1 / 10

Inferno can/should be read on two levels: 1. Literal 2. Symbolic

Inferno can/should be read on two levels: 1. Literal 2. Symbolic . ALLEGORY: Characters, settings, and events standing or abstract or moral concepts. What’s it about?. In the Inferno , Dante is showing the state of the soul after death based on the choices made during life. . Why?.

teige
Download Presentation

Inferno can/should be read on two levels: 1. Literal 2. Symbolic

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Inferno can/should be read on two levels:1. Literal2. Symbolic ALLEGORY: Characters, settings, and events standing or abstract or moral concepts

  2. What’s it about? In the Inferno, Dante is showing the state of the soul after death based on the choices made during life.

  3. Why? • Why would he tell this story? • As a warning • To show people the error of their ways • To turn readers in the right direction • To get some kind of revenge

  4. How? • Symbolic numbers 3! 3 books 33 cantos written in terzarima Hell divided into 9 circles– vestibule makes 10 3 main divisions of Hell Same basic structure in Purgatorio and Paradiso

  5. 3 main divisions of sin Incontinence: • Failure to restrain Violence: • Physical and spiritual Fraudulence: • Gaining and breaking trust

  6. What does it look like? • Large • Funnel shaped • Center beneath Jerusalem • “light” sins near top, with more serious toward bottom • Punishments fit the crime (contrapasso)

  7. Tourguide Virgil • Sent by Beatrice. • Roman poet who died 19 yrs. before the birth of Christ • Wrote The Aeneid • For Dante, Virgil is ultimate symbol of what human reason can achieve without faith • He is in first circle of Hell

  8. Main difference between Dante and Virgil… While Dante respects Virgil for his use of reason (logic/fact) to arrive at truth, he sees reason as limited. Dante believes it is only through faith that one can grasp the truth of Paradise.

  9. Back to the 2 levels • Literal • Dante is lost in the woods, is confronted by three beasts when he attempts to climb the Mount of Joy, thereby causing him to want to give up. • Virgil appears and offers to take him a more difficult way, through the Inferno, through Purgatory, and only then will he be able to make it to Paradise

  10. Back to the 2 levels • Allegory • Dante is depressed and confused, struggling with sins of incontinence, violence, and fraudulence. Just when he is about to give up, human reason tells him that in order to get where he truly wants to go and be happy, he must first recognize his sinfulness and then renounce it. Only then will he be saved.

More Related