How does Dante use his life and his times in the Inferno?

 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 faction 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  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!

 After Dante’s party lost power, he was sentence to two years of exile and and a fine  Dante refuses to pay the fine on principle, 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 The Purgatorio The Paradiso Each book consists of 33 Cantos, or sections

 The first book of the Divine Comedy  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

 The second book of the Divine Comedy  Dante travels through Purgatory and learns what he must do to live a life free of sin  Describes the Earth as being round

 The final book of the Divine Comedy  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, The Odyssey, The Aeneid  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

 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 humanity’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 and Purgatory.

 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

 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  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 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.

 Self-Indulgence Lustful Gluttonous Greedy Bad-tempered  Heresy  Violence  Maliciousness Fraud Treachery