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Dante’s Inferno

Dante’s Inferno. Dante Alighieri. Lived from 1265-1321 Native of Florence, Italy Was politically active Left town during a civil war. While gone, his enemies took power and sentenced him to die. He was exiled and never returned to his beloved Florence. Dante Alighieri.

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Dante’s Inferno

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  1. Dante’s Inferno

  2. Dante Alighieri • Lived from 1265-1321 • Native of Florence, Italy • Was politically active • Left town during a civil war. While gone, his enemies took power and sentenced him to die. • He was exiled and never returned to his beloved Florence.

  3. Dante Alighieri • Believed in a separation of church and state. • The church should be purified and run by the Pope. • The church should be the spiritual authority for men. • The pope should stay out of politics and leave the ruling of a new Roman empire to politicians.

  4. Dante Alighieri • Wrote The Divine Comedy while in exile in Florence. • It chronicles Dante’s own fictional journey toward redemption from a world of darkness. • Dante used his religious beliefs as well as his political beliefs in creating his view of hell, purgatory and heaven.

  5. The Divine Comedy – Divina Commedia • Comedy (commedia) – poems in Dante’s day were divided into two categories: • High= Tragedy • Low= Comedy • Low used the language of the everyday man. Dante wrote the poem in the “vulgar” Italian, rather than the classical Latin. • Low poems were known for having a happy ending • The “comedy” does NOT mean it is funny.

  6. The Divine Comedy • Considered perhaps the greatest piece of world literature ever written. • Epic poem – covering a long journey • Allegory – a device used to present an idea, principle or meaning using symbolic figures and extended metaphor. • Symbol – a person or thing represents a specific idea • Metaphor – a comparison of two unlike things without using like or as (one thing IS another – He is a pig. She is a toothpick.)

  7. Three Canticles • Inferno - Hell • Purgatorio - Purgatory • Paradiso - Heaven

  8. The Journey • Dante as a character is tired in the “dark wood” of the real world. It is a world filled with sin and darkness and he needs guidance. • He is watched from heaven by the Virgin Mary and Beatrice (his “ideal woman” - a woman whom he loved from afar, but who died). • They send the poet Virgil, who lived in Limbo, to help guide him on his journey. • The journey is meant to save Dante’s soul and turn him from sin and error in the future.

  9. Representations/Symbols • Dark Wood – A Dark Sinful World • Dante – Mankind • Virgil – Human Reason (our ability to think rationally) • Beatrice – Divine Revelation – the ability to see God • Human reason can only guide you so far; it takes Divine Revelation to get you to heaven.

  10. Hell • Nine levels • Funnel shaped • Different punishments for each level of hell • No one exits any level of hell beyond level one. • Dante peopled his levels of hell with actual people that he knew as well as his political enemies.

  11. Nine Levels • Vestibule - Opportunists • 1- Limbo – Virtuous Pagans (Virgil lives here) • 2- Lust • 3 – Gluttony • 4- Greed • 5- Anger • 6- Heresy • 7- Violence • 8- Fraud • 9- Treachery/Betrayal

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