Background This is the 4 th book in Dan Brown’s series featuring character Robert Langdon. Inferno was preceded by Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and The Lost Symbol, all New York Times best sellers.

Major Characters  Robert Langdon: A professor of symbology at Harvard University and the protagonist of the novel.  Bertrand Zobrist: The principle antagonist of the novel despite committing suicide in the prologue. A genius scientist and a madman who is obsessed with Dante's Inferno, he is intent on solving the world's overpopulation problem by releasing a virus.  (Felicity) Sienna Brooks: A doctor with a troubled past and tasked with helping Langdon solve the hidden secrets of Zobrist’s hologram map of hell and the virus.  Elizabeth Sinskey: The head of the World Health Organization who hires Langdon to find Zobrist's virus.

Major Characters  The Provost: (a senior academic administrator). The head of The Consortium and the secondary antagonist. He is hired by Zobrist for location secrecy to work on his “project” in peace. The Provost knowingly hides Zobrist from the WHO other government organizations.  Vayentha: Secondary antagonist and The Consortium's spiked-blonde haired agent in Florence who has orders to follow Langdon.  Christoph Brüder: Head of the SRS team (part of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) who is ordered by Sinskey to find Langdon after she lost contact with him

Plot – Nothing is what seems!!  Florence, Italy - Robert Langdon wakes up in a hospital with no recollection of how he got there, what has happened to him, or why he is in Florence and not Cambridge. Sienna Brookes, a doctor caring for Langdon, begins to explain that his head was grazed by a bullet and he now has a concussion and amnesia. Before much more can be explained, Vayentha, a female assassin charges through the hospital and kills one of Langdon’s doctors. Langdon and Sienna barely escape to her apartment.

The Image  While listening to Sienna explain the strange night before to him, Langdon finds a cylinder in his jacket containing an altered version of Botticelli’s Map of Hell. At the bottom of the projection are the words “The truth can be glimpsed only through the eyes of death.” Before they can figure out more Sienna’s building is raided by soldier’s in black, and they narrowly escape.

The Mask  Upon deciphering the altered image, Langdon discovers the message “CERCA TROVA” hidden in the ten layers of the Malebolge of the map. Langdon connects the “eyes of death” phrase in the map to the Dante death mask. Once found, the mask itself contains it’s own hidden messages leading them further into Zobrist’s puzzle. The next few days are spent connecting dots, deciphering cryptic phrases and escaping death throughout Italy.

Setting  The overall setting of the novel takes place in Florence, Italy. This is completely appropriate to the story since the plot focuses on the protagonist’s knowledge pitted against the antagonist’s obsession with Dante Alighieri.  Florence is fitting because it is said that Dante had two loves in his life, Beatrice and Florence. Dante found himself in his own personal hell when Beatrice married and he was banished from Florence forever by a ruling political faction.

Allegory Review  Allegory is a literary device in which characters or events in a literary, visual, or musical art form represent or symbolize ideas and concepts.  An allegory conveys its hidden message through symbolic figures, actions, imagery, and/or events.  As a literary device, an allegory in its most general sense is an extended metaphor  As a class, let’s discuss how Dante’s Inferno is an allegory, as a review

The Allegory of Brown’s Inferno  Similar to Dante’s Inferno, Brown’s novel is a comment on human behavior.  Distrust of government companies  Fanatical groups  Transhumanism – a movement designed to better the human race and condition through technology and its study  Bertrand Zobrist  Over population  Virus Brown’s Inferno is Dante’s Inferno reversed. Dante’s Inferno is an allegory of a man journeying through Hell to save himself while metaphorically equaling every human’s journey on a path back to God. Brown’s Inferno is a man on a real life journey and struggle to save himself and the human race while metaphorically feeling like his own personal hell.

Questions to Consider  How does Robert Langdon’s journey resemble that of Dante’s?  Are there 3 separate stages?  Is the meaning of the struggle the same?  What symbolic images are mirrored in Brown’s Inferno that also appear in Dante’s Inferno?  Pay attention to multiples of 3.  Who is similar to the guide Virgil? VS