Where's Ten?

Shane Myers
3rd
Study Questions

1) Dante’s exile was due to his association with the “whites”; a group that opposed the Papacy. He later tried to make a return to politics, though ultimately failed and was never truly accepted ever again. The journey of his exile and attempt to return home was the inspiration for Dante’s Inferno. His two tour guides along the way are Virgil and Beatrice.
2) Hell is organized in the order of the severity of the sin(s) that were committed by the person. It is like this to show that Dante is descending deeper and deeper in Hell. Dante wrote his masterpiece in Italian to establish himself as the first great Italian writer, as well as to have his own style and make the story open to a wider audience.
3) The three animals are the leopard, the lion, and the she-wolf. When he climbs the hill, it represents the journey to salvation. The beasts represent sin and things that we must conquer and get past in order to achieve salvation.
4) Dante says Virgil is a discolored air and a friendless waste. Virgil is Dante’s guide because he wants to take after Virgil’s (as well as Homer’s) style of writing. The straight road symbolizes the path to Heaven which is inhabited with different things blocking it, which represent sin. The dark wood also symbolizes evil.
5) Virgil tells Dante to not lose hope during his journey in Hell. Charon does not agree with the idea of Dante going into Hell, though Virgil states that it is God’s will for this to happen.
6) The souls tortured in Canto III are those who chose sin over goodness and God, as well as those who did not take a side in the rebellion against God during the Angelic Wars. The souls are tortured because they failed to commit.
7) Minos is the creature who guards the circle of Hell in Canto V. He judges the souls when they confess to him what they have done. He then places the souls in the section of Hell that they deserve to be in due to the severity of their sin(s).
8) Paolo and Francesca’s killer will go to the first ring of the last circle of Hell when he dies because he performed the acts of treachery against his kin. However, Dante feels sympathy for them because it was done out of love.
9) The figures in Satan’s mouth are considered traitors because sinned and betrayed some of the greatest men to ever live on earth. Judas betrayed Jesus at the Last Supper, and Brutus and Cassius betrayed Caesar. A frozen lake represents the most terrible part of Hell because it shows the cold heartedness of the inhabitants it holds.