Scribe 1/17

Because it was a Wednesday today, we started with some delicious Lamar’s doughnuts. Smith then showed us a flash website which virtually goes through Dante’s layers of hell and has some great visuals. She also gave us some other helpful sites.

LINKS:
Dante’s Inferno: Virtual Tour
Reading Dante’s Inferno online
Find out what layer of hell Dante would list you under

Next, we conversed about our readings of Cantos 1, 3, and 5. We did this for the rest of the hour.

NOTES (these are a few notes I jotted down during our conversation):

¨ What do you think?
Dante is sick – maggots eating faces
It is descriptive, causing the reader to not want to go there
Symbolic Retribution (represent person’s sins)
Lust and personal passion had to deal with others’ problems
Emphasized how horrible it was
Virgil uses divine power to pass hell’s guards
¨ Virgil didn’t have to be judged by Minos because he is in a higher level
¨ Carnal passion over reason
Reading Lancelot, love eachother but husband gives his wife and her lover who gave in to sin
Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris – all there
¨ Why does love send you to hell?
Dante’s past and failure in love
Reason takes you further, faith takes you to heaven
Sin against God to divorce
Beatrice had impact on what Dante wrote
Dante is married yet still loves Beatrice; is he going to hell?
¨ Why does love send you to hell?
Hell is like a bottomless well, earth is grass, sky, etc., heaven is in the clouds with angels flapping by
Heaven and Hell are complete opposites
Purgatory is the only medium
¨ Marie brought up a book which has another take on heaven: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
¨ Another Connection to Dante’s Inferno: Wizard of Oz (process of going from hell to heaven)
¨ Dante wants to go up, but instead first goes through hell, whih represents how hard salvation is to obtain
¨ Canto 1: Three Animals
Lion of Violence and Ambition
Leopard of Malice and Fraud
She wolf of Incontinence
¨ Why these?
Lion – King of the Jungle and scary
Raging with hunger
Snakes were a good thing in religions during Dante’s time
FEAR – different reasons (memories)
Lion, Leopard don’t move
Fear drives everything in this Hell
¨ She wolf
More she feeds, the hungrier she gets
Evil feeds on evil, never be full
¨ Virgil; why him?
Virgil was Dante’s inspiration as a poet
Highest possible level with reason
Dante trusts/respects him
He can learn from and listen to him
¨ Symbolic Retribution
God has decided these punishments – shows his omnipotence and equality – He has justice
They get what they need
¨ Why are Charon and Minos mad at Dante?
¨ Satan’s message: Hope is gone
¨ Dante is crying or fainting, showing the fear and torment


Homework:
-Blog question featured below this