Transcript Dante’s Inferno

Goals:
 Understand social and historical values as
reflected and embodied in a literary work.
 Make connections between the historical
and cultural events of the 14th century, and
Dante’s inspiration for The Inferno.
The Inferno
By Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri Biography
• Born May of 1265 in Florence, Italy
• Received early education in Florence
• Attended the University of Bologna
• Experiences included a tour in the
Florence Army
Dante Alighieri Biography
• His great love seems to have been Beatrice
Portinari.
• They met when they were children.
• Dante worshipped her.
• Beatrice was Dante’s inspiration for The Divine
Comedy.
• After her death in 1290, he dedicated a
memorial “The New Life” (La Vita Nuova) to
her.
Dante Alighieri Biography
• Dante entered an arranged marriage in
1291 with Gemma Donati, a
noblewoman.
• They had two sons and either one or
two daughters.
Dante Alighieri Biography
• By 1302, Dante was a political
exile from Florence.
• He probably started The Divine
Comedy after this exile.
Dante Alighieri Biography
• Dante finished The Divine Comedy just
before his death on September 14, 1321.
• He was still in exile
• Perhaps still bitter about his expulsion from
Florence, Dante wrote on the title page of
The Divine Comedy that he was “a
Florentine by birth, but not in manner”
(Bergin 444).
Dante’s Inferno: Historical
Background
• End of the Middle Ages: God-centered;
lived on earth to get into Heaven
• Beginning of Renaissance: Mancentered; rebirth of learning
Dante’s Inferno: Historical
Background
• The Renaissance influenced all of western
civilization.
• Trade flourished and prosperity thrived
throughout much of the country.
• Florence became the richest of the Italian
city-states.
• Italy was a mess during this time!
Dante’s Inferno: Historical
Background
• Multiple political units existed as a result of
internal struggles for power and European
states vying for influence.
• The Guelph Political party (which favored
independence & the Popes) and the
Ghibelline Political party (which favored
control by the Holy Roman Empire) were
two such rival factions.
Dante’s Inferno: Historical
Background
• The French Kings supported the Popes
• The Holy Roman Empire was controlled
by the Germans; the French Kings were
afraid of the Germans becoming too
powerful so they supported the Popes.
• Basically, Holy Roman Empire (Germans)
vs. Independent city-states (Pope).
Dante’s Inferno: Historical
Background
• Dante’s birth in 1265 came at a time when the
Guelph party (Independence) was in control of
Florence.
• Dante turned away from his Guelph heritage to
embrace the imperial philosophy of the
Ghibellines (H.R.E.)
• His change in politics is best summed up in his
treatise De Monarchia in which Dante states
his belief in the separation of church and state.
• The Ghibellines, however, were pushed from
power by the Guelphs during Dante’s
adulthood and confined to northern Tuscany.
Dante’s Inferno: Historical
Background
• The Guelph political party eventually divided
into two groups:
• The Whites (led by the Cerchi family)
• The Blacks (led by the Donati family and later
by Pope Boniface VIII).
• Dante became a member of the Whites and
served as an ambassador to talk with the Pope
in Rome about conditions in Florence.
Dante’s Inferno: Historical
Background
• While Dante was out of town, the Blacks took over
Florence.
• The Blacks sentenced Dante to banishment from the
city.
• His punishment for return would be death.
• His wanderings gave him time to write and to
study the Scriptures.
• This banishment also gave Dante his perspective
on corruption of the fourteenth century papacy, a
view that he would clearly describe in The
Inferno.
Dante’s Inferno: Historical
Background
• In the year 1310, Henry VII became Holy Roman
Emperor.
• Dante believed that this German Prince would bring
peace.
• Henry VII died in 1313 and his Italian campaign
collapsed.
• Dante became disillusioned and left the political life
• He ceased work on other materials he had begun
and concentrated on The Divine Comedy.
Dante’s Inferno: Introduction
• The Divine Comedy was not titled as such by
Dante; his title for the work was simply
Commedia or Comedy.
• Dante’s use of the word “comedy” is
medieval by definition and meant ‘a tale with
a happy ending,’ not a funny story as the word
has since come to mean.
Dante’s Inferno: Introduction
• The work was a major departure from
the literature of the day since it was
written in Italian, not the Latin of
most other important writing.
• Political beliefs = Unity
• He felt a universal language would
help unify the country
Dante’s Inferno: Introduction
• Dante felt the church of his time was no
longer serving God
• Allegory of the process of the individual’s
search for God
• Politics, history, mythology, religious leaders,
and prominent people of the time, of
literature, of the past, and of Dante’s personal
life –including Beatrice – appear throughout
The Divine Comedy.
Dante’s Inferno: Introduction
• The Divine Comedy is made up of three parts,
corresponding with Dante’s three journeys:
Inferno (or Hell); Purgatorio (or Purgatory);
and Paridisio (or Paradise).
• Each part consists of a prologue and
approximately 33 cantos.
• Since the narrative poem is in an exalted form
with a hero as its subject, it is an epic poem.
Dante’s Inferno: Introduction
• The Divine Comedy describes Dante’s imaginary
journey.
• Midway on his journey through life, Dante realizes he
has taken the wrong path.
• The Roman poet Virgil searches for the lost Dante at
the request of Beatrice.
• He finds Dante in the woods on the evening of Good
Friday in the year 1300 and serves as a guide as
Dante begins his religious pilgrimage to find God.
• To reach his goal, Dante passes through Hell,
Purgatory, and Paradise.
Dante’s Inferno
• Dante and Virgil enter the wide gates
of Hell and descend through the nine
circles of Hell.
• In each circle they see sinners being
punished for their sins on Earth; Dante
sees the torture as Divine justice.
Dante’s Inferno
• The sinners in the circles include:
• Circle One – Those in limbo
• Circle Two – The lustful
• Circle Three – The gluttonous
• Circle Four – The hoarders
• Circle Five – The wrathful
• Circle Six – The heretics
• Circle Seven – The violent
• Ring 1: Murderers, robbers, and plunderers
• Ring 2: Suicides and those harmful to the world
• Ring 3: Those harmful against God, nature, art, as well
as usurers
Dante’s Inferno: Introduction
• On Easter Sunday, Dante
emerges from Hell.
• Through his travels, he has
found his way to God and is
able, once more, to look upon
the stars.
The Inferno: Themes
• Primitivity
• Man and the
Natural World
• Lies and Deceit
• Justice
• Language and
Communication
• Wisdom and
Knowledge
• Compassion and
Forgiveness
• Love
• Time
• Respect and
Reputation
http://vimeo.com/13785406