Cantos 1-2:
- How do you interpret the dark woods? To what extent do you identify with Dante at the
beginning of this epic? Describe a time in which you've awakened to find yourself in a "dark
wood." Are you in a "dark wood" right now? Explain.
- To what extent can we chalk up Dante's disorientation to a mere mid-life crisis? Would such
a designation do Dante's situation justice? Explain.
- Virgil is a model in many senses of the word for Dante, as is Beatrice. Think of someone you
model yourself after. How has this person had a transforming effect on you? Are they
someone you can continue to model yourself after for the rest of your life? Compare your
relationship with this person to Dante's relationship with Virgil.
- Notice that Dante must reach enlightenment in a somewhat roundabout way. He cannot
merely climb "the hill." He must first descend into the depths of hell and sin itself in order to
understand his moral reality (and then journey on to Purgatory and Paradise. Think of a time
in your life when you've had to learn a lesson the hard way. In what sense can you compare
this experience of yours to Dante's?
- What do the three "danteworlds"--hell, purgatory, and paradise--mean to you? How do you
envision them? How do you think they might relate to one another and to the world(s) in which
we live?
Canto 3:
- Dante indicates that there is an overwhelming number of people in this "fore-hell." Do you
think most of the people in the world live their lives like those in this fore-hell? How does
Canto III challenge you to live your life? Do you live your life in this way? Do you know others
who live their lives this way? Explain.
- What is the contrapasso for those living in the "fore-hell"? Does this seem like a just or
logical punishment to you? Explain.
Canto 4:
- Does Dante's placement of the virtuous non-believers in the first circle of hell (Limbo) seem
fair to you? Is his punishment too harsh or not harsh enough? Explain.
- Virgil says that he is not afraid, but full of pity. Dante mistakes Virgil's pity for fear. Recall that
tragedy is supposed to elicit pity and fear. Which emotion do you find yourself feeling as you
read the Inferno? Who do you pity? What do you fear? Explain.
- Notice how Dante describes himself as being "pull[ed]" (IV. 130). What is this "demanding
theme" that pulls him?
Canto 5:
- Who is Minos, and what does he do?
- What's the weather like in the 2nd circle?
- What is the contrapasso for the lustful? How or why is this appropriate? Does the
punishment seem harsh or not harsh enough to you?
- Who were Francesca and Paolo? What's their story?
- Many people, particularly young people, identify with the sinners in this circle more so than
in others. Why is this? Do you pity these souls? Why or why not? Why does Dante pity them?
What causes Dante to "swoon" (V. 127)?
- From Dante's presentation of Francesca and Paolo, we are encouraged to consider the
place of moral responsibility in depictions of love, sex, and violence in our own day. We can
certainly discuss music, television, movies, and advertising (as well as literature) in these
terms. Who is more (or less) responsible and therefore accountable for unacceptable
attitudes and behavior in society: the creators and vehicles of such messages or the
consumers and audiences?
- The episode of Francesca and Paolo, the first in which Dante encounters someone
punished in hell for their sins, presents a challenge: "Dante the character" is overcome by
compassion for the lovers even as "Dante the poet" has damned them to hell in the first place.
What are the possible consequences of this apparent gap between the perspectives of the
character and the poet who are both "Dante"?
Canto 6:
- What is the contrapasso for those in the 3rd circle? How is this a fitting punishment? Are the
sins and punishments of the 3rd circle worse than those of the 2nd circle? Explain.
- Who's Ciacco, and what's his story?
- How might Dante figuratively participate in the vice of gluttony?
- What is Dante referring to when he speaks of the "divided city" (VI. 55)?
- Virgil says that "the more / A creature is perfect, the more it perceives the good-- / and
likewise, pain." What does this mean? How can you identify, on some level, with what Virgil is
saying here?
Canto 7:
- What does the contrapasso in this circle look like? How is it appropriate?
- How is this punishment appropriate for the vices of this circle? Consider the relevance of
Virgil's description of fortune
- Dante (as well as medieval thought) saw greed as "the root of all evil," but Dante especially
equates greed as the root of the evils and unease within his hometown of Florence. Think
about some of the greatest evils in the world or in our society. To what extent are these evils a
result of greed?
Canto 8:
- What do the two flames in the tower signify?
- How would you describe Dante's behavior and attitude toward Filippo Argenti?
- Why is this reaction, so different from Dante's earlier responses to Francesca and Ciacco,
appropriate here?
- Why is Virgil not able to overcome on his own the resistance of the demons at the entrance
to Dis?
Canto 9.
- In what sense is this comedy an epic battle?
- Why does Dante ask the question he asks at line 15?
- What is the lesson or allegorical reading we're meant to get out of Cantos 9 (see line 55)?
- Who comes to let them into Dis?
Canto 10. (see also the Foreword (page ix).
- Explain the contrapasso based on Dante's conception of heresy as the denial of the
immortality of the soul.
- Why does Dante's use of the past tense in line 59 ("had scorned") cause Cavalcante such
grief? And why is Dante then confused by this reaction?
- What do Dante and his political enemy Farinata have in common?
- What does heresy have in common with the political situation in Florence?
- What do you imagine Dante's response to be to Virgil's question, " 'Why is it you're
disturbed?' I told him why" (line 118)?
Canto 11.
- Why do they pause at the edge of Circle 6?
- What is the purpose of Canto 11?
- Why are the sins of malice and insane brutality worse than incontinence? Why is insane
brutality worse than malice? Do we, in our modern American society, recognize these evils in
the same way? Are there greater and lesser evils? What are they?
- Notice that within the divisions of the City of Dis, there are multiple sub-divisions. Why is this
significant?
Canto 12.
- Why is there a concentration of hybrid creatures in this region?
Canto 13
- Note how Dante's use of anaphora in the opening description of the forest (Inf. 13.1-9--more
evident in the Italian) reinforces his conception of suicide. Look at this passage and other
language and imagery in canto 13: how do they contribute to Dante's conception of suicide
and the suicidal state of mind?
- Do you see evidence of Dante's participation in this idea of suicide?
Canto 14
- Capaneus' continued defiance of Jove in hell draws a harsh response from Virgil, who
explains to Dante that this unabated rage only adds to the blasphemer's punishment (Inf.
14.61-72). What do you think? Could Virgil be wrong and Capaneus actually gain a measure
of satisfaction from his contempt in the afterlife? Or does the logic of hell require only
punishment and suffering?
- What are the implications of Dante's attitude toward the sodomites in cantos 15-16?
- We learn in Canto 16 that Dante once thought to capture the leopard (1.31-43) with a cord,
which he now gives to Virgil to summon Geryon (16.106-14), the "image of fraud" (17.7).
What connections do you see among Geryon, the cord, and the leopard? How might this new
information help us to interpret the three animals--the leopard, the lion, and the she-wolf--from
canto 1?
- What does Dante's presentation of the usurers tell us about his attitude toward money and
economics?
Cantos 26-27
- What differences and similarities do you see between Ulysses (26) and Guido (27)? Why
are they both punished as tongues of fire in the same ditch?
- Why does Dante take Ulysses' story so personally?
Cantos 31-32
- Why is a frozen lake an appropriate place for the punishment of traitors in the lowest circle
of hell? Describe the general contrapasso for treachery/betrayal.
- Find examples of Dante's "participation" in these cantos describing the circle of treachery.
Cantos 33-34
- Though pride does not earn itself its own circle, the Giants and Lucifer are proud figures who
appear divided, with only the top halves of their bodies visible to Dante and Virgil. Similarly,
half the bodies of Cassius, Judas, and Brutus are inside Lucifer's massive jaws. Count
Ugolino, on the other hand, is doubled with his mortal enemy, Archbishop Ruggieri. Can you
think of other divided or doubled figures entangled in Dante's infernal web of pride?
- How is Dante's remark on the treatment of Ugolino's children relevant? What does it tell us
about Dante--and is this Dante the poet or Dante the pilgrim who's speaking?
- Envy is the other capital sin not assigned a specific circle or region in Dante's hell. Do you
see evidence of envy in the final circle of hell? in previous circles?
- Why do you think stelle--"stars"--is the last word of all three parts of the Divine Comedy?
------------------------- As a relatively privileged European man of the late Middle Ages, Dante certainly shares despite his intellect and imagination - many views that we moderns might rightly consider
unenlightened. These could include religious and ethnic intolerance, a reductive attitude
toward women, and a heterosexist understanding of love and sexuality. In some respects - for
instance, his advocacy of the empire (and opposition to more democratic, republican ideas) he could be considered reactionary even for his own time and place.
While we might think of ourselves as enlightened, open-minded people today, what might our
descendants say about us a century or two from now?
What specific issues or attitudes do you think will change so much in the future that our
current views may come to be seen as "medieval"?