ENG 203 Stayer University Unit 5 Dante Poem Inferno & Pardoner Tale Discussion 1. Consider the opening of Dante’s Inferno. Halfway through his life, Dante

ENG 203 Stayer University Unit 5 Dante Poem Inferno & Pardoner Tale Discussion 1. Consider the opening of Dante’s Inferno. Halfway through his life, Dante feels lost and trapped and cannot even remember how he got to this point. Explain how such a crisis remains relatable today.2. The Pardoner’s Tale presents a tidy moral message, but the Pardoner himself is corrupt. Does the credibility of the teller of the tale influence the moral of the tale? Explain how. Requirements: 250 words minimum for each post ENG 203
Survey of World Literature I
Belhaven University
Unit 5
Medieval and Early Renaissance Literature
1
Unit 5 Introduction
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Classical antiquity – Roughly from the 8th
century BC to the 5th century AD
Middle Ages – From the 5th century AD to the
13th century
Renaissance – Beginning in the 14th century AD
2
Unit 5 Topics
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Medieval period and the Early Renaissance
Dante’s Inferno
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Literary Interpretation, Discernment, and Scripture
3
Unit 5 Objectives
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Review the characteristics of the Medieval period and
understand what historical forces shaped the Western
worldview during this time.
Examine Dante’s Inferno and understand its plot, major
themes, intellectual heritage, and historical context, and
comprehend how this work absorbs and assimilates the
literature of Classical antiquity.
Observe the unique characteristics of Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales in regard to its genre and narrative
form.
Develop an understanding of the historical context in
which this work was situation, and understand the
underlying message of the Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale.
4
Biblical Foundation

1 Corinthians 1:19-25, English Standard Version

For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and
the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is
the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the
debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom
of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world
did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through
the folly of what we preach[a] to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we
preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly
to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the
weakness of God is stronger than men.
5
Biblical Foundation

2 Timothy 4:2-4

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of
season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete
patience and teaching. For the time is coming when
people will not endure sound teaching, but having
itching ears they will accumulate for themselves
teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away
from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
6
The Middle Ages


Roughly 500 A.D. to 1500 A.D.
The “middle” of what?

Named by people of the next era, the
Renaissance.
7
The Middle Ages, cont.

Transformation of Greco-Roman World
 The Classical civilization of Greece and Rome
was transformed by contact with three
different cultures: Germanic, Christian, and
Islamic.
 By the 5th century, Germanic tribes had
invaded and conquered the Western half of
the Roman Empire.
8
The Middle Ages, cont.

Christianity
 Christianity began in Palestine and spread
across Europe.
th
 By 11 century, almost all of Western Europe
was Christianized.
 As early as 325 AD, Emperor Constantine
declared Christianity the official religion of
the empire.
9
The Middle Ages, cont.

Islam
 This third influence was less prominent.
 Islam began in Arabian Peninsula in 7th
century.
 Spread throughout North Africa and into
Iberian Peninsula where it remained powerful
until 15th century.
10
The Middle Ages, cont.

Descriptions of the Middle Ages
 The Age of Faith

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
Though Christianity was dominant across Europe, not
all subscribed to or lived by a Christian worldview.
Focus on the afterlife
The Age of Chivalry

Military Values
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Courage, Loyalty, Honor
Refined Manners

Generosity, Empathy, Intense Devotion to Selfless Romantic
Love
11
Renaissance

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A cultural and artistic outpouring in Europe,
characterized as a “rebirth” of sorts after the
Middle Ages
The next unit will examine in the
Renaissance in depth
Took place at different times in different
places

Began in Italy in the 14th c. and spread across
Europe
12
Dante’s Inferno

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

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Born in Florence
Though he lived before Chaucer, is actually regarded
as more on the edge of the late Middle Ages and early
Renaissance.
His family was old and of noble origin, but no longer
wealthy.
During Dante’s life, Florence was a thriving metropolis,
but also dangerous—full of warring political factions.
Dante was very involved in these politics and when his
party was in power in 1300. He was named as one of
the seven priors of Florence.
Image credit: commons.wikimedia.org (Dante Alighieri)
13
Dante’s Inferno, cont.


Dante’s party fell out of power a few months
later, and while Dante was in Rome, his
political opponents tried him on “trumped-up”
charges and sentenced him to death.
He could never return to Florence and lived
the rest of his live in poverty and exile,
frequently moving from city to city.
14
Dante’s Inferno, cont.

Dante’s Inferno is part of a larger work, The
Divine Comedy




Begun in 1308, completed in 1320
Written in Italian (Most poems were written in Latin
during this time.)
Dante’s greatest work, generally considered greatest
Italian poem of all time.
A comedy, but not in the modern sense of the word


Comedy – the protagonist’s situation goes from bad to good.
Tragedy – the protagonist’s situations goes from good to bad.
15
Dante’s Inferno, cont.

Form and structure

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The Divine Comedy was divided into three parts: Inferno,
Purgatorio, Paradiso (Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise).
Deep numerological symbolism throughout, focusing on 3, the
number of the Trinity.
Each section has 33 cantos (small division of poetry; canto
means “song.”)
The Inferno includes an introductory canto, which makes 100
cantos total.
Written in terza rima, an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme.
Each line has 11 syllables, so there are 33 syllables in every 3line tercet.
16
Dante’s Inferno, cont.

Other aspects of comedy and tragedy

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Narrative structure: tragedy begins in happiness
and ends in tragedy, a comedy is the reverse.
Style: tragedy has an exalted style, while comedy
can indulge in a range of styles.
Character: tragedy deals with important historical
figures, while comedy deals with all sorts of
people—both lowborn and highborn.
Subject Matter: tragedy deals with events of grand
historical importance while comedy deals with
people’s private or inward lives.
17
Dante’s Inferno, cont.

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The poem begins on the night of
Good Friday in 1300 AD. Dante
finds himself lost in a dark wood.
He is thirty-five years old, exactly
half of the biblical lifespan of 70
He tries to climb up a hill but he is
blocked by three beasts: a
leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf, so
he is trapped.
He is alone in the dark valley
when suddenly a spirit appears.
This is Virgil, the Roman poet.
Image Credit: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/ (Dante in the Dark Wood)
18
Dante’s Inferno, cont.


Because of the beasts, Virgil tells Dante that
he must take a different path, and thus pass
through Hell and see the eternal punishment
of the sinners before being able to reach
Heaven.
Virgil has been sent by Beatrice, a woman
Dante once loved, but who has since died
and earned an honored place among those
in heaven.
19
Dante’s Inferno, cont.

At first Dante hesitates to follow Virgil, and
protests his own unworthiness:



“But why am I to go? Who allows me to? I am not
Aeneas, I am not Paul, neither I nor any many would
think me worthy” (II. 31-33).
Virgil explains that Dante is not worthy, but that
Beatrice’s pity for him prompted her to send help
so that Dante’s soul would not be lost.
The two of them then begin their journey to the
underworld.
20
Dante’s Inferno, cont.


As Dante and Virgil journey through the circles
of hell, they encounter all sorts of figures.
The First Circle (Limbo), is actually a pleasant
place. It includes unbaptized but virtuous
pagans.


Virgil witness OT figures such as Noah, Moses,
Abraham, David, and Rachel taken up to heaven.
We also meet many of the Trojans: Hector,
Aeneas, Latinus and his daughter Lavinius.
21
Dante’s Inferno, cont.

Throughout, Dante seamlessly
weaves the Judeo-Christian
and Greco-Roman traditions
together.


In the second circle, Lust,
Dante includes figures such as
Dido and Achilles.
Among the Perjurers is
Potiphar’s Wife, and among the
soothsayers is Tiresias.
Image Credit: commons.wikimedia.org (Dante and Virgil)
22
Dante’s Inferno, cont.
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Dante’s depiction of Hell is full of creative, vivid
images and settings.
Each sin’s punishment in Inferno is a
contrapasso, a sort of inversion of the sin itself.



Inspired by Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica
For example, sorcerers, astrologers, and false
prophets have their heads twisted around on
their bodies backward, so that they “found it
necessary to walk backward, / because they
could not see ahead of them.”
Flatterers, on the other hand, are immersed in
excrement.
23
Dante’s Inferno, cont.
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
As they journey throughout hell, Virgil
functions as a sort of personification of
human rationality.
Dante is largely passive, mostly observing.
24
Dante’s Inferno, cont.

At the bottom of hell is a large frozen lake,
and trapped in the ice are sinners guilty of
treachery.
Image Credit: commons.wikimedia.org (Dante and Virgil on Frozen Lake)
25
Dante’s Inferno, cont.
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
In the very center of Hell
is Lucifer, guilty of the
ultimate form of treachery
in his rebellion against
God.
Lucifer a monstrous
beast, his body halfway
frozen in ice, perpetually
refreezing the lake with
his beating wings. He has
three faces, each a
different color: red,
yellow, and black.

Twisted inversion of the
trinity.
Image Credit: commons.wikimedia.org (Dante and Virgil Encounter Lucifer)
26
Dante’s Inferno, cont.

Dante and Virgil escape Hell by climbing over
Satan’s body, passing through the center of
the earth, and emerging in the Southern
hemisphere on the morning of Easter
Sunday.

Numerological significance of three days
27
Dante’s Inferno, cont.

Man unable to save himself in a Christian
view.


Dependence, humility, waiting
Consider the first scene in The Divine
Comedy:

Dante is undeserving, but Beatrice has had
compassion on him.
28
Dante’s Inferno, cont.


View of Heroism
Importance of the Individual
29
Dante’s Inferno, cont.

Moral Development of Dante



Dante’s journey through the underworld
represents process of moral development.
Dante’s attitude towards sin changes.
At the outset of the journey, Dante often
sympathizes with the sinners, even weeping on
account of them.
Over time, he recognizes sin for what it is, and by
the time he reaches the final circle, he is willing to
add to their punishments.
30
Dante’s Inferno, cont.

Contrast with Greco-Roman works


For the Greeks and Romans, the focus was on
the physical world, while the afterlife was drab and
empty.
With Dante and medieval Christians, it was the
opposite. Dante’s dreary portrayal of life in the
beginning canto stands in dramatic contrast to his
vivid depictions of the afterlife.
31
The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400)



Formed the foundation of the English
tradition in literature
Greatest English poet of the Middle Ages
Life


Born to a middle-class merchant family
Became a servant at a royal court and
climbed his way up to the upper classes of
society
Image Credit: commons.wikimedia.org (Geoffrey Chaucer)
32
The Canterbury Tales, cont.




Chaucer spent his life connected to nobility.
1359-1360 – He participated in King’s military
expeditions, was captured in France and
ransomed by the King.
1367 – He worked as a squire for the King,
undertaking a number of diplomatic trips to
places such as Spain, France, and Italy.
1374 – He became the Controller of Customs in
London, but resigned in 1386.
33
The Canterbury Tales, cont.



Chaucer maintained a stable position during
turbulent political climate of the late 14th century.
Richard II was deposed in 1389 and then
murdered by Henry Bolingbroke, who became
Henry IV.
Though Chaucer was a member of King
Richard’s part, he had also maintained
relationships with Henry’s father, John of Gaunt,
and with Henry himself, so his pension was
renewed without problem.
34
The Canterbury Tales, cont.


Unlike Dante, Chaucer apparently did not hold
strong political convictions.
Again, unlike Dante, Chaucer’s religious views
seem to have been without any special intensity,
though orthodox.
35
The Canterbury Tales, cont.



It is unclear whether Chaucer was appreciated
or even known as a poet during his life.
Dante makes himself the protagonist of The
Divine Comedy, even placing himself in the
circle of the six greatest poets in history.
Chaucer, on the other hand, is quite selfdeprecating when portraying himself in The
Canterbury Tales.
36
The Canterbury Tales, cont.
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

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Dante is a stern moralist.
Chaucer is a gentle satirist.
Dante’s characters are simple, direct flat.
Chaucer’s characters are complex.
37
The Canterbury Tales, cont.

Chaucer’s career as a poet can be divided
into three stages

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
1st (1360s): wrote primarily under the influence of
the fashionable French court poetry of the time
2nd (1370s): influenced by Italian poets Dante and
Boccaccio. Works include House of Fame and
Troilus and Criseyde
3rd (1380s): known as the English period,
comprises The Canterbury Tales, begun c. 1386
and never completed
38
The Canterbury Tales, cont.

The Canterbury Tales

Written in English


Middle English – what was
read has been significantly
modernized
Like Dante, Chaucer chose
to write in vernacular
language of his country.
Most of the nobility spoke
and read in French, while
the language of the Church
was Latin.
Image credit: commons.wikimedia.org (Canterbury Tales Manuscript)
39
The Canterbury Tales, cont.


Premise: tales presented as part of a storytelling contest by a group of pilgrims as they
travel together on a journey from London to
Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas
Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
The prize for this contest is a free meal at the
Tabard Inn at Southwark upon their return.
40
The Canterbury Tales, cont.



26 pilgrims actually described; 29 referenced.
Chaucer is one of the pilgrims for total of 30.
The plan was to tell two tales each on the way to
Canterbury and two more tales on the way back
(30 pilgrims x 4 tales=120 total tales planned).
Unclear if Chaucer really meant to write 120,
although it is clear the links between the tales
are unfinished.
41
The Canterbury Tales, cont.

Chaucer brings innovation to this form
 Ties teller to the tale
 More dialogue between tales—some are
told as responses to others
 Wider cross-section of the culture than had
been covered before
42
The Canterbury Tales, cont.

General Prologue


The prologue is an example of an estates satire, a
medieval genre in which representative types of a
culture where portrayed with their vices emphasized.
Chaucer’s characters are, as we noted before, more
complex and realistic than usual in this genre.
43
The Canterbury Tales, cont.
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Pilgrimages in the Middle Ages were more of a
holiday than a religious journey
Chaucer’s pilgrims seem to be primarily in a holiday
mood: eating, drinking, joking, and story-telling along
the way
They pass by many religious shrines on their way to
Canterbury without stopping
Not much soul-searching takes place
Wide range of tales that span a number of genres,
from the philosophical, chivalric tales of the Knight
down to the crude and vulgar stories of the Miller and
the Reeve
44
The Canterbury Tales, cont.

The Pardoner’s Prologue
 Pardoner is a hypocrite, but
openly so.
 His relics are fake.
 Before giving his story, he
gives many examples of
people overcome by
gluttony.
Image Credit: commons.wikimedia.org (The Pardoner)
45
The Canterbury Tales, cont.

The Pardoner’s Tale

A medieval genre called an “exemplum”– a short story
similar to a parable that preachers might use to bring
life to a sermon
46
The Canterbury Tales, cont.

The Pardoner’s Tale
 An allegory about death, greed
 Three young men set out to take revenge on a
character named “Death” after he kills one of
their old friends
 The meet an old man (maybe death himself)
who directs them to an old tree, where he says
they will find death
47
The Canterbury Tales, cont.

The Pardoner’s Tale, cont.
 Instead of finding death
under the tree, the young
men find a treasure.
 They end up killing each
other over it.
 One leaves, and the other
two plot to kill him.
 He returns with poisoned
wine.
Image credit: commons.wikimedia.org (Tree)
48
The Canterbury Tales, cont.


As the Pardoner ends his memorized, stock tale,
he forgets he has already told the other pilgrims
he is a fake—either that or he’s just trying to be
funny.
The host is not amused. The Knight—one of the
more noble souls on the pilgrimage—has to
come between the two and intervene.
49
The Canterbury Tales, cont.

Themes of the Pardoner’s prologue and tale
 The immediate message of his exemplum: the
wages of sin is death
 A critique of Catholicism
 Latin, papal bulls
 Pardoner – tragic figure, or villain?
 Tension between teller and tale

Effect on interpretation
50
What’s next?




Complete reading assignments.
Complete writing assignments.
Answer discussion questions.
Complete unit quiz.
51
References
McAllister, E. J. World literature from a Christian perspective: Volume I. Unpublished
Manuscript.
Puchner, M., Akbari, S. C., Denecke, W., Fuchs, B., Levine, C., Lewis, P., & Wilson,
E. (2014). The Norton anthology of western literature: Volume I (9th ed.).
New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
52
Image References
Dell’Altissimo, C. (c. 1552 – 1568). Dante [Painting]. Retrieved from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri#/media/File:Dante_Alighieri_-_Serie_Gioviana.jpg
Dore, G. (1861–1868). Illustration 1 of Divine Comedy [Engraving]. Retrieved from
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Gustave_Dore_Inferno1.jpg
_____. (1861–1868). Illustration 25 of Divine Comedy [Engraving].
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=dore+inferno&title=Special:Search&go=Go#/media/File:Gustave_Dore_Inferno
25.jpg
_____. (1861–1868). Illustration 32 of Divine Comedy [Engraving]. Retrieved from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Dore_Inferno32.jpg
Ellesmere Manuscript Knight Portrait [Photograph of manuscript]. (2006). Retrieved from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ellesmere_Chaucer#/media/File:Ellesmere_Manuscript_Knight_Portrait.jpg
Geoffrey Chaucer [Illustration]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucer#/media/File:Geoffrey_Chaucer.jpg
Stock, H. J. (1922). Dante and Virgil Encounter Lucifer in Hell [Painting]. Retrieved from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_John_Stock_-_Dante_and_Virgil_Encounter_Lucifer_in_Hell.jpg
Von Leypold, C. J. (1824). Trees in the moonlight [Painting]. Retrieved from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trees_in_the_moonlight.jpg
The Pardoner in the Ellesmere manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales [Photograph of manuscript]. (2013). Retrieved from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ellesmere_Chaucer#/media/File:The_Pardoner_-_El…
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