1. 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
His great love was 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.
Most likely began The Divine Comedy after this exile.

7. Dante Alighieri Biography
Dante finished The Divine Comedy just before his death on September 14, 1321.
Still in exile
Perhaps 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. Dante’s Inferno: 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. Dante’s Inferno: Historical Background
The Renaissance influenced all of western civilization
Trade flourished and prosperity thrived throughout much of the country
Florence became the richest of the Italian city-states
Italy had a wealth of conflicts

10. Dante’s Inferno: Historical Background
Multiple political units existed as a result of internal struggles for power and European states vying for influence.
The Guelph Political party (which favored independence & the Popes) and the Ghibelline Political party (which favored control by the Holy Roman Empire) were two such rival factions.

11. Dante’s Inferno: Historical Background
At the time of Dante’s birth in 1265, the Guelph party (Independence) was in control of Florence
Dante turned away from his Guelph heritage to embrace the imperial philosophy of the Ghibellines (H.R.E.)
His change in politics is best summed up in his treatise De Monarchia in which Dante states his belief in the separation of church and state.
The Ghibellines, however, were pushed from power by the Guelphs during Dante’s adulthood and confined to northern Tuscany.

12. Dante’s Inferno: Historical Background
The Guelph political party eventually divided into two groups: The Whites & The Blacks
Dante became a member of the Whites and served as an ambassador to talk with the Pope in Rome about conditions in Florence.

13. Dante’s Inferno: 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.

14. Dante’s Inferno: Introduction
The Divine Comedy was not titled as such by Dante; his title for the work was simply Commedia or Comedy.
Dante’s use of the word “comedy” is medieval by definition and meant ‘a tale with a happy ending,’ not a funny story as the word has since come to mean.

15. Dante’s Inferno: Introduction
The work was a major departure from the literature of the day since it was written in Italian, not the Latin of most other important writing.
Political beliefs = Unity
He felt a universal language would help unify the country

16. Allegory of the process of the individual’s search for God
Dante’s Inferno: Introduction
Dante felt the church of his time was no longer serving God
Allegory of the process of the individual’s search for God
Allusions: 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

20. Dante’s Inferno
Dante and Virgil enter the wide gates of Hell and descend through the nine circles of Hell.
In each circle they see sinners being punished for their sins on Earth; Dante sees the torture as Divine justice.

21. 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

22. Dante’s Inferno: Introduction
On Easter Sunday, Dante emerges from Hell.
Through his travels, he has found his way to God and is able, once more, to look upon the stars.

23. 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