Inferno, Canto 10 with Dr. Jonathan Reimer

[Music] [Music] the 10th canto of dante's inferno is one of the most striking and most subtle portions of the entire divine comedy it instructs through a combination of content and context and even its structure turns out to be important it is a canto filled with passion and pathos it builds upon what we have learned already particularly in the sixth canto about florence hell and dante's impending exile simultaneously it lays the foundations for discussions of faction and family that will be developed throughout the rest of the divine comedy culminating in dante's encounter with his great great grandfather cachaguida in the sphere of mars to successfully navigate this canto with our protagonist and his guide we need to ask four key questions where are dante and virgil in this canto with whom does dante speak and what do he and his interlocutors speak about and why do they discuss these particular topics answering these questions will help us to see that dante is not only taking a journey into the bowels of hell but also into the depths of his own heart and society where are dante and virgil they are now inside the walls of the city of dis in fact they begin this canto on a tiny path pressed between the imposing city walls and a cemetery stretching as far as the eye can see this graveyard is full of open tombs flames run between the tombs heating them like hot irons dante and his guide can hear the piteous cries of those inside at the end of the previous canto virgil has told dante that the occupants of these open tombs are heretics now he adds that this portion of the cemetery is reserved for epicureans those who think that the spirit dies with the body or put another way those who invest their hopes solely in the here and now giving little thought to the possibility of an afterlife at the beginning of this canto virgil tells dante that on judgment day the bodies of the damned will join their tormented souls and the lids of these tombs will be sealed forever now that we have a sense of the setting of this canto we can turn to the two individuals with whom dante speaks the first is ferinata del uberti a leader of the gibbelian party in florence which we will discuss shortly who is described as rising out of his burning tomb from the waist up with great chest and great brow surging as if he held all hell in scorn and disdainfully demanding that dante give an account of who his family was the second is cavalcante de cavalcanti a member of another illustrious florentine family aligned with the opposing guelph party and the father of dante's best friend guido cavalcante he's depicted less intimidatingly only popping his head up out of the tomb that he shares with very nada though these characters share a tomb for eternity they never address one another and there is no overlap in their conversations with dante despite several possible connections farinada discusses politics cavalcante worries about his son moreover even though the interchange with cavalcante interrupts dante's heated debate with freynata the moment it ends farinada simply resumes speaking as if it hadn't happened he also notably never replies to dante's request that he informed cavalcante that his son is not dead the fact that these characters do not address or even acknowledge each other is all the more striking in light of the fact that these historical figures were actually related in an effort to heal the factional division in florence cavalcanti's son married farinata's daughter so why do they never engage with one another in part it's because they belong to rival political parties farinata is a ghiblin cavalcante a guelph however there's something deeper going on here according to dante hell is not as jean-paul satra famously claimed other people on the contrary it's one's field of vision collapsing to the point that all you can see is yourself at the heart of this kanto were two conversations one with ferinata about politics another with cavalcante about family when dante discloses who his family are ferinata replies they were bold enemies of mine fierce to my party and my ancestors what he means is that dante's family like cavalcantis were guelphs thus to understand this subsequent conversation we need to reflect on the nature of this conflict thirteenth century italy was split between these two factions in one sense the conflict was ideological the gibboleans supported the holy roman emperor in his quest for dominance over italy well the guelphs backed the pope it was also the outcome of deep personal grievances in florence for example these parties coalesced as the result of a jilted bride and the subsequent murder of her former fiancee one helpful way to think about this conflict is to think about the montagues and the capulets from william shakespeare's romeo and juliet in fact these two families were the leading gibbelin and guelph families in verona and dante will even mention them in the sixth canto of purgatorio though they may have had legitimate concerns at one point by the time we meet them at the beginning of shakespeare's play they are driven chiefly by hate itself giblins and guelphs vied for control of italian cities sometimes leading to disastrous results in florence the ghiblins defeated and expelled the guelphs twice in 1248 and 1260 but both times the guelph succeeded in returning to power thus farinata comments that twice he sent dante's party scattering to which dante retorts if they were twice cast out they twice returned an art yours it seems have not well learned meaning that the gibbeleans were never able to get back into power the second of the giblin victories was especially galling since it involved florentine ghiblins led by farinada joining forces with the ghibelline city of siena at the battle of monteperti though dante is willing to call him a man of great soul on account of the fact that after the battle he saved florence from destruction dante easily justifies legal prohibitions against his family in light of this massacre besides trading barbs farinada prophesies dante's exile from florence itself the result of factional politics and informs him of the more than thousands that lie with him in this tomb including the emperor frederick ii whose advisor dante will meet later on in the inferno and whose family he will meet in both purgatorio and paradiso cavalcante's conversation with dante is about family instead of faction presuming that dante is making this journey as a result of his poetic genius instead of the actual reason that he has been saved from dark the dark wilderness by a rescue mission from heaven he wants to know why his son guido himself a celebrated poet is not accompanying him this leads dante to reply that virgil is leading him through this place for one your guido may be held in scorn it's unclear exactly who the one referred to is some scholars think it's virgil others god and still more beatrice i following anthony eslin think that the latter option is the most convincing and that guido had scorned the theological part that beatrice played in dante's earlier poetry this oblique reference may imply that he like his father paid little heed to the afterlife whether or not this is the case dante's use of the past tense held leaves cavalcante to become concerned that his son is dead when dante puzzled by the fact that cavalcante does not know the future when chiron and chiako whom he previously encountered did does not immediately answer cavalcante falls back into the tomb never to appear again this short but affecting conversation between dante and cavalcante is the structural center of this canto prushan notes that there is a symmetry in the five encounters in the first and fifth segments dante and virgil are alone in the second and fourth sections dante debates with farinata in the third and central section dante speaks with cavalcante furthermore cavalcante's anguished cry isn't he still alive is the exact center line 68 of 136 of this canto the craftsmanship of this canto serves a purpose for dante the poet knows something that dante the pilgrim does not that several months after this journey into hell purgatory and paradise is set guido would catch malaria and die this evocative reference to dante's soon-to-be dead friend perhaps suggests that he held out hope that rather like himself his wayward friend had been saved from the dark wilderness of his own error and unbelief so why does dante discuss politics and family in this region of hell assigned to heretics in part it is because these are both things which when loved in a disordered way cause someone to focus on earthly rather than eternal life precisely the heresy which ferrynata and cavalcante are guilty however these are also matters from which dante cannot distance himself throughout inferno dante consistently is implicated in the all too relatable sins of those he meets after all if this is not to be his final destination he has much to unlearn finally politics and family present helpful ways of thinking about heresy in the 14th century heresy was seen as a kind of factionalism which broke away from the universal church similarly rather like love of family it places values above those shared by everyone this canto is thus not a horror show meant to shock but a school meant to teach [Music] you

Channel: Baylor HonorsCollege

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Id: mKtxdZ4DWEI

Length: 11min 49sec (709 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 29 2021