Circles 1-5

Circle 1: Limbo
• Unbaptized and virtuous pagans
• All virtuous non-Christians
• Guiltiness damned are punished by living in a deficient form of heaven
• Disappointment and regret
• Homer, Euclid, Socrates, Julius Caesar

Circle 2: Lust
• Those overcome by lust and sensual love
• Thrown by terrible winds of a violent storm w/o hope and rest. First ones truly punished
• Dido, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Achilles, Paris, Tristen
• Paolo and Francesca are murdered before they could repent carnal courtly love as sin

Circle 3: Gluttony
• Not only overindulgence in food and drink but also other kinds of addictions
• Gluttons lie here not being able to see their neighbors to represent selfish and empty sensuality of their lives
• Lay in vile freezing slush produced by ceaseless foul, icy rain
• Ciacco of Florence

Circle 4: Avarice and Prodigality
• Attitude toward material goods deviated from the appropriate mean
• Abused material goods
• Many clergymen, popes, and cardinals who hoarded possessions
• Joust using as weapons great weights which they push with their chests
• He finds the poets of antiquity who have been luminaries of his own intelligence.
• Latin Poets: Horace, Lucan
• Roll stones to crash against one another

Circle 5: Wrath and Sullenness
• Wrathful fight each other on the surface
• Sullen lie gurgling beneath the swamp-like water
• Filippo Argenti

Cantos 23-25

[Canto 23]
Aesop's fable story is about how a mouse asked a frog to help her get across the river. The frog tied the mouse's front leg to her own back leg using a piece of string and they swam out to the middle of the stream. The frog then turned traitor and plunged down into the water, dragging the mouse along with her. The mouse's dead body floated up to the surface and was drifting along when a kite flew by and noticed something he could snatch. When he grabbed the mouse he also carried off her friend the frog. Thus the treacherous frog who had betrayed the mouse's life was likewise killed and eaten. The noise reminded him of this and how the hypocrites can be referred to as the frog.

[Canto 24]
The way the serpent looks reminds Dante of the other monsters he encountered. The way the snake wraps it's tail around the sinner reminds Dante of the way Geryon's tail moved. The idea of tails is very important and in medieval times a beast's tail showed the ferocity and strength of the beast.

[Canto 25]
"To be sure my leader heard, I signaled him" This is showing how Dante is gaining confidence and independence. In the beginning he was begging Virgil to not leave him and stay by his side but now as he as almost gone through all the circles of hell he has finally gained confidence. Cianfa belonged to the Donati family in Florence. This is significant because Dante blames Corso Donati for the downfall in Florence and for sees him being dragged into hell by a beast.

Cantos 20-22

[Canto 20]
"God grant you benefit of this book" This Dante's warning to us to avoid hell. This can suggest that the point of this book is to scare us and resist the urge to sin. Dante also may be aware that he is going to hell and is now praising god.

[Canto 21]
"Pulled me across toward him from where I stood." Even Virgil knows that Dante is going to hell so he is keeping him away from the beings that are there right now so they don't take him in early.

[Canto 22]
"Guided by land or star! We journeyed now with the ten demons." This could be an allusion to the three wise men who where knew by the a star that baby Jesus was born. Dante is the guidance and signal star that the demons are waiting for so they can take him.

Cantos 17-19

[Canto 17]

The beast Geryon is the guardian of the eigth circle. Geryon is sometimes identified as a death-demon with the tail of a scorpian but the face of an honest man. In Greek mythology he is described differently as a monster with one head, three bodies, and two arms and legs. His apperance was also that of a warrior. It is ironic that he has the face of an honest man but is in hell, this can suggest that he could be similar to Dante or that he liked him. The idea of the three different faces could suggest three different sins that all belong to one person.

[Canto 18]

Venedico Caccianemico, a noble Bolognese Guelph, was said to have been a procurer of his sister Ghisolabella to gain the favor of Obizzo II of Este, this being the reason he belongs in the eigth circle of hell. The greek hero Jason is also in this circle. It seems to be the pattern that noblemen and heros are in placed in hell.

[Canto 19]

In this canto the people are very curious who Dante is and Virgil tells him to lie to them. He is also confused for Pope Boniface who was Dante's political enemy. It is probably important for him to hide his identity because many of the people in this circle are people he had conflicts with.

Canto 16

The three man wheel in this canto consists of Guido Guerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci. All of which were Florentine citizens. Guido was a political figure, Tegghiaio was wealthy and known, and Jacopo was a well mannered knight of the court. Dante does not like the people from Florence hence why they are in hell. Also they men are accused to violence against god. This suggests that Dante also has a problem with them because they are of higher status which can mean that he is not. The wheel they create together could be compared to the wheel of life. The image of the wheel of life looks as if some sort of beast is hanging on to it and controlling it. This relates to how the men must keep moving and stay in a wheel to survive hell which is controlled by the devil.

Canto 13, 14, 15

[Canto 13]

• "No fruit but poisoned thorns" This can be compared to as the garden of Eden. In the garden the fruit that Adam and Eve partook of was poisoned and then turned the way they looked at life and the garden. The poisoned thorns can represent how they saw the fruit tree after they ate the apple.

[Canto 14]

• The rain of fire relates to the destruction of Sodom. God destroyed it with brimstone and fire. The name Sodom is related by some as sin. The idea of falling fire and coming all of the sudden and brought down by God is connected to the rain of fire in hell.

[Canto 15]

• Dante wants Beatrice to explain Brunetto Latinie's prophecy. He claims she is a women of good wit and knowledge. He probably wants her to tell him because he is claimed to be a man that had a lot of intercourse and maybe he assumed that she would know of him. She is also a Florentine women who Dante is very fond of.
  

Dante's Inferno cantos 3-12

[Canto 3]

• "the souls unsure" these are the souls that believed in God but did not fully follow him and were eventually sent to hell.
• "You will be brought to shore another way" this is setting Dante apart from the others and saying that he will get through it. He also thinks that he is one of the good souls that were brought to hell.

[Canto 4]

• "A heavy clap of thunder startled me up as by force" This can be symbolized as the presence of some great figure. For example to show the presence of God there was typically a great sound of thunder
• "The poet began dead pale now" This just reinforces the idea of how terrible and uncomfortable of a place it is. The idea of children, women, and men shows that even innocent people are there.

[Canto 5]

• In this canto they are where the people with lust are sent to. He lists off many names of people that died due to their love. This can signify how it proves the point why it was wrong for those certain people to die because they ended up in hell.
• "With raised wings steady against the current, glide guided by will to the sweetness of their nest." The idea of wings and flying could represent how the lovers are also like angels stuck in the wind of hell and can't get out. Through out there are many who are trying to escape hell and dont really belong there.

[Canto 6]

• "Threw goblets of earth down each voracious throat" It says how they struggled to devour it and ate it like they were gnawing meat. Virgil knew how to get past the beast and this shows how the people in hell pretty much make up all of the land and they live off of it.
• "When you return to earth's sweet light" This should be giving Dante confidence that he is going to make it out of hell because it doesn't say if or maybe it says when you return to earth. He is going to make it through all stages and hell and return back to earth.

[Canto 7]

• "Here I saw more souls than elsewhere spreading far to the left and right" This level of hell was for those who loved and depended on materialistic things. This can connect so much to the time that we live in and how wealth and everybody outdoing eachother is all that matters in people's lifes.
• Through out many this canto he refers to Virgil as his master. God is usually the master of people but in this division of hell they worship and think of materialistic things as there leader and master. Dante could specifically be calling Virgil master in this canto to prove that he does not belong in this division of hell.

[Canto 8]

• "who are you to come before your time" It is obvisous for the dead souls to recognize that Dante is there before he is dead. Not only does he have a body with weight unlike the others he probably shows a great deal of fear because he does not know what is to come.
• " It is fire blazing eternally inside of them that makes them appear within this inner hell." The idea that hell has caused them to turn red shows how hell changes a person from the inside out and they are not who they are not totally who they were before they got there.

[Canto 9]

• The three hellish Furies bring wrath and tourment. These can be compared to the description of Virgil, Statius, and Ovid is probably because in real life that is how Dante saw them.
• The erinyes are dresses and bright green hydras but are blood stained. These two contrasting ideas show how they seem to be sweet and try to hide who they really are like the tower in the begining.

[Canto 10]

• "dear guide believe me, I do not hide my heart from you" He is starting to feel a sense of abandonedment and does not want to be left alone in such a place. He is also putting his life in the hands of his guide.
• Farianta the leader of Florence gives Dante a scorful look as if it came straight out of hell. He died before Dante was even born so this shows how Dante probably didn't think very well of him when he didn't really meet him.