1. Learning 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.

2. The Inferno
By Dante Alighieri

3. 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

4. Dante Alighieri Biography
Role of Beatrice Portinari:
Met when they were children; Dante worshipped her his entire life.
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

5. 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

6. Dante Alighieri Biography
By 1302, Dante was a political exile from Florence.
BeganThe Divine Comedy after this exile.
Finished The Divine Comedy just before his death on September 14, 1321.

7. “a Florentine by birth, but not in manner” (Bergin 444).
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).

8. Historical Background
End of the Middle Ages: God-centered; lived on earth to get into Heaven
Beginning of Renaissance: Man-centered; rebirth of learning

9. Historical Background
The Renaissance influenced all of western civilization
Trade flourished and prosperity thrived
Florence became the richest of the Italian city-states
Italy had a wealth of conflicts
Many political units and power struggles existed

10. Historical Background
The Guelph Political party (which favored independence & the Popes) and the Ghibelline Political party (which favored control by the Holy Roman Empire) were two political rival factions.

11. 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.

12. Historical Background
While Dante was out of town, the Blacks took over Florence and 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

13. “Father of the Italian Language”
The work was written in Italian, not the Latin of most other important writing.
Political beliefs = Unity
Dante felt a universal language would help unify the country

14. Dante’s Inferno: Introduction
Dante felt the church of his time was no longer serving 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
The Divine Comedy was not titled as such by Dante; his title for the work was simply Commedia or Comedy

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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

18. 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

19. LITERARY DEVICES

20. ALLEGORY
A story whose literal plot deals entirely in symbols, instilling the story with a second level of meaning implied by, but broader than, the events of the narrative

21. Allegory in Inferno
Part of Medieval literary tradition
“Everyman” character undergoes trials and tribulations in his search to find the soul’s true path in life
Dante’s connection: all people know some form of sin and may become lost; must find a path to salvation

22. Tercet 3-Line Stanza: “Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray
from the straight road and woke to find myself
alone in a dark wood. How shall I” (4)

23. Intertemporality The mingling of elements from different time periods
Dante’s characters can see beyond their time on Earth because in death they exist outside of time
Part of the medieval tradition; Ex: Biblical characters were regularly represented in art as wearing medieval clothing

24. System of judgment and punishments applicable to the sins committed
Contrapasso
“Suffer the Opposite”
System of judgment and punishments applicable to the sins committed