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20091015-930 Inferno, cantos 27-34 (Group 6)

Page history last edited by Brian Croxall 14 years, 5 months ago

Summary

 

     Today's discussion centered around the recurring question, "Does the punishment fit the crime?" in Dante's Divine Comedy. We jumped from various circles of hell to wrap up this previously introduced topic of contrapasse. Addressing crimes from theft to lust, Dante's opinion of God's purposeful justice is apparent. Each torturous punishment is to the point of ironic humor because of the precise and perverse angle it draws from the unrighteous actions committed on earth. 

 

     Sin is mirrored as the ultimate enemy. The idea of "what I was alive, I still am dead" is addressed not only by the deliberated punishment given by God but also in the character's assertive demeanor. Hell reflects a center of hopelessness leading the characters to act to match, with no ambition of altering their earthly manner that got them in this eternal pit to begin with. 

 

     The developmental understanding of the justice and righteousness of God evolves through the epic poem. Through Dante's journey in hell, a maturity in grasping God's sovereignty and man's ignorance is supposed. In the second circle of the lustful, Dante is quickly persuaded to favor the opinion of a young, seductive woman instead of behaving with the perspective an all-knowing God. Fortunately, piety is developed in allegiance to God, which is perhaps the sole purpose of his eye-opening pilgrimage through hell. 

 

Word Count: 227

 

 

Key Terms

 

Metamorphosis - transformations, as in Ovid's work. 

 

Contrapasso - the Italian word for counter-penalty.  In Dante's Inferno it's the process by which souls serve penance according to the nature of their sins in life. "The punishment fits the crime".

 

Verboten - the German word for forbidden.

 

Courtly love - a type of formal love that is understood to only affect the nobles. One aspect of courtly love involved putting the woman on a pedestal so the man is submissive to the formalities. It also seems to characteristically have obstacles in the passionate lovers' paths.

 

Ur - a city in ancient Sumer believed to be the birthplace of Abraham.  It is used today to describe the origin ("Ur-story" is the origin of a story, the most basic form of something).

 

Key Passages

 

"Love, quick to kindle in the gentle heart,

seized this one for the beauty of my body, 

torn from me, (How it happened still offends me!)

Love, that excuses no one loved from loving, 

seized me so strongly with delight in him

that, as you see, he never leaves my side.

Love, led us straight to sudden death together.

Caina awaits the one who quenched our lives."

Pg. 1229 (Canto V, ln. 100-107)

 

     Francesca is beginning her ploy to gain Dante's sympathy by explaining the affair as courtly love. She makes herself sound like a victim, defenseless against this love and straying away from any hint of lust. Love is at fault for her unexcused actions of passion and for her death in hell. All sinners are looking for pity; but there is no place for pity in hell.

 

    "My guide:

'So you are still like the other fools?

In this place piety lives when pity is dead,

for who could be more wicked than that man

who tries to bend divine will to his own!" 

Pg. 1275 (Canto XX, ln. 26-30)

 

     The demand to relinquish pity on the alleged "victims" of hell is given as advice to Dante as he discovers pity, or allegiance to God is the fundamental principle. His foolish but progressive approach is intensified when the underlying fault is explained. Pity on the supposed innocent in hell is denying God jurisdiction of power.

 

"Because I cut the bonds of those so joined, 

I bear my head cut off from its life-source,

which is back there, alas, within its trunk.

In me you see the perfect contrapasso!"

Pg. 1305 (Canto XXVIII, ln. 139-142)

 

     Virgil and Dante have traveled to the Ninth Pouch of the Sowers of Scandal and Schism. It is here that Bertran de Born, who gave advice of rebellion against a young boy's father, is holding his own head. This passage gives perfect insight to the word contrapasso where punishment is fitting. Bertran de Born breaks the bond between father and son. He deserves his punishment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments (2)

jeingra@... said

at 3:00 pm on Oct 15, 2009

The passage summaries may need a little work. I was just trying to avoid repetition.

Brian Croxall said

at 4:48 pm on Oct 22, 2009

Your notes for the final day of Dante are strong in some places and less so in others. The definitions are well done and are to the point. You even included "verboten" and "ur," neither of which I had expected to make it, but are good all the same. Similarly, your passages are well done. You've chosen different sections of the poem to give as examples, and demonstrate three important principles that made their way into our discussion: courtly love, pity, and contrapasso.

Where improvements are needed is in the summary. First, this section could be written in a much more direct manner. There is a sense of inflated language rather than direct language which would make it very clear what is being discussed. I worry that others reading these notes might not get as direct an idea of what we discussed in class. For example, in the third paragraph you write about the development of justice throughout the poem and mention how fortunate it is that piety is present throughout. I think it would have been more clear for you to discuss the problems of pity in hell (we shouldn't do it) and discuss how we see Dante evolve in his pity by the time we reach the ninth circle and Ugolino.

I'm also surprised that you do not draw a distinction between the idea of contrapasso (punishment fits the crime), which is what the sinners believe happens, and the revelation that the sinners are punished by their continuing to commit the same sin over and over again, which is what we discussed in connection with Paolo and Francesca. And I had anticipated that you would discuss their situation a bit more, since we spent so much time on Canto 5.

All in all, you're work is good, but it can become more polished still.

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