2.  The woman in the game and movie is not Dante’s wife. She is Beatrice, the love of his life.  In the text, Dante is not searching for Beatrice Movie preview clip  http://www.youtube.com/movie?v=SuZU prDiGEc&ob=av5n&feature=mv_sr http://www.youtube.com/movie?v=SuZU prDiGEc&ob=av5n&feature=mv_sr

7.  Born in 1265 in Florence, Italy  Died in 1321 in exile from Florence  Beatrice Portinari was the love of his life, but he married and had children with a different woman  Wrote many poems about love, religion, and philosophy

8.  Hanging in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy

9.  Dante was part of political group that wanted more freedom from Rome and the Pope  Felt that the Pope was corrupt – accepting money for forgiveness from sins and for important positions (Simony)  Dante’s group started out in power, but Pope Boniface VIII sent his army to take over Florence  Dante later writes about Boniface in Inferno – he portrays him as burning in one of the bottom layers of Hell

10.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA_- SA57N3U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA_- SA57N3U Stop at 1:28  The Governor’s Wife reality TV show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DBhQ mi7lDA

11.  Paying clergy for forgiveness, a pardon or for a church office.  Also means paying for a church relic/artifact

12.  What does exile mean?  After Dante’s party lost power, he was sentenced to two years of exile and had to pay a fine  Dante refused to pay the fine, so he was sentenced to burn at the stake if he returned to Florence  Exiled in 1302 and never returned  The city council of Florence finally passed a motion rescinding Dante's sentence in June 2008

13.  The Divine Comedy is Dante’s most famous work  A Comedy, in the literary sense, does not have to be funny and can be serious. A Comedy is a literary work with a happy ending Vs. a Tragedy, which does not have a happy ending  Composed of three separate books: The Inferno (we read from this part) The Purgatorio The Paradiso Each book consists of several Cantos, or sections

14.  Inferno means Hell  The first book of the Divine Comedy  We will read parts of this book  Cantos 1, 3, 5, 33, 34  Dante travels through Hell and sees Sin for what it is  The most famous and widely-read of the three books because of the interesting Sin and Damnation  What is a Canto?

15.  Sections, like chapters in a book

16.  Purgatorio or Purgatory  What does purgatory mean?  The second book of the Divine Comedy  We don’t read this  Dante travels through Purgatory and learns what he must do to live a life free of sin  Describes the Earth as being round

17.  Paradise or Heaven  The final book of the Divine Comedy  We don’t read this  Dante travels through Heaven, repents his past sins, and believes that he will now live a life free of sin  Speaks with several saints and sees God

18.  A long poem about a significant event, battle, or journey  Examples: The Iliad and Beowulf  Contains an Epic Hero – a person on whom the fate of a culture hangs in the balance

19.  Dante was the first author to cast himself as the Epic Hero  Most Epic Heroes fight in famous, dramatic battles  Dante’s character determines his own fate instead of a culture’s fate  Scholars call the Divine Comedy Dante’s “Midlife Crisis” because he was writing about his own journey to find meaning in his life  This is called an Allegory – a story that symbolizes something else (Animal Farm, Avatar)

20.  Two levels On the surface, this is a poem about a man’s journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven (what do we call someone traveling for religious reasons?) On a deeper level, this is an allegory about society’s/Dante’s journey to God

21.  Dante himself is the main character in the Divine Comedy. He must travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven  The poet Virgil guides Dante through Hell and Purgatory, but cannot enter Heaven because he lived before Jesus died, enabling humans to enter Heaven.  Dante’s love, Beatrice, guides him through Heaven.

22.  Virgil is the Roman poet who wrote the Epic The Aeneid about the founding of Rome  Dante believed Virgil to be the greatest poet who ever lived  He admired and respected Virgil above all people, and chose him to guide Dante’s character through Hell (Inferno) and Purgatory.

23.  They were in the “friend zone”  Friends clip http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=4pnMWvbFpS8 http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=4pnMWvbFpS8  Dante met Beatrice when he was nine-years-old, and fell in love at first sight  Dante had a very significant crush on Beatrice for the rest of his life, but never had a relationship with her  He believed that she was his Muse, and frequently wrote about her in his poetry

24.  When Dante was 25, Beatrice died  Dante believed that Beatrice was his reason for writing poetry and living, so he took her death badly  Beatrice is Dante’s idea of idealized love…but he never really knew her  In his later poems, Beatrice became a figure who guided and watched over Dante In the Divine Comedy, Beatrice guides Dante through Heaven (Paradiso)

25.  Dante was a Roman Catholic, living in Italy, in the Middle Ages  Dante is the author AND protagonist of the Divine Comedy, so the entire story is told through the lens of his beliefs  What is a protagonist?  We can identify the lens, and look through the lens, but Dante’s beliefs are not necessarily yours or mine.  This a work of fiction and not a religious text

26.  Dante’s ideas about Hell (and Heaven) were shaped by the Catholic Church as well as the philosophers of his time  Dante’s Hell (Inferno) has many layers, each for a different type of Sin The further you descend, the worse the sins (and the punishments) get  The deeper you go into Hell, the deeper you go into the center of the Earth.  Satan lives at the bottom of Hell – but he is being punished too.