DAY ONE:
MR BREAM
- review the Middle Ages….three estates(clergy, peasants, nobility)
- power of the church, importance of the number three….the trinity…
- Church played central role in people;s lives
- Only the nobility were educated
- Clergy copied text, not original writing
- “light” learning, enlightenment, THE LIGHT of heaven….it is throughout
the text
- women below men, but rise toward the end of the middle ages as a result
of chivalry )the story of PAOLO and FRANCESCA were reading the TALES
OF ARTHUR…and fell in love…
- the poem is in part driven by Dante’s love for Beatrice
- a Christian world….sins of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy,
pride…7 sins…
- Dante condemns people from his world and from history to levels of hell
- Poem begins with Dante in a DARK WOOD – away from light, lost, afraid
- People built cathedrals to honor god and worship
- Chartres is a cathedral that was built to honor god…it burnt down but
Mary’s shroud she wore while delivering baby Jesus was miraculously
spared…so built the cathedral to honor the miracle, Mary, Jesus and God…
- This cathedral is bigger than the Rose Bowl – took 29 years to
build….amazing speed! Even the king helped as royalty was below the
church
- Cathedral become taller, reaching to heaven, filled with stained glass for
light, enlightenment…not painting, need to bring in light
- Told stories from bible through stained glass
DAY 2 11/14/12
- people built cathedrals to honor GOD, dante uses not stones, but words to
honor God
- Medieval Florence, on the cusp of the Middle Ages/Renaissance…
- A city filled with pride (think Texas)
- Dante a patriot in Florence, loved his city…
- Two parties in Florence: the Ghibellines (supported by outside forces,
usually German money) and the Guelps (supported papal (pope) power
- When the Guelps win control, the party splits (BLACK guelps want all
pope; WHITE GUELPS want separation of church and state)
- Dante is a WHITE Guelp, kicks out several of the Black Guelps…
- While visiting the pope to smooth over the situation, the Black Guelps
take over, try Dante in absentia, kick him out of Florence for life….he
becomes an exile…
INFLUENCES ON DANTE:
- HIS political career, his exile
- JUDEO CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY…TENETS OF CHRISTIANITY WITH
PLATO AND ARISTOTLE (HEATHENS) THROWN IN…THEY BECOME
INTERTWINED WITH CHRISTIAN DOCTRICE (AQUINAS BROUGHT IN
PLATO AND ARISTOTLE) OBVIOUSLY A BIG INFLUENCE ON DANTE
- Beatrice was a huge influence on his life as well…vision of love, courtly
love which is secular, not heavily influenced by religion, makes her
represent DIVINE GRACE, GOD and LOVE through Beatrice
- Dante takes these secular influences and puts them in a Christian context
- Dante’s vision of the universe is with earth at center with hell at the
center o the earth, farthest away from god. The skies are heaven with
Purgatory closest, where people go to purge their sins, then once purified
they go up to the Empyrean, or heaven proper
- Dante has created hell, from his beliefs and from his imagination
THE INFERNO….start reading…
Text is based on the sins in the bible (7 deadly sins: pride, envy, anger, sloth,
avarice, gluttony, lust)
In Purgatory pilgrims climb through levels, purge their sins, reach heaven
clean and innocent
In PARADISE, heaven, filled with God and angels, righteous rulers, thinkers,
lovers, etc
In HELL, the Inferno begins in a dark wood…wild, uncivilized, chaotic,
without God…Dante is traveling to a Garden, with god, cultivated, controlled,
created perfection
The text begins with “midway through our life’s journey…”he is at midlife,
has lost his way…but this is an allegory for anyone lost in life, losing their self
and their values and being lost.
He sees light and climbs toward it but encounters three beasts
(lion/violence; leopard/malice and fraud; and shewolf/incontinence, lacking
control)
Dante encounters Virgil in this first canto and he is a heathen poet from
before Christ, wrote the Aeneid, about the founding of Rome
DAY THREE THURSDAY 11/15
What were Francesca and Paolo doing just before their consummation of
their lust? (reading the story of Lancelot and Guineviere)
CANTO 1 cont….
Virgil introduces himself with his background – who his parents were and
where he was born…they establish themselves (Virgil is a poet who gave
credibility to the beginning of Rome, gav the family anscestry to Rome…)
Virgil represents REASON, RATIONAL THOUGHT…the best in man and his
capabilities. He will be Dante’s guide…
CANTO 2:
Mostly dialogue between Dante and Virgil…this canto takes just a few
minutes so it is the shortest time duration…Dante is concerned he is not
worthy for this journey. Only a few people have made this journey as living
souls…Virgil tells him that he has the backing of some very powerful and
special women (The virgin Mary noted he was lost and spoke to St Lucia
“light” who then told Beatrice to descend from Heaven and ask Virgil to help
Dante) This story restores his confidence and he is ready to take the journey.
CANTO 3
Virgil and Dante arrive at the gates of hell with the inscription “ABANDON
ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER”…(pirates of the caribean…on the ride, then you
drop down into darkness, and then in fire, with raping and pillaging)
Just past the Gates are the UNCOMMITTED, people who did not take a stand
in life…the passionless….they are bitten by wasps and hornets while they
chase a blank banner….THIS IS THE FIRST PUNISHMENT which shows the
concept of CONTRAPASSO – punishment somehow fits the sin…ironic or a
refelciton of the sin. Since these people did not stand for anything in life, they
are condemmed to chase NOTHING while being stung for an eternity…
They are not named, because they don’t even deserve to be known…and they
aren’t even allowed in hell…JFK said the lowest level of hell reserved for the
uncommitted...he was wrong, it is before the first level…but it may be the
worst as they aren’t even allowed in!!
People in hell are lining up at the river ACHERON where Charon will ferry
them across the river; God’s will compels them to line up and take their
punishment …this is part of the system, they are compelled by God to take
their punishment
AT THE END of this DANTE faints / swoons from fear
CANTO 4:
Dante wakes at the first proper level of hell…LIMBO … for the unbaptized and
those born before Christ…not a bad place, a little bit of light…no shrieks or
punishments, just sighing. They are not being punished because they did
nothing wrong, but they have no hope of being saved and knowing God’s light
because they were born before Jesus Christ. Here we have people from the
Old Testament (some of whom were taken up to Heaven during the
HARROWING OF HELL) There are also great poets, peole from Ancient times
like VIRGIN, HORACE, HOMER, etc…
He puts SALADIN in this level – a muslim leader who beat the Christians in
one phase of the Crusades, but called for peace and an end to fighting and
aloowed Christians, Jews and Muslims to live together. It is important that
you understand Dante has created this world and placed Salladin in LIMBO,
what does that say about Dante?? (Tolerant, accepting of goodness,
regardless of religion…)
DAY 4 11/16/12
MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURES in the Inferno: Minos, Cerebrus, Pluto and
others. Dante places mythological creatures in hell to be guardians or
overseers, but he changes them and makes them more monstrous, as sin
makes monsters of us all
Canto 5: Enter gates, past limbo, meet Minos who has a scorpian tale and
casts people into hell- in mythology Minos became the judge of the dead in
the underworld. In Dante he is turned into a beast halfmanhalfbull with a
scorpian tail to show how no one is human in hell, even those who work
there!
The first section of hell, after limbo, is for the incontinent (those who can’t
control their passions) The lustful (circle 2) the gluttonous (circle 3) the
ragers or wrathful (circle 4 for communities of rage, circle 5 for those
consumed with solitary rage)
Canto 5: Enter gates, past limbo, meet Minos who has a scorpian tale and
casts people into hell- in mythology Minos became the judge of the dead in
the underworld. In Dante he is turned into a beast halfmanhalfbull with a
scorpian tail to show how no one is human in hell, even those who work
there!
In Canto 5, for the lustful, those whose passions of love overcame them in life.
People who loved, lusted excessively in life. DIDO, CLEOPATRA both
committed suicide but Dante places them in the 2nd level of hell for lustful.
They are buffeted by powerful circling winds, as in life they were buffeted by
their lust. The story of Paolo and Francesca, told by Francesca, is one of
unbridled passion/love. She is married to his crippled older brother. Paolo
had set up the marriage and Francesca thought she was marrying him, but
instead was married to the older brother. However, F and P are in love, and
while they are reading the tales of Lancelot and Guiniviere, they are so
moved by their kiss, they STOP reading and engage their passions. A
reminder that art can be a panderer to sin… to the power of poetry as a
vehicle of sin…The question this raises is what is the responsibility of the
artist with regards to what he creates…Dante wrote a lot of love poetry in his
early years and now is writing something different….
Note that F and P are together, the only two souls together in hell, and the
only woman who speaks in hell…
Dante passes out at the end, perhaps in indicator of his recognition of his
guilt/culpability in writing his art that may be a vehicle to sin…
Canto 6: The gluttonous, the hell is a garbage dump, a toxic waste heap …. A
pig style….
***A note on the structure of the poem
The poetic form is TERZA RIMA – created by Dante for this poem…
3 line stanzas – related to the Holy Trinity
Past gathered together into the present which comes together holding the
Kernal of the Future – ARITSTOTLE
Use this as a way to look at terza rima
The rhyme scheme is
A
B
A
B
C
B
C
D
C
Note how each stanza starts with a rhyme from the previous stanza, looking
to the past….but also sets up the rhyme for the next stanza in the middle line
to connect to the next stanza
MEMESIS
SYNAESTHESIA – use one sense language to describe a different sense (a pale
sound….a loud light)
DAY FIVE Monday 11/19/12
Canto 6 – meet Cerebrus, Virgil throws dirt at him to keep him occupied so
they can pass. THE USE OF REASON helps them in the inferno up to a cetian
point ** wiley, smart, thinking his way out of trouble. At the keeper levels of
hell this won’t work…
- When he talks with Ciacco, Dante is sympathetic to him, he speaks with
empathy to him
- Line 55 – “your agony weighs on my heart and calls my soul to tears”
- But Dante also asks for a prophecy…Ciacco gives his prophecy, but it
actually happened as Dante starts the Inferno in 1300, even though he is
writing in 1315 so he knows what happened in the interim. These aren’t
actual prophecies, they are history
- Dante asks the whereabouts of some good people, but Ciacco tells him they
are in hell
- Then Ciacco wants his name known in the world, he wants to be
remembered…PEOPLE IN HELL WANT TO BE REMEMBERED
- At end of this canto, Virgil explains the day of Judgement when dead souls
will get their physical body back, it is reunited with the soul, and because of
that they become more perfect and their punishment is felt even more Lines
100 - 109
CANTO 7 – Circle 4 – the hoarders and the wasters, those who guarded or
spent money to excess will forever be pushing meaningless rocks and butt
into each other without getting anywhere…
Dante notices many men with the hair cut in a circle (clergy) in this level…
Dante asks Virgil about FORTUNE (chance) who is a kind of angel who sees
that worldly wealth passes from one person, family, nation to another…she is
the Lady of Change, she makes people prosper or suffer, she is CHANGE,
without reason, she is swift, and she cares not if people curse her
-then they have to cross a marsh to get to river Styx to cross to get to the
next , deeper level of hell - it is marshy and slimy and gross…people are
placed in this swamp, submerged, buried with them fighting and tearing at
each other. This is where the rage is punished (in the swamp there is chaos,
out of control, there are those above who let their rage fly, and then those
who keep their anger bottled inside, represented in the muck)
CANTO 8 –Circle 5 – the river They see the tower of the City of Dis (Satan), a
second ferryman PHLEGYAS (who set fire to the temple of Apollo because
Apollo loved his daughter) He is the ferryman across Styx and with him we
get fire in hell
- In this Canto, Dante is mean and nasty, he recognizes Fillippo Argenti and
curses him, then Virgil praises Dante for being mean and cruel to the
sinner, Dante even wants this guy to suffer more, and he is as those in the
marsh batter and eat at him
- Dante reacts so strongly to Argenti, who supposedly robbed Dante’s
family of money and may have slapped a young Dante
- See Dante’s own sin of anger, addressing and recognizing his own sins
Canto 9 – CITY OF DIS – a wall, a tower, they are blocked from entering and Virgil’s
words have no effect. He needs Divine Intervention to beat back the THREE FURIES
who call on MEDUSA to turn them to stone. His Reason does not work past this level,
they need Divine guidance. In this level are the FALLEN ANGELS, the Christians and
Virgil as a heathen has no power over them…the sins after this gate deal more with
Christianity, sins against Christian belief.
This is the level for those who denied immortality, the heretics who say the soul
does not live after death. These are the arch heretics…they lie in tombs, forever
bound to the death they believed in…
CANTO 10 – First level, 6, within the City of Dis, this is reserved for the heretics,
those who denied the soul lives after death. Here Dante sees Farinata Uberti, a
famous Ghibilline who flaunts his political mastery, but Dante tells him that the
Guelps have mastered the art of coming back, but the Ghibillines who were soundly
defeated have not. Then they are interrupted by Calvacanti, the father of poet and
friend of Dante Guido Calvacanti. The father asks why his son was not asked to
journey to hell as he is a poet of similar quality as Dante. Dante suggests that Guido
lacked regard for Virgil. Calvacanti interprets this to mean his son is dead and he
swoons back in his tomb. Note that Farinata is treated with respect, and Farinate is
impervious to what is going on around him…he rises above hell almost, doesn’t pay
attention to the Calvacanti conversation. In fact, when Dante is done talking with
Calvacanti, Farinata picks up where he left off. Finally, once Dante realizes he has
mislead Calvacanti, he asks Farinata to tell Calvacanti his son is still alive
TUESDAY 11/20/12
_ canto 11 is a pause, a breather….Dante and Virgil have to take a rest to let their
noses get used to the stench of Circle 6. Virgil then explains the remaining circles
and the logic (Aristotelian) behind the ranking of these sins:
incontinence is the least bad and there is in upper hell
Violence occupies the 7th circle and includes homicidal, suicidal, and the
blasphemous (violent against God)
Finally the Fraudulent occupy the last two circles and is divided into Simple Fraud
and Compound Fraud
READ 12 – 18 for Monday
19 – 25 Tuesday
26 – 30 Wednesay
31 – 34 Thursday
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