1. Dante’s Inferno

2. Unit 5, Lecture 2: The Inferno: I-V

3. Allegorical “Architecture” of Dante’s Afterworld
Built on Medieval Views of Astronomy and Geography:
Nine celestial spheres circle the earth
Earth divided into Northern and Southern Hemispheres
Physical Architecture of The Comedy
Hell is a “funnel” in the Northern Hemisphere
Purgatory is a mountain rising up from the Southern Hemisphere’s waters
Heaven is “distributed” among the 9 spheres
Allegorical Architecture of The Comedy
Hell, purgatory, and heaven as forms of love
Hell=love perverted
Purgatory=love misdirected
Heaven=love completed

4. Structure of Dante’s Cosmos

5. “Drama of the Soul’s Choice: A Literal and Allegorical Trip through the Inferno
Canto 1: Lost in a woods, a soul’s fearful “wakeup” call
Literal Story (1)
Sleepy awakening in a dark woods:
Sunlit hill blocked by three beasts
Allegorical meaning (1)
Dante=The “backslidden” soul
Dark Woods=confusing darkness of sin
The Hill=the upward climb of repentance
Three Beasts=powerful habit
The Leopard of Self-indulgence
The Lion of violence
The Wolf of fraud
Literal Story (2)
Dante meets Virgil
Virgil: Escape must lie through infernal regions
Allegorical Meaning (2)
Virgil represents both classical culture and reason
Virgil as “reason” symbolizes the end of “denial.”
Virgil/Reason cannot “cure” sin or “

6. Literal Story & Allegorical Meaning in Cantos II-IV
Canto II: Virgil’s Visitor, the outreach of grace
Literal Story:
Beatrice “commissioned” the journey
Allegorical Meaning
Beatrice as “god-bearing” image of Divine Grace
Divine grace is “passionless” but seeks out the sinner
Canto III: Hell’s Vestibule
Literal Story
Wasp stung runners chasing an elusive banner
Eager sinners waiting on Charonn’s boat
The “banner chasers” represent opportunism
The eager souls represent sin’s illusion
Charon represents the loss of illusion
Canto IV: Limbo, the first circle:
Limbo the place of deserving unbaptized
Dante meets the great of antiquity
Pagan learning is incomplete
Reason as “the failure of the imagination

7. Literal and Allegorical Story, Canto V
Canto V, Circle 2, lust in the driver’s seat
Literal Story:
The “funnel” shape of hell:
The circle of the lustful and its shattering wind
Glimpses of Helen, Paris, Dido
Tragic tale of Paolo and Francesca
Allegorical meaning
The funnel as “shape” of increasing sin
The gale-like winds as picture of uncontrolled passion.
Dante’s “fainting” as softness towards temptation