Dante's Inferno: An Introduction

pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom ha ha ha ah oh the divine comedy podcast welcome to the notes over Dante's Inferno for mr. Nance's class we're going to start with an introduction to Dante's Inferno and then talk about canto one today Dante's Inferno is one of those books you can read on so many different layers you can look at the surface or you can delve in deep the first time I read the book I read it in high school I read it because when my friends said it was cool I picked it up and I read a story that was grotesque and exciting and full of adventure and that's about all I got out of it I could see that there was a whole lot of symbolism in there and I knew there was a lot I didn't understand but from my perspective it looked like Dante had just decided to write a story about all the people he didn't like and put them in a terrible afterlife but each time I've read it since I've seen a new layer of detail in fact I would go so far as to say Dante's Inferno as part of the overall Divine Comedy is one of the most complex and layered pieces of literature you'll ever read complexity is a good thing it makes things deep and exciting instead of just reading on the surface getting a general story and moving on you could begin to delve deeper and deeper and deeper and begin to see it on all new levels and as you do that there's a new level of excitement and engagement that comes so to start with Dante's Inferno is actually the first part of the three sectioned Divine Comedy a larger work that tells the story of Dante's trip through hell and purgatory and ultimately heaven he sees all of these different places of the afterlife in fact the Divine Comedy is something of an encyclopedia it attempts to cover everything about humanity in one book the first section Dante's Inferno shows all of human failure and fall the second section Purgatorio shows the idea of redemption and penitence and the third section shows the idea of all of the good that humanity can do as you read The Divine Comedy and the inferno you'll notice that the number three is extremely important and very symbolic there are three sections to the Divine Comedy as I said the inferno the purgatorio and the paradisio but also everything else is divided into threes as well hell in the inferno is divided into three major sections and ultimately those are broken down into nine circles all right three times three also the rhyme scheme is the famous turts ARIMA which is a kind of rhyme based on the number three midway through the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wood for I have strayed from the straight pathway to this tight-knit ground how hard is to tell of overlayed with harsh and savage grove so wild and raw the thought of it still makes me feel afraid if you listen to the rhyme scheme you can hear the rhyme scheme based upon three it's in three line sections the first three lines is a BA the second three lines picks up that middle rhyme and carries it onward BCB the third section CDC and so on throughout the point not only that but each of the major sections of the Divine Comedy is made up of thirty three cantos or chapters the inferno is the only exception to that rule having 34 cantos but really technically the first canto is an introduction to the entire work so threes thirty-three nines everything divided into three what is three mean anyway well three is a significant symbol in Christian literature it represents the Trinity or the idea of God in the divine this is after all the Divine Comedy it's a comedy about the supernatural and particularly about the afterlife but as I said it's not just about the afterlife it's actually about humanity and it's actually about what humanity is like and how we achieve greatness or achieve failure okay so the title of the overall work not just the first part but the overall work is the Divine Comedy Divine Comedy in the title we have the idea of divine which we've just mentioned but there's also the idea of comedy might think of something that's funny the comedy isn't just something that's funny it's something that fits a certain plot structure in a comedy there's a character who experiences a fall but then through some sort of means maybe inside of himself or more likely outside of himself he is picked up and placed back in a state of penis comedy's indwell as opposed to tragedies which end horribly so the difference between comedy and tragedy is really in that now we and Dante says Divine Comedy he's trying to take comedy which was considered for many many years a light form of literature it's not as deep and as intense as tragedy but he's taking comedy this light form of literature and elevating it raising it up making it deep as well because as I said this is one of the most complex and most intense books you'll ever read he's taking the idea of comedy and making it something deep and rich and all about not only human failure which most comedy is about but about human strength now there's some other things that you might need to know in order to enjoy this book there's a lot of stuff hidden in this book that has to do with Dante's own life and if you know nothing about Dante you lose a lot of the details Dante was a very significant poet in Italy in the late 1200s early 1300s in fact the book itself is set in 1300 even there's a few instances in Dante's life that really pivotally influence the writing of this book the most important event in Dante's life was his exile out of Florence Florence was his hometown he loved the town he tried to make the town stronger he got in into politics which led to some bad things the Florence was suffering from civil war during this time period there were two major groups the Gulf's and the Ghibellines the Ghibellines were very much siding with the Pope and with the church having absolute political power whereas the Gulf's more wanted to side with the Holy Roman Emperor and give him political power the two fought terrible wars against each other ultimately back and forth the Gulf's drove the Ghibellines out but once the ghosts were free to rule florence by themselves what did they do they broke into two groups and started fighting among themselves you have the white gulfs and the black gulfs dante was a white gulf once again they are still fighting over power and who has the power Dante will comment very heavily on the dangers the church getting mixed up in politics when the church gets mixed in politics it gets mixed in greed and envy and all of these terrible kinds of sins that become the basis of going to hell Dante saw firsthand how religious leaders with political ambition could tear apart and destroy a town the white and the black gulfs battled back and forth dante as a white gulf was trying to find stability for florence trying to finally get it out of this time of horrible Civil War in order to do that he had to exile some of those black gulls that were calling violence and destruction in his town including one of his best friends more on that later after the white gulls had finally achieved some sense of stability in florence dante was sent to the pope to try to negotiate to try to seal this peace once and for all while he was out of town though the black gulfs came back in and took over and exiled the white gulf and sent dante a message saying if you ever come back we'll kill you so dante was homeless and wandering around italy and unlike today where I might just easily hop over to the next town and have just as good of a life over there Italy was much different it was very segmented and even the dialect from one region of Italy to another were different the political systems from one section of Italy to another were different it was very diverse being exiled from town was kind of like being exiled from the country the other thing in Dante's life that really influenced his poetry and particularly the Divine Comedy was his relationship with a woman named Beatrice and when I was a relationship I'm really saying non-relationship Beatrice was a woman he saw when he was younger and fell madly in love with he didn't really talk to her much at all like maybe five words his whole life but he was completely in love with her forever and she was his ideal woman the perfect woman he went on to marry someone else she went on to marry someone else she died and here he was left with this idealized vision of a woman who probably wasn't really actually even anything like the woman she was but he spends the rest of his life writing poetry for her and about her now about how perfect she is his first big work of poetry the Vita Nuova is all about his life his biography told through his love for Beatrice and ultimately the V de Nueva concludes with the idea that I've tried to say the perfect thing I've tried to elevate love poetry to the pinnacle and I haven't achieved it yet so until I can write a point worthy of you I'm going to stop ultimately the Divine Comedy becomes his poem to Beatrice this ultimate poem of all humanity all that's bad and good in us in a celebration of Beatrice Beatrice is an extremely important figure in the Divine Comedy although she barely shows up in the inferno she is the one who finds Dante when he's going astray and guides him back to the path and then when he gets to heaven she's going to be his guide she represents everything that's beautiful and good and perfect about love it's this idea of courtly love which was very significant to the Middle Ages and courtly love is not the kind of love where you really get with the person courtly love is love from afar love that's pure and chaste love that is for a person who you can will never ever ever get in fact the name Beatrice is so significant because of her influence on Dante that every time you see the name Beatrice it's probably a reference to her so Dante in exile depressed goes out and wanders around for a while until finally he begins to write and he writes his masterpiece the piece that will make him one of the most important poets of all time and as we begin the Divine Comedy we start an inferno with canto one kenta one as I said is an introduction to the entire Divine Comedy and it touches on some of the most important ideas in why he's writing this midway through the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wood for I had strayed from the straight pathway to this tangled ground those first three lines I could talk about for a long time and I will he says midway through the journey of our life and he's talking about the middle of his age as I said the book is set in 1300 when Dante was 35 and he believes that's the perfect middle of your life there's a reference in the Bible to humanity being allotted 70 years and so 35 is half of 70 therefore it's the middle of life but 1,300 is also important because 1,300 is two years before he's exiled in retrospect he's setting this book two years before his exile as a story that prepares him for exile but he doesn't just say midway through the journey of my life he said midway through the journey of our life which emphasizes that this isn't just about him this is a macrocosm this is all of humanity that he's talking about here don't forget that Dante considers this book an encyclopedia an encompassing of all of humanity and all the humanity can be and all the humanity does so the idea that it's not just his journey but everyone's journey is significant to the text we might be familiar with this idea from Joseph Campbell's concept of the hero's journey from his book hero with a thousand faces it's the idea that every story is essentially the same that all stories are about humanity striving to overcome obstacles striving to find ourselves and to be what we ought to be Dante's journey becomes a hero's journey he's on a quest to rediscover himself and to rediscover all of humanity in the process he's also interesting how he discusses the idea of life being a journey we're pretty familiar with that metaphor life is a journey but in medieval ideology a journey was depicted as a line on the other hand a spiritual quest is a circle the soul goes out and then returns to its place in fact all things that are associated with the divine and with with heavenly are depicted as circles so as Dante goes to this quest he's going to pass through a lot of circles but he's going to go into line what happens when you combine a line in a circle you get a spiral and that's why everything that Dante does is not just a journey or a quest and it's not just a circular return of his soul in the same place over and over again but it's a spiritual journey he is both being spiritual in the circle and he's going on a journey to accomplish something in the line but what does he find as he's midway through life's journey midway through the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wood for I had strayed from the pathway to this tangled ground he discovers that he's no longer going the right direction he's on the journey of life but he's gone off course what does that mean well there's lots of different interpretations the most obvious and the most easy conclusion to jump to is that he is sinned and because of his sin he's no longer going the right direction after all he can no longer seem to get to heaven which sounds like a sin on the other hand it may just be general doubt he's lost his way in life and he doesn't really know who he is or what he is or what he needs to be this ties in nicely with the idea of exile that's coming up soon he loses his way and because he loses his way he also loses his place in life and he finds that the place he comes to is a tangled ground it's a dark wood how hard it is to tell of overlayed with harsh and savage growth so wild in a raw the thought of it still makes me feel afraid here he is and he's lost and he's confused and he no longer knows how to get back where he needs to be in his life it's interesting to note that what's going on here in this story has two layers one you have the story where Dante as a traveler is going on a journey and he's experiencing certain physical things on the other hand it's allegorical it's symbolic a dark wood is in the story a dark wood that he's lost in but also represents something it represents the confusion in his soul and his inability to get back where he needs to be all throughout his journey through the inferno and then on it's going to talk about things in multi-layers and we're going to talk a lot more about different types of allegory as we go through this but another thing to note here is the idea that he remembers his journey it says the thought of it still makes me feel afraid so he's not in the dark wood anymore he's gotten out of it and now he is writing about the experience and reflecting back on it that means there's two Dante's we're talking about here one Dante the traveler who is going to be undergoing great and terrible dangers and two Dante the poet who is also going to be undergoing great and terrible dangers but in a different way this is very significant all throughout the inferno and through the rest of the Divine Comedy the idea that there are two Dante's we see that the first Dante has to experience all of these physical problems but the second Dante the poet the one who is looking back at his experience and writing about it also has to deal with pride he goes on to talk about how he got here in the dark wood and really his problem is that he wasn't paying enough attention just how I entered there I cannot say so full of sleep when I begin to fear that I did not see that I had gone astray from the one true path we're about to deal with all of human failure and one way you can fail is by not paying enough attention on the other hand you can also fail by deliberately doing wrong and Dante is going to organize hell based upon willfulness your will your desire your intent what motivates you to do what you need to do is an extremely important idea in the inferno your will can lead you into a lot of wrong and it can't always get you back out again Dante's lack of attention got him into this wood but he discovers that it's much easier to get into than get back out of but once I had drawn near to the bottom of a hill at the far remove of the valley that had pierced my heart with fear I saw its shoulders mentals from above by the warm rays of the planet that gives light to guide our steps wherever we may Rove at last I felt some calming of the fright that had allowed the lake of my heart no rest while I endure the long and piteous night so he looks up and he sees the Sun now the Sun is extremely symbolic and I always like to ask my students what they think the Sun represents and I get all kinds of answers the Sun might represent heaven and God and good things like that and that's a good possibility but it's probably not right because after all as he turns towards the good and towards heaven he can't get there he's blocked clearer possibility might be that the Sun represents reason and a good precedent for this is Plato's allegory of a cave if we look back to the classical story of Plato's allegory of a cave Plato describes through the voice of Socrates what true philosophy is he envisions a bunch of people bound in a cave and chained up and they're looking at shadows on a wall that are cast by firelight and they get very good depicting what or guessing what these shadows represent but finally one of them is freed and set out of the cave in the sunlight at first he's blinded he can't see anything but has his eyes adapt and as he grows clearer in his vision he begins to see the world as it really is and he says ah wow the world is wonderful and amazing and all those things we saw down there those were just shadows those weren't real he runs down into the cave and eagerly tells his friends look this isn't real these are just shadows come up to the light and see the true world well it doesn't work they don't believe him first of all and second of all after his eyes have adapted to light he can no longer see the shadows as well Plato is arguing that philosophy is important philosophy opens us up to see the world more brightly and more vividly and more sincerely than anyone else we're caught up in our simple human games and our simple human tainted vision and we don't see anything but shadows but if we were to look to the light we would see so much more this is a great allegory and frequently alluded to but Dante here doesn't think that it's enough philosophy cannot save you sometimes sometimes in the midst of despair and confusion you turn to philosophy but something bars your way you just can't make it there but I had hardly started when I spied a leopard in my pathway live and fleet all covered with a sleek and spun hide and as I faced it it would not retreat but paced before me and so blocked my way that more than once I had to turn my feet to retrace my steps the sweet season of the year and the hour made me think that I might try to evade the bright skinned beast as it came near but then I felt my good hopes quickly fade and in an instant I was numbed with fear to see a lion in my that made straight for me head held high and ravenous and seeming to make the very air afraid and a she-wolf to that in its leanness was laden with every craving those who seek fulfillment there find only wretchedness so there are three creatures blocking his way not allowing him to go up the hill to the Sun to philosophy to reason the three creatures are a leopard a lion and a she-wolf now the she-wolf is fairly clearly explained because at the end it says that in its lean this was laden with every craving those who seek fulfillment their final only wretchedness the idea that the she-wolf represents cravings the urges that we have that lead us to wrong the leopard also is frequently depicted as representing duplicity because the spots are a way of hiding or disguising itself or being something it's not fraudulence in other words and also the lion representing fierceness and violence so we see three different layers that are all we're going to see again as soon as we descend into the inferno the kinds of sins that are done through lusts and urges the kinds of sin that are done through anger and violence and the kinds of sins that are done calculated and fraudulently as we said a moment ago dante is going to organize hell based upon will the least significant sins the lightest sins are those that are done impulsively the ones that we simply fall into because we aren't paying enough attention like Dante was neglectful on his journey the second are the violent ones that come from anger they're more willful and more carefully enacted than the previous but they're still not quite so thought-out as the final set the final set are the fraudulent sins there are sins of calculation and we'll where you carefully plot your plans and you enact them in order to do evil these are the coldest and the hardest of the sins so Dante's in bad shape he doesn't know what to do and he turns to the first person he sees he sees a figure stepping through the woods and he cries out mercy which sounds like a prayer it turns out that this isn't a person at all this is a ghost but it goes to somebody worth talking to I was a poet and I sang of him and shy sees righteous son who sailed from Troy after the burning of proud ilium its Virgil Dante's favorite poet now why is Virgil Dante's favorite poet well the easiest explanation is that it's his national poet Virgil is the epic poet of Rome what Homer is to the Greeks Virgil is the Romans and of course Dante is an Italian and is a descendant of the Romans he values Virgil above all he's also going to use the stories that Virgil tells as a precedent for his own story the idea of Aeneas who's on his journey home trying to find his new home Dante is also on his journey trying to find his home but Virgil isn't just a poet Virgil represents poetry in general and also poetry that can lead you to great thought and reason Virgil points him towards the mountain even though Dante is unable to assail it Virgil guides him as far as poetry can take him and is a good guy can get him a lot farther than his own desires and his own will can get him dante praises Virgil for a while and then describes how the beasts have stopped him it were best to go another way around he answered seeing tears start from my eyes if your hope is to escape this savage ground because this creature that provokes your cries allows no man to get the best of her but blocks each one attacking till he dies Virgil mentions another way but what is the other way out of his troubles therefore I think it would be best for you to follow me I will be your guide and I will lead you out of here and take you through an eternal place where you will be greeted by the shrieking z' of despair and you will see ancient tormented spirits as they cry aloud at the second death then you will be with those who are content with in the fire for they hope to join the Blessed eventually you will see those blessed if that is your desire with a worthier soul than I into her hands I will entrust you when I can go no higher so Virgil can lead Dante through the inferno through hell he lead him through purgatory the place of purification where the souls have hope but ultimately he can't lead him all the way into heaven this is important Dante puts a lot of value on poetry but even poetry isn't enough to get you through it can take you a good ways but it can't get you heaven who does he need to get him all the way into heaven he needs divine love and where does that divine love come from Beatrice of course Beatrice is going to show up and rescue him at the last minute in fact she's already played a role in his rescuing we just don't know about it yet poet I said to him so that I may escape this harm and worse that may await in the name of that God you never knew I pray you lead me out to see Saint Peter's gate and all those souls that you have told me of who must endure their miserable state I followed him as he began to move rum pum pum baba bomb bomb is inferno inferno but Oh BOM BA Bom

Channel: Tim Nance

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Keywords: Dante's Inferno, Inferno, Dante Alighieri, International Baccalaureate, Oakland High School, Mr. Nance, Book, Poem, Literature, Notes, Lecture, Overview, Plot, History, Characters, Reading, Books, English, Italian, Divine Comedy, Epic, Michael Palma, Florence, Italy, Exile, Guelphs, Civil war, Virgil, Homer, Lucan, Ovid, Horace, Beatrice, Courtly Love, Afterlife, Contraposso, Dark Wood, Midway through, Plato's Allegory of a Cave, Plato, Philosophy, Reason, How to Read, history, Poetic style, Sweet New Style

Id: cIPdG8TuZ7I

Length: 25min 1sec (1501 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 23 2014