Dante's Inferno has a sly humor in the way punishments hold a poetic appropriateness to the sin they punish. In an essay, choose three circles of Hell from the text and discuss this poetic justice. What sin is punished in this circle, and how is it punished? Does this punishment involve a hyperbolic extremity of the sin, an intense converse state to the sin, or some poetic metaphor for it? How do the damned exist in this state of perpetual punishment?

Essay Topic 2

The subject of The Inferno is clearly a dire one, but the poem is not without its humorous components. Write an essay discussing the use of humor in Alighieri's work. What characters and situations in the poem provide comedy in the face of damnation? What is the nature of this humor? Is it morbid? Slapstick? Wordplay? What is the tonal function of these comedic passages? How do they relate to the more somber portions?

Essay Topic 3

The impetus to write a travelogue of Hell is a multifaceted question. Dante Alighieri is clearly enraged by enough issues of his day that he feels the need to send people to Hell. Write an essay in three parts dealing with the catalysts for much of the subject-matter of The Inferno. How has Dante been affected each of these issues? How is this issue represented in the poem? What punishment is doled out to malefactors of each issue?

Part 1) The civil war in Florence.

Part 2) Corruption in the Catholic Church

Part 3) General ascendancy of unscrupulous people.

(see the answer keys)

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