Inferno notes - MendenhallEnglish
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Transcript Inferno notes - MendenhallEnglish
How does Dante use his life and
his times in the Inferno?
What do you already know about
The Inferno?
Game
trailer
The woman in the game is not Dante’s
wife. She is Beatrice, the love of his life.
Virgil guides Dante during the game
Video game preview clip
http://www.youtube.com/movie?v=SuZU
prDiGEc&ob=av5n&feature=mv_sr
Born
in 1265 in Florence,
Italy
Died in 1321 in exile
from Florence
Beatrice Portinari was
the love of his life, but he
married and had
children with a different
woman
Wrote many poems
about love, religion, and
philosophy
Dante
was part of political group that
wanted more freedom from Rome and the
Pope
Felt that the Pope was corrupt – accepting
money for forgiveness from sins and for
important positions (Simony)
Dante’s group started out in power, but Pope
Boniface VIII sent his army to take over
Florence
Dante later writes about Boniface in Inferno
– he portrays him as burning in one of the
bottom layers of Hell
Paying
clergy for forgiveness, a
pardon or for a church office.
Also means paying for a church
relic/artifact
What
After
does exile mean?
Dante’s party lost power, he was
sentenced to two years of exile and had to
pay a fine
Dante refused to pay the fine, so he was
sentenced to burn at the stake if he
returned to Florence
Exiled in 1302 and never returned
The
Divine Comedy is Dante’s most
famous work
A Comedy, in the literary sense, does not
have to be funny and can be serious.
• A Comedy is a literary work with a happy ending
• Vs. a Tragedy, which does not have a happy
ending
Composed of three separate books:
• The Inferno (we read from this part)
• The Purgatorio
• The Paradiso
• Each book consists of several Cantos, or sections
Inferno
means Hell
The first book of the Divine Comedy
We will read parts of this book
Cantos 1, 3, 5, 33, 34
Dante travels through Hell and sees Sin
for what it is
The most famous and widely-read of the
three books because of the interesting
Sin and Damnation
Sections, like
chapters in a book
Purgatorio
or Purgatory
What does purgatory mean?
The second book of the Divine Comedy
We don’t read this
Dante travels through Purgatory and
learns what he must do to live a life free
of sin
Describes the Earth as being round
Paradise
or Heaven
The final book of the Divine Comedy
We don’t read this
Dante travels through Heaven, repents his
past sins, and believes that he will now
live a life free of sin
Speaks with several saints and sees God
A
long poem about a significant
event, battle, or journey
Examples: The Iliad and Beowulf
Contains an Epic Hero – a person on
whom the fate of a culture hangs in
the balance
Dante
was the first author to cast himself as
the Epic Hero
Most Epic Heroes fight in famous, dramatic
battles
Dante’s character determines his own fate
instead of a culture’s fate
Scholars call the Divine Comedy Dante’s
“Midlife Crisis” because he was writing
about his own journey to find meaning in his
life
This is called an Allegory – a story that
symbolizes something else (Animal Farm,
Avatar)
Two
levels
• On the surface, this is a poem about a
man’s journey through Hell, Purgatory,
and Heaven (what do we call someone
traveling for religious reasons?)
• On a deeper level, this is an allegory
about society’s/Dante’s journey to God
Dante
himself is the main character in the
Divine Comedy. He must travel through
Hell, Heaven, and Purgatory.
The poet Virgil guides Dante through
Hell and Purgatory, but cannot enter
heaven because he lived before Jesus
died, enabling humans to enter Heaven.
Dante’s love, Beatrice, guides him
through Heaven.
Virgil
is the Roman poet who wrote the
Epic The Aeneid about the founding of
Rome
Dante believed Virgil to be the greatest
poet who ever lived
He admired and respected Virgil above
all people, and chose him to guide
Dante’s character through Hell (Inferno)
and Purgatory.
They were in the “friend zone”
Friends clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=4pnMWvbFpS8
Dante
met Beatrice when
he was nine-years-old, and
fell in love at first sight
Dante had a very
significant crush on
Beatrice for the rest of his
life, but never had a
relationship with her
He believed that she was
his Muse, and frequently
wrote about her in his
poetry
When
Dante was 25, Beatrice died
Dante believed that Beatrice was his
reason for writing poetry and living, so
he took her death badly
Beatrice is Dante’s idea of idealized
love…but he never really knew her
In his later poems, Beatrice became a
figure who guided and watched over
Dante
• In the Divine Comedy, Beatrice guides Dante
through Heaven (Paradiso)
Dante
was a Roman Catholic, living in
Italy, in the Middle Ages
Dante is the author AND protagonist of
the Divine Comedy, so the entire story is
told through the lens of his beliefs
What is a protagonist?
We can identify the lens, and look
through the lens, but Dante’s beliefs are
not necessarily yours or mine –
This a work of fiction, and not a religious
text
Dante’s
ideas about Hell (and Heaven)
were shaped by the Catholic Church as
well as the philosophers of his time
Dante’s Hell (Inferno) has many layers,
each for a different type of Sin
• The further you descend, the worse the sins (and
the punishments) get
The
deeper you go into Hell, the deeper
you go into the center of the Earth.
Satan lives at the bottom of Hell – but he is
being punished too.
Heaven
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo9141453-pearly-gates.php