3. Why Does the Poet Portray the Narrator This Way?

The Inferno Study Guide

Canto I 1. Why is the first stanza of The Inferno significant? How does it prepare us for the rest of the poem?

2. How does Dante the poet portray Dante the narrator? Is this character emotional or stoic? Do we sympathize with him?

3. Why does the poet portray the narrator this way?

4. What is the significance of the date and time of the beginning of Dante’s journey? Make a note of the dates and times mentioned throughout The Inferno as you read them, and explain their significance.

5. What do the three beasts symbolize?

Canto II 1. Do Dante and Virgil go anywhere in Canto II? What takes up the largest portion of the chapter?

2. Which two people, “worthy of the vision”(II. 33) of Rome and her Church, preceded Dante? How are they related?

3. Who comes to Virgil to tell him of Dante’s plight? Had they ever met before? Why is he so eager to do as she asks?

4. What, according to the account in Canto II, was the chain of command, or chain of appeal, in Paradise? Who first noticed Dante’s predicament, and who was sent from Heaven to remedy it?

5. Why is Beatrice, instead of Lucia or Rachel, sent to Virgil?

6. What is Dante’s reaction to Virgil’s speech?

7. Summarize the end of Canto II on a symbolic level.

Canto III 1. What is the first thing Dante sees in Canto III? What is its significance? 2. Whom does Dante first see upon his entrance into the Gates of Hell? Why will neither Heaven nor Hell receive them?

3. Is it significant that the Opportunists are not remembered by the living?

4. What is Dante’s reaction to the sinners chasing the banner?

5. Who is Charon? How does he respond to Dante?

6. To what does Dante compare the souls leaving the shores of the Acheron? What literary term is used?

7. Why do the sinners blaspheme God, their parents, and all of humanity? What is the importance of their blasphemy?

8. What happens to Dante at the end of Canto III? Why does he say it happened? What is the literary reason that it happens?

Canto IV 1. Who dwells in the First Circle of Hell? What is their punishment? What inference can you see here?

2. Find a literary term that is used between lines 30 and 60.

3. Who, according to Virgil, did eventually leave Limbo for Paradise?

4. Why is Christ called “a Mighty One”? (IV.53)

5. How does recognition or remembrance play a part in the fate of the pagan poets? Name the five poets in the group. 6. How do the great poets respond to Dante?

7. Describe and identify the people Dante sees standing around the citadel. You may need an outside source, like an encyclopedia or the Internet to do so.

Canto V 1. Who assigns each sinner to a particular circle of Hell? How is he symbolic of a sinner’s own conscience?

2. What was the sin of the first people Dante encounters in Canto V? Why is their punishment appropriate? How does it relate to birds again?

3. Locate an epic simile between lines 30-60.

4. Which famous characters does Dante see in the whirlwind? Are there similarities to any other literary journeys into hell?

5. What are Dante’s feelings about Paolo and Francesca? Why is their fate somewhat pitiable?

6. What happens to Dante at the end of the Canto? Compare it to a similar event at the end of Canto III.

Canto VI 1. What are the first sensory images Dante uses to describe the Third Circle? Why does he use this imagery?

2. Compare Cerberus to Minos. How is each beast appropriate for his location?

3. How does Virgil overcome Cerberus? What is the significance of this action?

4. What does Dante say about the substance of the spirits? Why is he so careful to point this out? 5. What is Ciacco’s nationality? Why is this important?

6. What does Ciacco foretell? What is the purpose of this prophecy?

7. Note that Ciacco longs to be remembered in the world of the living. Why might “sinners of the flesh” feel a relatively small amount of shame?

8. Summarize the brief discussion between Dante and Virgil at the end of Canto VI.

Canto VII 1. At the beginning of Canto VII, Dante and Virgil are threatened by yet another guardian beast. Compare Plutus to Cerberus and Minos. How does Virgil respond to Plutus?

2. How does size of the population of this Circle compare to that of the population of the previous Circle? What is the symbolic reason for this?

3. What is Dante’s reaction to the crowd of weight-smashers?

4. What, according to Virgil, is responsible for the impulse to hoard or waste?

5. What particular group makes up a large portion of “Hoarders and Wasters”? Is Dante using sarcasm? How does his inclusion of this particular group here fit in with a major theme of The Inferno?

6. Why is Dante unable to recognize anyone among the hoarders and wasters?

7. Summarize Virgil’s lecture on Dame Fortune. Why does he preface this speech with the admonition to “strike error from your mind”? (VII.71) 8. Virgil warns, “the stars that marked our starting fall away.” (VII.97) What is the date and time he says this? Why is it significant?

9. What is the significance of the song emanating from the water-holes? Why does Dante include this detail?

Canto VIII 1. Why does the poet have Phlegyas take the narrator and Virgil to Dis? How is he like or unlike Charon? How is each boatman appropriate to his station?

2. Why does Dante describe the boat sinking into the water?

3. What is the poet’s reaction to Filippo Argenti? What are some possible reasons for this?

4. What is significant about the buildings of Dis? Why does Dante describe them this way?

5. What is the allegorical significance of the Rebellious Angels’ refusal to admit the poets to Dis? Why do they encourage Virgil to abandon Dante in the Underworld?

Canto IX 1. At the end of Canto VIII, Virgil seems certain his plea for assistance will be answered. At the beginning of this Canto, however, he seems to vacillate. What is the allegorical meaning of this?

2. What is the precedent upon which Virgil bases his hope for a successful journey and safe return from Hell?

3. Why must Virgil place his hands over Dante’s eyes? What symbolism can we infer?

4. To what “strange allegory” does Dante refer?” (IX.60) Why is this invocation here?

5. What is the demeanor of the “Messenger from God’s Throne”? (IX.83) Why has Dante drawn him this way? 6. What does the Messenger say to the Rebellious Angels? Compare his admonition to Virgil’s extended lecture in Canto VII.

7. What are Dante’s emotions upon entering the city of Dis?

8. How are the heretics punished? What does Virgil mean by “to each depravity its own degree”? (IX.129)

Canto X 1. What is Dante’s primary desire at the beginning of Canto X? What is the unspoken wish to which Virgil responds?

2. Why are the Epicureans entombed here?

3. What is the literary purpose of Farinata’s interruption?

4. Would you classify Dante’s response to Farinata as sympathetic, unsympathetic, or something else? Explain.

5. Why is Farinata classified as a heretic?

6. Analyze the “three-part” conversation between Dante, Farinata, and Calvacanti. Why is it a classic example of the marriage of symbolism and drama?

7. Why, according to Dante, is Guido Calvacanti not present? How does his answer fit into the larger scheme of The Inferno?

8. Relate the following to one another: the faint of the elder Calvacanti, the explanation of the prophetic ability of the dead by Farinata, and Dante’s own development.

9. What sense-detail in the next Circle does Dante hint at as he ends this Canto? Canto XI 1. What does the foul smell of Hell allow Dante, as poet, to do here?

2. Why is Virgil’s lecture on Hell placed here?

3. Against whom are the three kinds of violence directed?

4. What does Virgil have to say about Nature in this speech?

5. What does the wording of Dante’s question about the sinners in the Upper Hell betray about his feelings?