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=Su

ZUprDiGEc&ob=av5n&feature=mv_sr

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

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

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA_-SA57N3U

Stop at 1:28

The Governor’s Wife reality TV showhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DBhQmi7lDA

Paying clergy for forgiveness, a pardon or for a church office.

Also means paying for a church relic/artifact

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

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

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?

Sections, like chapters in a book

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

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

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

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)

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

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.

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.

They were in the “friend zone”

Friends clip 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

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)

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

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.