Course: Great Books (Gen. Ed.

Prof. Ma. Sofia Nemenzo

Jaztine C. Magno

Title: Inferno- Dante Alighieri

1. My learning:
In my reading of Dante’s Inferno, I learned that:
 The spirit of Virgil appears and promises to get Dante to salvation the long
way: through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.
 Hell, which is presented as a huge funnel-shaped underground cave, extends
in ever-smaller and more-constricting circles to the middle of the earth.
 Fraud was considered as the most ghastly sin in Inferno since it is located at
the core of it.
 All sinners in Hell will remain there forever to suffer their horrible
punishments because they did not admit their sins.
2. What I do not understand:
 On the story of Inferno, I do not know what the relationship between Dante
and Beatrice is. Is she his wife?
 I did not get why great poets, philosophers and other great men which
contributed a lot on literature, math and science was found on the first circle
of Inferno, the Limbo.
 I did not get it why Dante needs to enter Inferno.
3. Discussion questions:
 Why did fraud consider as the most severe sin in Dante’s Inferno?
 What symbolizes the three animals that Dante saw in the mountain top?
 Why Dante named his literary work as the “Divine Comedy”? What did he
mean by the word “Comedy”?
 What inspires Dante to pick Virgil as his guide in his literary work Inferno?
Why not other poets?
 What was the concept of this Divine Comedy? Does it only tackles the
journey of the character as he enters the Inferno or it has a deeper meaning?

Dante’s The Divine Comedy is the beginning of Italian literature and the single most significant work of
the Middle Ages because its allegory emphasizes the importance of salvation and divine love in a work
that is inclusive and tightly structured. It is so thoroughly infused with Christian ethics that any overview
has to touch on major Christian themes, beginning with the plot being set during Easter week 1300.

The work is a complex narrative with many allusions to biblical stories, classical myths, history, and
contemporary politics; however, the plot’s symbolism provides clarity in that it celebrates the ideal of
universalism, where everything has its place in God’s world, and its ultimate goal of salvation triumphs
over the contemporary reality of the power struggle between worldly and religious leaders.