l. 116-117) “The torment that you suffer”
Often features the epic hero’s descent into hell – Canto 3 (l. 9) “All hope abandon, ye who enter in!”
Epithets…
Literary ElementsAlliteration- “So that the firm foot ever was the lower.” Canto I (l. 30)
Allusion- “He answered me: ‘Within there are tormented / Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together / They unto vengeance run as unto wrath. / And there within their flame do they lament / The ambush of the horse, which made the door / Whence issued forth the Romans’ gentle seed...’” Canto XXVI (l. 55-60)
Assonance- “Here the nobility shall be manifest / And I began...” Canto II (l. 9-10)
Consonance- “Justice incited my sublime Creator” Canto III (l. 4)
Deus ex Machina- “Well I perceived one sent from Heaven was he, / And to the Master turned; and he made a sign / That I should quiet stand, and bow before him.” Canto IX (l. 85-87)
Enjambment- “The many people and the diverse wounds / These eyes of mine had so inebriated” Canto XXIX (l. 1-2)
Imagery- “Speaking no word, we came to where there gushes / Forth from the wood a little rivulet, / Whose redness makes my hair still stand on end. / As from the Bulicame springs the brooklet, / The sinful women later share among them, / So downward through the sand it went its way. / The bottom of it, and both sloping banks, / Were made of stone, and the margins at the side; / Whence I perceived that there the passage was.” Canto XIV (l. 76-84)
In medias res- “Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark, / For the straightforward pathway had been lost.” Canto I (l. 1-3)
Parallelism- “Through me the way is to the city dolent; / Through me the way is to eternal dole; / Through me the way among the people lost.” Canto III (1-3)
Simile- “In similar wise the evil seed of Adam / Throw themselves on that margin one by one, / at signals, as a bird unto its lure.” Canto III (l. 115-117)
Symbolism- “The infernal hurricane that never rests / Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine; / Whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them.” Canto V (l. 31-33)
In life the sinners were blown around and controlled by lustful thoughts, now in hell they are eternally punished the same way.
“For the straightforward pathway had been lost.” Canto I (l. 3)
-Dante has lost his way on the true path of life; meaning sin has obstructed his path to God
Crumbling Statue