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