Background on Dante and Early Cantos (I-IX)

Background on Dante and Early Cantos
The editors of the book give a good summary of each individual canto, but you must not stop there. I want you to give this work a close reading.

I love Dante's work and I hope that you will too. Ultimately, you will write a contemporary "Inferno," a fictional work that is modeled after Dante's in which the characters (except your first-person narrator) are all deceased and a place (determined by you) that is hierarchically arranged from the least sins to the worst. The characters may be taken from history or they may be fictional "types," archetypes or stereotypes, allegorical figures that represent something negative about our human condition.

Let me begin with some background information. Dante is a product of the Middle Ages but he also has qualities that are much more representative of the Renaissance. Anyone who has studied art history knows that the Italian Renaissance began earlier than the Renaissance in other parts of Europe. To understand what this means, I will compare the movement in art with the movement in literature.

There are two terms it is important to understand: allegory and humanism. They provide the fundamental differences in form. The Medieval form was allegorical; the Renaissance form was much more humanistic.

From Webster's Collegiate Dictionary:

Allegory: 1. the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truth or generalizations about human experience--also, an instance (as in a story or painting) of such expression. 2. a symbolic representation: emblem. From Medieval allegorie, French (Latin origins allegoria, Greek allegoria, French allegorein to speak figuratively, French allos +egorein to speak publicly, French agora assembly.

In the Middle Ages, the visual and written arts were primarily allegorical. If you look at a Medieval painting, everything is there for a specific reason. The tallest figures are the most important. Also, the most important figures are usually depicted in the most expensive colors. For example, in the many if not most depictions of the Madonna, she wears blue. Blue paint was made from ground-up lapis lazuli and it was the most expensive paint available. The Madonna was very important to Medieval Christians.

In many depictions of Jesus on the cross where he was crucified, you will see a skull directly below it. The skull represents Adam and the fall of mankind. The dying Jesus represents rebirth for Christians.

The Medieval man or woman lived not for this world of pain and suffering, but for the next world. He/she was not an individualist, but a selfless member of a community.

If you haven't already, you will very likely one day read the play, "Everyman," by "Anonymous." By the way, most early Medieval art works are not signed by the artist. That would have been considered a form of self-glorification and a vanity. In "Everyman," the title character encounters other characters. I'll just list them: MESSENGER, GOD, DEATH, EVERYMAN, FELLOWSHIP, KINDRED, COUSIN, GOODS, GOOD DEEDS, KNOWLEDGE, CONFESSION, BEAUTY, STRENGTH, DISCRETION, FIVE WITS, ANGEL, DOCTOR. It's pretty straightforward.

Medieval art sought to instruct people on how to live so that they might reap the rewards and avoid the hazards of eternity. It was, in a sense, black-and-white. This is bad, that is good--period. Medieval art dismisses the human condition as temporary. We suffer while we are here, but we might as well not worry about it because we are only here (especially during the Middle Ages when the average life span was much shorter) for a brief time.

Now for humanism, something that primarily characterizes the Renaissance mind:

Humanism: 1. a. devotion to the humanities: literary culture b. the revival of classical letters,individualistic and critical spirit, and emphasis on secular concerns characteristic of the Renaissance 2. HUMANITARIANISM 3. a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values; esp: a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual's dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason.

Renaissance artists signed their work. They also explored what the Medieval man or woman would have considered a vanity--the fragile human condition. The Renaissance artist both celebrated and lamented our human condition. He created figures that looked like real people, and depicted not just the lives of the saints, but also the lives of the sinners (all human beings). The Renaissance artist shows empathy; the Medieval artist judges and often condemns.

Dante's Divine Comedy is highly allegorical. But it is also humanistic. While each of the sinners that Dante meets are "stock" figures, they are also human and frail. We are supposed to identify with them so that we might avoid the same fate. So I really want you to look at the dialogue in this work and the physical interactions (including any kind of movement or facial expression). We feel sorry for one character; we find ourselves cheering when Dante or Virgil slaps or berates another. Dante effectively uses dialogue and gestures and movement in general in a way that makes the characters much more three-dimensional than the characters ofEveryman.

Also remember that Dante wrote in the vernacular. That is significant to understanding this work.

Other terms that are useful to know are:

Incontinence: a loss of control. Sins of incontinence are not considered as bad as sins of intent. Falling in love with the wrong person would be a sin of incontinence. Saying something hateful or even striking another in a heated moment would be another one. It's still a sin, but it's a sin we can understand because we have all surrendered to something like this in a moment of passion.

Venial Sin: the lesser kind of sin and even lesser than incontinence. Whenever we cause harm, we sin, but sometimes we cause harm without realizing that we have done so. If I joke with you and it hurts your feelings but you do not tell me this, I have committed a venial sin. If you tell me, however, I must acknowledge the harm you have done and ask for your forgiveness. Not to do so would cause the transgression to become a mortal sin.

Mortal Sin: Essentially, a sin of intent. There are many degrees of mortal sin, but all involve a consciousness of the wrongness being perpetuated. The worst kinds of mortal sins are embraced and even celebrated by the sinner. The worst kinds also usually involve getting someone else involved in a way that might condemn him/her for eternity. Hamlet does this a lot. He does it when he engages his friends to keep silent about what they know; he does it when he makes sure that Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are not allowed shriving time.When was Virgil born?

What does Virgil say when Dante asks his beloved poet why he, of all people is in the Inferno?

Note Dante's emotional response to seeing him in lines 79 - 84.

Note also how the she-wolf is characterized shortly after the above lines mentioned.

How is it that Virgil "rebelled against his law"? Whose law? And again, how?

Canto II

What is the day of the week? What is the significance of this day?

How is it that Virgil has come to intercede on Dante's behalf? Who came to Virgil in order for him to do so?

What must lead Dante to Divine Love?

What do the various female figures represent? The Virgin Mary, Saint Lucia, Rachel

How does Virgil answer when Dante asks, "Am I worthy?"

Virgil also chides him for his cowardice. People of faith are not supposed to be afraid. It is a sign of doubt. Dante's fear is a sign of the author's humanism. Note what Beatrice told Virgil: "'...I will say briefly only / how I have come through Hell's pit without fear. / Know then, O waiting and compassionate soul, / that is to fear which has the power to harm, and nothing else is fearful even in Hell. / I am so made by God's all-seeing mercy / your anguish does not touch me, and the flame / of this great burning has no power upon me."


Canto I--The Dark Wood of Error

Know what it represents. Know what the Sun represents.

Know when it takes place--specifically--what time of year.

Know about the Three Beasts of Worldliness and what each represents.

Know how old the narrator is at this point.

Know the name of his guide and the name of the other guide and the limitations of human reason.

Know what the three parts of The Divine Comedy represent. Hell--the Recognition of sin, etc.

Terms:
Grace: God's forgiveness, available to all that seek it. If you seek it, no matter how bad your deeds, you will be forgiven and redeemed (able to go to Heaven). Since Dante is a Medieval Christian, he also believed in Purgatory. But Purgatory means that you eventually get to go to Heaven. In Hell, you do not--ever.

Significant quotes in Canto I:

"I never so so drear, / so rank, so arduous a wilderness." Wilderness = wildness, a lack of cultivation and therefore it has negative connotations. Remember what we talked about earlier in the year. Order = good/godliness; disorder/chaos = demonic/evil in western literature and mythology

Know why he tells the story: "But since it came to good, I will recount / all that I found revealed there by God's grace." Remember too, that it's called The Divine Comedy because it has a happy ending--in Heaven.

Notice the wonderful similes and metaphors too. And the verbs. And nouns and adjectives and adverbs! Picture what he describes. Use your senses. You will be imitating that in your ownInfernos.

"Just as a swimmer, who with his last breath / flounders ashore from perilous seas, might turn / to memorize the wide water of his death...."

Also note all the Astrological references. Though Astrology was a forbidden art (and astrologers are in Hell), it was very popular. Your date and time of birth was supposed to have an impact on your personality. They called this your humors. You were predisposed to be melancholy or jolly; that did not mean a life-sentence. If your humor was one way, you could overcome it by making yourself react another way. Astrology/ astronomy was also used to describe the time of day and year.
"This fell at the first widening of the dawn / as the sun was climbing Aries with those stars...."

More descriptive passages:

"I faced a spotted Leopard, all tremor and flow / and gaudy pelt."

"Yet not so much but what I shook with dread / at sight of a great Lion that broke upon me / raging with hunger, its enormous head / held high as if to strike a mortal terrorinto the very air."

"And down his track, / a She-Wolf drove upon me, a starved horror / ravening and wasted beyond all belief. / She seemed a rack for avarice, gaunt and craving. / Oh many the souls she has brought to endless grief!"

Note that it's a She-wolf. That's because women were thought to be more vulnerable to sins of incontinence--sins like falling in love with the wrong person. Trace it back to Eve--from Adam and Eve. Medieval women were viewed as potential temptresses.

Again, note the wonderful simile/metaphor: "And like a miser--eager in acquisition / butdesperate in self-reproach when Fortune's wheel / turns to the hour of his loss--all tears and attrition / I wavered back; and still the beast pursued, /forcing herself against me bit by bit / till I slid back into the sunless wood."

Oh, and look at this exquisite description of Dante's beloved poet-guide. Look at the feeling this passage evokes:

"And as I fell to my soul's ruin, a presence / gathered before me on the discolored air, the figure of one who seemed hoarse from long silence."

What could be more pitiful than a silent poet?



Remember: You are to have read the background on Dante and Cantos I - V by Wednesday / Thursday. Also, remember to bring your vocabulary books on Wednesday / Thursday.

Canto III

Know who resides here and how they are punished and why they are punished in this way. This pertains to all the cantos.

Know the meaning of symbolic retribution--very important.

Which pope resides here? Why?

What is the name of the ferryman?

Note how Dante swoons at the end.

Look at the sign at the entrance to this place:

I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE. --Pain, but also the absence of God's love
I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE. --Keep in mind they chose their fates. It was
not God's choice, but theirs--free will
I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW.
SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT.

I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE, --I made myself important; I knew it all.
PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT. --I succumbed to my passions and be-
lieved that my intellect could get me
out of anything.
ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEAR --Read footnote
WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND --Read footnote
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE. --Read footnote

Note Virgil's response in lines 14-18:

"'Here must you put by all division of spirit / and gather your soul against all cowardice. / This is the place I told you to expect. / Here you shall pass among the fallen people, / souls who have lost the good of intellect.'"

Remember that intellect is part of our divine nature. But we can use it, as these people have, to consider ourselves divine. When we do this, when we deem ourselves gods, then we can justify a lot of bad behavior.

Now note this characterization between Virgil and a frightened Dante:
"So saying, he put forth his hand to me, / and with a gentle and encouraging smile / he led me through the gates of mystery."

Now note how Dante paints a picture of this place. Note the nouns, verbs, allusions (Tower of Babel, for one), and the simile. Try to imagine this--the sights and sounds:
"Here sighs and cries and wails coiled and recoiled / on the starless air, spilling my soul to tears. / A confusion of tongues and monstrous accents toiled / in pain and anger. Voices hoarse and shrill / and sounds of blows, all intermingled, raised / tumult and pandemonium that still / whirls on the air forever dirty with it / as if a whirlwind sucked at sand."

Who also lives in this place of the "'nearly soulless"? What does Virgil mean by the "nearly soulless"?

Note Virgil's response to their fates: "'They have no hope of death,' he answered me, / 'and in their blind and unattaining state / their miserable lives have sunk so low / that they must envyevery other fate.'"

In other words, even Hell doesn't want them.

Now, this next line is very important because it is going to resonate throughout Dante's journey. Many of the sinners that we meet suffer because they fear that no one will ever remember them, that their name will die not long after their bodies have died. Remember what I said about Hamlet's father being not in Purgatory, but in Hell, because of this:

Virgil: "'No word of them survives their living season. / Mercy and Justice deny them even a name. / Let us not speak of them: look, and pass on.'"

Even Virgil dismisses them!

Next, Dante notices the people running with the banners. "circling and circling, it seemed to scorn all pause." --Remind you a little of one of the lines from "The Second Coming"?

The next line was actually used by the other great poet of his time, T. S. Eliot, in his masterwork, "The Wasteland":

"I had not thought death had undone so many / as passed before me in that mournful train."

What is Dante saying here? Why is he saying it? What is his message to the world?

Know the story behind the Great Denial (line 57--read the footnotes)

Name and describe the ferryman. Know the name of the river they are about to cross.

Pay attention to that wonderful description between lines 94-97.

Pay special attention to the footnote that describes the souls in hell: "Divine Justice transforms and spurs them so / their dread turns wish: they yearn for what they fear."

CANTO IV, CIRCLE ONE: LIMBO--THE VIRTUOUS PAGANS

Who are the Virtuous Pagans? What is this place like? It doesn't seem so bad, but Dante and his peers would have considered it bad, mainly because these people cannot be one with God.

You should know the various people they meet here and how these people pay special tribute to our narrator. These people are illuminated by what?

What is the Dolorous Abyss? What does Dante see?

How does Virgil physically react to this?

Note Dante's fear: "'How can I go this way when you / who are my strength in doubt turn pale with terror?'"

Note Virgil's somewhat defensive response: "'The pain of these below us here, / drains the color from my face for pity, / and leaves this pallor you mistake for fear.'"

Do you think that Virgil means this or do you think he says that to assuage Dante's fears?

How is Limbo different from Hell?

What does Virgil say about the Old Testament patriarchs and matriarchs? How have these men and women escaped Virgil's fate?

Note footnote 2 on line 53.

Who else, besides the poets, resides here? What three main groups reside here?

CANTO V--THE CARNAL

These are guilty of sins of incontinence, which is why they reside in one of the upper levels of Hell. The primary sinners here--the ones interviewed by Dante and Virgil--are Paolo and Francesca. Read their story in the accompanying footnotes. Note too, that they, like many subsequent sinners we will meet, blame their sin on something or someone else. In this case, it was a "dirty" book--the story of the illicit and adulterous love between Queen Guinevere and SirLauncelot.

Who is Minos? What is his job?

Note this wonderful description: "That is to say, when the ill-fated soul / appears before him it confesses all, / and that grim sorter of the dark and foul/ decides which place n Hell shall be its end, / then wraps his twitching tail about himself / one coil for each degree it must descend."

Again, note the wonderful similes, nouns and verbs. Note too (the whirling) and how that compares to Yeats's poem, "The Second Coming":

"Now the choir of anguish, like a wound, / strikes through the tortured air....I came to a place stripped bare of every light / and roaring on the naked dark like seas / wracked by a war of winds. Their hellish flight / of storm and counterstorm through time foregone, /sweeps the souls of the damned before its charge. / Whirling and battering it drives them on, /and when they pass the ruined gap of Hell / through which we had come, their shrieks begin anew."

These next lines remind me of Hamlet--the fact that he succumbs to his passions or appetites, rather than listening to his God-given reason:

"And this, I learned, was the never ending flight / of those who sinned in the flesh, the carnal and lusty / who betrayed reason to their appetite."

Now for some more Yeats-like lines and some wonderful metaphors and diction:

"As the wings of wintering starlings bear them on / in their great wheeling flights, just so the blast / wherries these evil souls through time foregone....As cranes go over sounding their harsh cry, leaving the long streak of their flight in air, so come these spirits,wailing as they fly."

Read the footnotes and know the names of some of the sinners condemned to this place.

How does Dante react (emotionally) to these sinners? Why?

Finally he meets Paolo and Francesca. Note Francesca's answer: "'The double grief of a lost bliss / is to recall its happy hour in pain.'" What does she mean by this?

Read her history in the footnotes. Note too, how she blames her transgression on a forbidden book. She even calls the book "'a pander.'" What is a pander and how does it apply?



Reading quiz on Cantos VI - XV (6-15). Finish, sign the pledge and turn into the teacher.
Next, begin reading Cantos XVI - XXIII (16 -23). There may be a reading quiz on Wednesday/ Thursday. Remember to bring your vocabulary books on Wednesday/Thursday. Vocabulary review exercises for 13-15 will be due on Friday.

Things to Note in Book VI (6)
As usual, note who is here and how they are punished. Know what the place looks, sounds, and smells like. Note the mythical creature(s) here. Who is Cerberus? Note the main sinner here and how Dante regards him--with contempt, indifference, or pity? Look closely at the text. This is still the realm of the incontinent. Think about what that means here.

Note the description of Cerberus: "His eyes are red, his beard is greased with phlegm, his belly is swollen, and his hands are claws to rip the wretches and flay and mangle them" (16-18).

I'll bet Yeats may have borrowed the next lines for his poem, "The Second Coming":

And they, too, howl like dogs in the freezing storm, / turning and turning from it as if they thought / one naked side could keep the other warm."

Remember too: Hell is gyre shaped.

Now note the wonderful description of Cerberus:
"When Cerberus discovered us in that swill / his dragon-jaws yawed wide, his lips drew back / in a grin of fangs. No limb of him was still" (22-24).

Again, note how Dante treats this sinner. Know too, that we learn here, in the footnotes, that while sinners can see the past and prophesy the future, they cannot see the present. Pay attention to the sinner's prophesy.

This character is also the first we encounter to ask to be remembered on Earth. "But when you move among the living/ oh speak my name to the memory of men!" Note what the footnote in your book says about this. And remember how this is one reason that I think Hamlet's father is actually in Hell.

Canto VII (7)
Which sinners are in Circle 4? Which are in Circle 5? What is a hoarder? Compare to the wasters. What is the difference between the wrathful and the sullen?

Know how each is punished and why each is punished in this particular way.

Again, note the great diction: "Plutus clucked and stuttered in his rage" (2).
Great, descriptive verbs!

Note the simile. Note also the dialogue--Virgil to Dante and then to the sinners (notice the difference in diction but also in tone): "'Do not be startled, for no power of his, / however he may lord it over the damned, / may hinder your descent through this abyss.' / And turning to that carnival of bloat / cried: 'Peace, you wolf of Hell. Choke back your bile / and let its venom blister your own throat. / Our passage through this pit is willed on high/ by that same Throne that loosed the angel wrath of Michael on ambition and mutiny.' / As puffed out sails fall when the mast gives way / and flutter to a self-convulsing heap--so collapsed Plutusinto that dead clay" (4-15).

Notice the mythical allusions (consider the Odyssey). Why can't Dante recognize some of these sinners? What is Virgil's explanation?

Canto VIII (8)

Who is Phlegyas? Describe him.

Who is Filippo Argenti? How does Dante treat Argenti? How does Virgil react to Dante's treatment of Argenti?

Who are the Rebellious Angels? How does Virgil react to the Rebellious Angels?

Again, note the diction: "two horns of flame / flared from the summit, one from either side" (3-4).

Note the metaphor and the characterizing dialog: "No twanging bowspring ever shot an arrow/ that bored the air it rode dead to the mark/ more swiftly than the flying skiff whose prow/ shot toward us over the polluted channel/ with a single steersman at the helm who called: 'So, do I have you at last, you whelp of Hell?'" (13-17).

Note how Dante's weight affects the boat and how Phlegyas reacts to this.

What is the name of the city that lies ahead? What does it look like?

Canto IX (9)

What do Virgil and Dante need in order to overcome the obstacles at the border of Dis? What are the Three Infernal Furies? What do they symbolize? Who has the power to turn them into stone? How does Virgil protect Dante here? Which sinners are here? What circle is this?

Note the diction and the metaphors: "My face had paled to a mask of cowardice / when I saw my Guide turn back. The sight of it/ the sooner brought the color back to his. / He stood apart like one who strains to hear/ what he cannot see, for the eye could not reach far/ across the vapors of that midnight air" (1-6).