Download Dante's Inferno Study Guide
Introduction
So you’re going to teach Dante’s Inferno, the first part of his epic poem, The Divine Comedy. Whether it’s your first or hundredth time, Inferno has been a mainstay of English classrooms for generations. While it has its challenging spots—complex language, violent imagery, difficult thematic content—teaching this text to your class will be rewarding for you and your students. Studying Inferno will give them unique insight into the medieval Catholic worldview as well as Dante’s profoundly influential vision of human life. This guide provides some of the most salient aspects of the text before you begin teaching.
Note: This content is available to Teacher Subscribers in a convenient, formatted pdf.
Facts at a Glance
- Publication Date: 1472
- Recommended Grade Levels: 11th, 12th, undergraduate
- Author: Dante Alighieri
- Country of Origin: Italy
- Genre: Epic Poem
- Literary Period: Middle Ages
- Conflict: Person vs. Self, Person vs. Person, Person vs. Supernatural
- Narration: First-Person
- Setting: Florence, Italy, 1300
- Dominant Literary Devices: Terza Rima Verse, Religious Allegory, Allusion
- Mood: Sweeping, Grave, Penitential
Texts that Go Well with Inferno
The Aeneid (19 BCE) of Virgil is one of the foundational texts of the Western literary canon. The poem follows the Trojan hero Aeneas in his voyage across the Mediterranean to Italy, where he sows the seeds of the Roman civilization. Virgil’s magnum opus was among Dante’s greatest influences. Consider pairing book 6 of the The Aeneid, in which Aeneas descends to the Underworld, with Dante’s Inferno.
Purgatorio (1316) and Paradiso (1320), by Dante Alighieri, complete Dante’s journey in The Divine Comedy after Inferno. Readers who are particularly stirred by Inferno
(The entire section is 536 words.)