The framework of arguments
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Author
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Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Philosopher, politician, poet
Lived in Florence, Italy
White Guelph = reduction of church power
Exiled by Pope Boniface VIII
Wrote The Divine Comedy in 1315
Dante Alighieri
Literary Devices and Themes
PROPERTIES OF THE POEM
ATTRIBUTES OF THE POEM
 Satire
 Similes/Metaphors
 Irony
 Allegory
 Written In Italian
 Symbolism
 Vivid Imagery
 Beatrice
 Idioms
THEMES
 Animal nature of sin
 Justice
 Guilt
 Italian politics
 Logic v. Faith
Culture
3 Cultures in One Poem
2 “Real” Cultures
Christianity
Pagan
 Biblical References
 The culture of the Italy
 Mythical creatures
 Readers know the culture
 Myths
Manufactured Culture: Logic
 Belief in a logical order of the divine
 Contradicts the church
 Individual interaction with faith
We The People of Hell
Hell
Absolute rule of God
Law of Hell
Management by guilt
Evidence Supporting Dante
Plot and Literary Devices
Start of the Journey
 Lost in woods half way through life
 Stopped on way to eternal happiness
 Symbols of sin: she-wolf, lion, leopard
 Symbol of logic: Virgil
 Reassurance
 Simile Pattern
Lost in the woods
River Acheron
 Opportunists
 Idiom: Fallen Angles
 Idiom: Pope Celestine V
 Law of Hell
 Symbol: Charon
 Metaphor: Fainting
1st Circle: Limbo
 Unbaptized good pagans
 Eternity without hope
 Famous ancients brighter than others
 Some ascended into heaven
2nd Circle: Carnal Sin
 Minos
 People swept by passion forever caught in the wind
 Simile pattern
 Lovers tale
 Metaphor: Fainting
3rd Circle: Gluttons
 Dirty snow
 Cerberus
 Swollen and fat souls
 Ciacco’s prophecy
4th Circle: Hoarders and Wasters
 Idiom: Plutus
 Symbol: souls pushing rocks
 Clergy
 Symbol: Dame Fortune
5th Circle: Wrathful and Sullen
 Marsh of Styx
 Sullen entombed bellow mud
 Wrathful tear each other apart
 Phlegyas
 Metaphor: FilIippo Argenti
6th Circle: Heretics
 Symbol: Gates of Dis
 Symbol: Mosques
 Symbol: Medusa
 Symbol: Heavenly Messenger
 Heretics
 Farinata Degli Uberti
 Pope Anastasius
7th Circle: Violence Part 1:
Violence Against Neighbors
 Symbol: River of boiling blood
 Ancient conquers
 Centaurs
7th Circle: Violence Part 2:
Violence Against Self
 Forest of suicides
 Metaphor: Accidental pain
 Harpies
 Metaphor: speaking through blood
 Dogs
7th Circle: Violence Part 3:
Violence Against God Part 1:
Blasphemy
 Symbol: desert of fire
 Symbol: rain of fire
 Blasphemers
 Symbol: Old Man of Crete
7th Circle Part 3: Violence
Against God Part 2: Violence
Against Nature
 Sodomites
 Symbol: Brunetto Latino
 Running Off
7th Circle Part 3: Violence
Against God Part 3: Violence
Against Art
 Usury
 Coat of Arms
 Geryon
8th Circle: Fraud Part 1:
Panderers and Seducers
 Goaded by demons to run in endless circle
 Symbol: demons
 Symbol: horns
 Venedico Cacciamico
 Jason
8th Circle: Fraud Part 2: False
Flatters
 False flatters forever domed to wallow in boiling human
excrement
 Alessio Interminelli
 Thais
8th Circle: Fraud Part 3:
Simonacs
 Symbol: Simonacs upside down in holes
 Symbol: fire burns the soles of the sinners
 Symbol: Pope Nicholas III
 Prophecy
8th Circle: Fraud Part 4:
Fortune Tellers
 Symbol: twisted bodies of sinners
 Eyes blinded with tears
 Walking backwards
 Italian and Greek fortune tellers
8th Circle: Fraud Part 5:
Grafters
 Grafters stuck in tar
 Demons attack sinners who show themselves
 Senator of Lucca
 Dante's fear
 Symbol: demons
 Navarrese man
8th Circle: Fraud Part 6:
Hypocrites
 Symbol: lead clothing of the sinners
 Idiom: Caiaphas
 Jovial friars
8th Circle: Fraud Part 7:
Thieves
 Thieves in the dark bitten by snakes
 Symbol: snake
 Hands tied
 Sinners bursting into flames
 Vanni Fucci
 Prophecy
 Figs
 Noble Thieves of Florence
8th Circle: Fraud Part 8: Evil
Counselors
 Flames hiding sinners
 Symbol: flame
 Ulysses and Diomede
 Count Guido
8th Circle: Fraud Part 9: Sowers
of Discord
Religious
 Vivid Imagery
 Those who broke things
apart are ripped apart
 Muhammad and Ali
Political and Kin
 Historical politicians
 Man who started the
Guelph-Ghibelline war
 Berntrand de Borne
8th Circle: Fraud Part 10:
Falsifiers Division 1: Alchemists
 Diseased, immobile, and blind
 Idiom: Griffolino D’arezzo
 Idiom: Capocchio
8th Circle: Fraud Part 10:
Falsifiers Division 2:
Impersonators
 Impersonators running around attacking other sinners
 Idiom: Gianni Schicchi
 Idiom: Myrrha
8th Circle: Fraud Part 10:
Falsifiers Division 3:
Counterfeiters
 Idiom: Master Adam
 Thirst
8th Circle: Fraud Part 10:
Falsifiers Division 4: Liars
 Fevers
 Idiom: Potiphar’s Wife
 Idiom: Sinon
 Adam v. Sinon
 Dante’s repentance
Giants
 Idiom: Nimrod
 Idioms: Ephilaties, Briareus, Tityos, Typhon
 Antaeus
9th Circle: Serious Fraud Part
1: Family
 Ice
 Caina
 Punishment
 Alessandro and Napoleone Degli Alberti
9th Circle: Serious Fraud Part
2: Country
 Antenora
 Idiom: Bocca Delgi Abbati
 Metaphor: beating Bocca Delgi Abbati
 Count Ugolino and Archbishop Ruggieri
9th Circle: Serious Fraud Part
3: Guests
 Ptolomea
 Idiom: Friar Alberigo
 Idiom: Branca D’oria
 Severity of sin
9th Circle: Serious Fraud Part
4: Masters
 Judecca
 Not visible
Satan
 Three ugly heads
 Trapped in ice
 Generates cold winds
 Idiom: Judas
 Idiom: Brutus
 Idiom: Cassius
 Metaphor: Embracing Satan
Beating a Dead Horse in a Creative Way
REPETITION
REPETITION OF PATTERNS
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Division of hell (Christian culture)  monster/sinner (Greek culture)  punishment (logic
culture)
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Clergy
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Politics
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Shock the most people
STRUCTURE
Great Meaning Applied Subtlety
• Fainting in the first third circles of hell (sins of the she-wolf)
• Wishing a soul greater punishment
• Accidentally hurting a soul in the second third of Hell (sins of
the lion)
• Purposefully harming a soul in the finally third of Hell (sins of
the leopard)
• Climbing Lucifer
• The more thought involved, the greater the sin
• Relates to the progression of humanity
Solving Problems
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Understanding the severity of sin
Understanding the source of sin
Inferno
Identifying the people who sin
Purgatory
Correcting sin
Paradise
Better Future
Hell = Italy, Sin = Problems
Making Progress
It’s Funny it Really is!
Comedy in Context
The church holds to keys to heaven, yet
many sinners are the clergy
 Church says to not interpret the divine,
yet the church is mortal and interprets
the divine
 If Christianity is so original then why do
older cultures have the same ideas?
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Comedy Today
Dante’s contradictions
 Humanity’s contradictions
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Reading Recommendation
And reasons for it
READ THIS POEM
 Insightful
investigation of humanity
 Funny
 Ideas
are seen everywhere
Academy of American Poets. Dante Alighieri. n.d. HTML Document. 5 November 2011.
<http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1664>.
Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno. Trans. John Ciardi. Dante Alighieri, 1308. Book. 24 October 2011.
Ciardi, John. The Inferno. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: Signet Classics, 1954. Book. 24 October 2010.
LibriVox. The Divine Comedy. 20 January 2010. Sound. 6 November 2011. <http://librivox.org/the-divinecomedy-by-dante-alighieri/>.
Meyers, Rick. E-Sword. Franklin, 2012. Program. 6 November 2011.
Microsoft Corporation. Dante Alighieri. Redmond, 2009. DVD. 5 November 2011.
Paine, Thomas. The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology. Thomas Paine,
1794. Pamphlet. 12 November 2011. <http://www.ushistory.org/paine/reason/reason1.htm>.
Wetherbee, Winthrop. Dante Alighieri. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. 18 December 2009. Stanford University. Web
Encyclopedia. 5 November 2011. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dante/>.