Dante’s InfernoDante Alighieri (1265 – 1321)

Inferno completed in 1317

The Divine Comedy completed in 1321

Had an arranged marriage, but he was in love with another, his childhood sweetheart, Beatrice, who died in 1290.

Political ClimateTwo political parties:

Guelfs v/s Ghibellines

WIN = Blacks v/s Whites

WIN -- Exile Whites

(Dante)(Boniface)

Dante and the Churcho He saw the Church, under the leadership of

Pope Boniface VIII, as a corrupt institution wrongfully involved in temporal and political affairs. (Boniface exiled Dante from Florence in 1302 due to political differences.)

o He believed it should be God’s spiritual and ethical arm while the Empire executed God’s will on earth.

o Instead the Church, in Dante’s eyes, had lost sight of its original spiritual purpose.

Main Issues of Dante’s Inferno

oA means of addressing personal, social, political, and historical problems

o The afterlife as a symbol for the material realities, spiritual nature, and consequences of the secular world.

o Contrapasso: the sin equals the punishment; sinning is its own hell as it destroys the very life of the sinner

oA catharsis; a way for Dante to work out, and overcome, his anger.

oA confrontation with the problem of evil and the realization of evil in the self.

oA reassessment of the lives and deeds of the sinners in hell.

oQuestioning of various dogmas (an official system of principles concerning faith, morals, behavior, etc.)

o Implicit reinterpretation of the meaning of spiritual death and the second coming of Christ

o The ultimate challenge of the text is that of embracing love, forgiving and rejecting anger and evil; the reunion with Beatrice as a symbol of that accomplishment

Dante’s Poetic StructureTerza Rimathe rhyme scheme Dante invented for the 14,233 lines of his poem. aba bcb cdc ded … yzyz

The number of lines in any given canto is always a multiple of three (tercets) with one line left over.

Miscellaneous TermsBolgia

– a ditch of stone

Malebolgia – “Evil Pocket”Allegory - a symbolic narrative

(October 15, 70 B.C. – September 21, 19 B.C.)

Virgil's poetry became greatly admired by the Romans with his famous poem, the Aeneid, which is still regarded as a literary masterpiece today.

In Divine Comedy, Virgil serves as Dante's guide as he travels through Hell to the gates of Heaven. Virgil died in Brundisium, Italy, on September 21, 19 B.C.

Dante’s Guide – The Roman Poet Virgil