Summary
Today our class began to discuss The Divine Comedy, "Inferno". We learned that this epic poem is referred to as "divine" because it deals with the metaphysical and with God and to directly quote Professor Croxall, "because it's awesome!" To explain why the poem is a comedy, we compared the characteristics of a tragedy and comedy. Tragedies are conventionally about people in high positions, go from good to bad, are written in a high-elevated style, and are based on historically important events. Conversely, comedies are written about people from all walks of life, go from bad to good, draw from many different writing styles, and are about people's private inward lives.
Dante bases The Divine Comedy after the famous writers Homer and especially Virgil. Virgil is a model of what Dante wants to be, and this is why Virgil is Dante’s guide in Hell. Since "Inferno" is an epic poem, it draws from all the same epic conventions that The Odyssey and The Ramayana do, such as journeys to the underworld, repetition, epithets, digressions, magic and the supernatural, similes, HEROES, and begins in medias res. However, Dante, the epic hero of this poem, differs from Odysseus and Rama. Dante's character at times is curious, scared, and ashamed, but the most prominent difference is Dante's culture- he is Christian. In addition, Dante differs from previous epic heroes because he is a common everyman that represents everyone. Like all epic poems "Inferno" was written to teach, specifically about morality, crime, punishment, God's justice, and Hell. We learned that normally works of literature were written in scholarly languages such as Greek or Latin, but Dante chose to write "Inferno" in Italian, the vernacular language, allowing him to reach a much larger audience and teach the lessons of the poem to many more people.
word count: 300
Passages
"Midway along the journey of our life
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
for I had wandered off from the straight path."
Page1214 lines 1-3 Canto I
This passage shows Dante as an individual, but also shows him represented as the everyman. He is on a journey that everyone has to take. In addition, the passage displays the epic convention of in media res.
“I am the way into the doleful city,
I am the way into eternal Grief,
I am the way to a forsaken race.
Justice it was that moved my great creator;
Divine omnipotence create me,
And highest wisdom joined with primal love.
Before me nothing but eternal things
Were made, and I shall last eternally.
Abandon everyhope, all you who who enter.”
Page 1220-1221 lines 1-9 Canto III
This is what is written above the vestibule that leads to Hell. When Dante reads this inscription it frightens him. The passage foreshadows some of the terrible sights that Dante will soon encounter.
"And when I looked beyond this crowd I saw
a throng upon the shore of a wide river,
which made me ask, "Master I would like to know:
who are these people, and what law is this
that makes those souls to eager for the crossing-
as I can see, even in this dim light?"
And he: 'All this will be made plain to you
as soon as we shall come to stop awhile
upon the sorrowful shore of Acheron.'
And I, with eyes cast down in shame, for fear
that I perhaps had spoken our of turn,
said nothing more until we reached the river."
page 1222, Canto III, lines 70-81
This passage gives the reader insight into Dante's personality as a hero. He is a common man who represents all people and here he shows his vulnerabilities of curiosity and shame. He is eager to know about the people he has come across in this level of hell and after being cut short by his mentor, Virgil, he feels ashamed. Dante shows emotions not see by previous heros.
Terms
Comedy-A comedy includes people from all walks of life, goes from something bad to something good, includes several different writing stlyes, and includes private inward lives.
Vernacular- The common or everyday language for a culture.
Comments (1)
Brian Croxall said
at 10:53 pm on Oct 6, 2009
You've done a good job with this set of notes. We covered a lot of topics with the first day of Inferno, and you've got them more or less faithfully represented here. In a perfect world, your summary would have a little less on the concept of comedy vs. tragedy (after all, you can handle that in the definitions) and more on the concept of a Christian hero or on the pedagogical point of justice/punishment. But I realize that finding the right balance on these things can be hard. On the point of the Christian hero, I especially would have liked you to make it clear that his being Christian isn't the biggest difference in and of itself so much as it is the reason for the other differences. Your definitions are good, although it could have been useful for you to throw in the concept of the "Everyman."
Where you could improve the most is in your passages. You've picked a good one to start with, and you say some good things about it. But you can improve by showing me how one can tell that the poem is showing us Dante as both individual and as Everyman. You could also make it more plain how the passage displays beginning in medias res. Examining the details like this is exactly what I expect you to do on your exams, and each of your passages could do this better. You should also remember the description of the neutrals in Canto III that we looked at in class. It's perhaps a better passage than the relationship between Dante and Virgil.
You don't have permission to comment on this page.