DANTE ALIGHIERI1265-1321

"Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them. There is no third." (T. S. Eliot)

DANTE

•Dante Alighieri is generally considered the greatest of Italian poets•With the comic storyteller Boccaccio and the poet Petrarch, he forms the classic trio of Italian authors.•His reputation is primarily based upon The Divine Comedy.

BOOK INFORMATION

Title: The Inferno

From: The Divine Comedy

Author: Dante Alighieri

Date: 1314 (ish)

Genre: Epic Poem

DANTE ALIGHIERI – THE FORMATIVE YEARS . . .

Born 1265 Rich & well connected family Raised Roman Catholic in Florence

Educated in both Christian and Classical works such as the Bible, Virgil’s Aeneid, and the works of Aristotle

DANTE

His mother died when he was young.His father, whom he rarely mentioned, remarried

and had two more children.As a young man served in the army and eventually received appointments as an

ambassador

Was writing poetry, getting famous, and becoming an important person within the city of Florence . . .

MEDIEVAL FLORENCE

MEDIEVAL FLORENCE, ITALY

Pop. 100,000

Tightly Packed: Socially Diverse- Nobility, Middle Class, and Poor lived close together.

Intensely Political Issues 1215 two families quarreled over an arranged marriage. Factions also argued over political power.

THE GUELPHS & GHIBELLINES

Florence was a city divided by two groups: the Guelphs and Ghibellines.

Dante and his family were aligned with the Guelphs. The Guelphs- Supported the Pope as a political as well as religious authority. The Ghibellines- Supported the German Emperor as Leader.

Prior to 1300, the Guelphs gained political control of the city.

MEDIEVAL FLORENCE, ITALY

Pop. 100,000

Tightly Packed: Socially Diverse- Nobility, Middle Class, and Poor lived close together.

Intensely Political Issues 1215 two families quarreled over an arranged marriage. Factions also argued over political power.

In around 1299, The Guelphs broke up into two groups over the power of the Pope in Florence White Guelphs (anti-Pope) Dante Black Guelphs (pro-Pope)

In 1301 the Black Guelphs defeated the White Guelphs and took over Florence

In 1302, Dante was charged with hostility against the Pope and sentenced to being burned at the stake for his involvement with the White Guelphs.

He fled his beloved Florence and spent the rest of his days in Exile.

DANTE IN EXILE

From 1302 until his death in 1321, exiled from Florence His wife chose to stay in Florence with their children and he never was able to see

them again Think of Romeo’s exile from Verona

Moved about from court to court and stayed as a guest to various princes during his time in exile

It was during his exile that he wrote The Divine Commedia, a poem which recounted his journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise

The Inferno was so realistic that people were heard to mutter, “There is the one who passed through hell unscathed” as he passed by

Began the Divine Comedy in 1307

Ended in 1320

Died 1321 in Ravenna, Italy

BASIC QUESTIONS

Why Does Man Act the Way he does?

What is the Nature of Good and Evil?

Why should anyone be Good?

What is Justice?

How should Man be Governed?

How does Spiritual Transformation occur?

Why read or write Poetry? What is Art and what is it for?

MEDIEVAL PERIOD: 14TH CENTURYAccepted Concepts/Truths: Polarity- Extreme opposites. 1. Church vs. State (Pope vs. Emperor)

German Emperor Frederick Hohenstaufen tried to assert control around 1220. 2. Theology (Religion) vs. Philosophy (Science and Math) 3. Brutish man vs. Angelic Man (Man is ½ way between Angels and Animals) 4. High Language (Latin) vs. Low Language (Vernacular) Personal realism (Life-like) vs. Symbolism (allegory)

ROMAN CATHOLIC BACKGROUND

3 Divisions of Afterlife

1. Heaven- Paradiso

2. Purgatory- Purgatorio

3. Hell- Inferno

HIERARCHY OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD- BASED ON THE ASTRONOMY OF THE TIME.

1. Moon

2. Mercury

3. Venus

4. Sun

5. Mars

6. Jupiter

7. Saturn

8. Starry heaven

9. Prime Mobile

10. Empyrean

DANTE’S VISION OF THE AFTERLIFE

The closer you are to God- the closer will be your eternal resting place in the afterlife.

Hell: Center of the Earth (farthest from God)

Purgatory: Mountain of Earth

Heaven: Highest Point of the Mountain (closest to God)

THE DIVINE COMEDY

Three Divisions

1. Inferno

2. Purgatorio

3. Paradiso

LANGUAGE AND STYLELow Style: Bawdy language/slang; grotesque imagery.High Style: Elevated language. Poetic.Academic Language: LatinVernacular: ItalianDante Used: Italian, VernacularUse of Language follows journey: Low to High. 14th Century Slang: Dante’s use of slang was shocking

to his audiences.Polarity of Language: Shows the various possibilities

of language

THE INFLUENCE OF ARISTOTLE

INFLUENCE OF ARISTOTLE

During the Middle Ages, Aristotle was the one classical philosopher that the Europeans kept studying

His focus on precision, categorizing, and detail became the hallmarks of scholarship during the Middle Ages

Everything has a place Each detail builds on the next

“The Great Chain of Being” Idea formed during the Middle Ages, influenced by Aristotelian logic Everything is connected, like links in a chain, from the lowliest element to God sitting on the throne of

Heaven; every creation has its place and they are all ordered from worst to best

THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING

ARISTOTLE’S DEFINITION OF TRAGEDY

“A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language;… in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.”

Aristotle’s argument is that a tragedy was a work in elevated language that started happily and ended in horror.

DANTE’S COMEDY TURNS THAT DEFINITION ON ITS HEAD.

Comedy: Has a successful ending (no one dies)

For Dante, comedy meant a work written in unadorned language that started in sorrow and ended in joy.

Hero of Dramatic Comedy: The hero desires a specific outcome in the face of conflict with specific people or elements standing in his or her way.

Action: Overcoming the obstacles the hero faces, whatever they may be.

Resolution: The hero overcomes his obstacles

The Divine Comedy: Dante’s journey to Heaven to reach Beatrice and God.

THE EPIC

The Epic: a long narrative of grand scale involving superhuman heroes upon whom the world depends

In Medias Res: in the middle of the action

Dante bends the rules of the epic:

Elevated Language: Some of Dante’s Inferno is written in elevated language

As his travels to the depths of Hell lead him away from God, so does his language deteriorate as he writes more in the lower vernacular (Italian)

Super human heroes: Dante is merely a human poet

NOT because: Dante desires to convey that Heaven is accessible to everyone.

THE EPIC CONTINUED…

Grand Scale: The Divine Comedy covers the entire universe – from Hell to Heaven

World depends on hero’s success: This is not necessarily so. Dante shows that with perseverance all men can make it Heaven, but he does not “save” the world.

Literal Level: Dante’s journey does not affect anyone

Allegorical Level: Points the way to Heaven for all of us

The Quest:

Mythic hero’s quest: The hero discovers a problem, and takes dangerous journey to find a solution. Upon completing his journey , he gains a prize or knowledge.

Dante’s quest: Dante must find the way to salvation and Heaven. To do so he must journey through Hell and Purgatory into Heaven to see God. He brings back understanding and knowledge to show people the way to Heaven.

STRUCTURE:

Mystical/Religious significance of NUMBERS

THREE: The Trinity

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

The three beasts: fraud, violence, incontinence

NINE: square of 3

TEN: the perfect number (trinity squared + 1 for unity of Trinity)

ONE HUNDRED: Ten squared

Dante’s purpose represented by the use of complex structure.

Dante’s purpose was to write about:

God

perfection

the ideal unity of the universe

Divine Comedy’s complex design = God’s complex design of the universe

Example of Dante’s use of mystical numbers:

3 parts of the Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso

33 cantos (verse chapters) in each part

With 1 canto of introduction = 100 cantos altogether

Written in terza rima = 3 line stanzas (tercet)

(aba bcb cdc)

3 basic categories of sin

9 circles of Hell

With the Vestibule = 10 “levels” of Hell

THE PLOT

Dante’s journey from earth through the 10 levels of Hell to the very bottom