LIT 231
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  Inferno, Cantos XXVII-XXXIV

Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper:

1. How does Dante's portrayal of Bertran de Born in hell fit with Bertran's own poetry?  Compare what Dante writes with Bertan's poem, "In Praise of War" (available in SOCS under “Resources”).  What is Dante saying about Bertran's poetry?  Why is Bertran in hell?  What is his deeper sin (besides sowing dissension)?
2. What is Ugolino's sin?  He tells a heart-wrenching story about his own death by starvation with his sons, but there is something fundamentally wrong with his story.  Like so many sinners in Dante's hell, Ugolino unwittingly reveals his own sinfulness and evil as he tries to justify himself and his actions.  What does Ugolino do that is fundamentally wrong and evil?  How is his thinking fundamentally flawed?  Ugolino is in the circle of the traitors.  How is he a traitor in the story he tells?  Is Ugolino's story a good culmination for the entire Inferno?  He's the last major sinner that we'll meet.  Is he a fit conclusion to Dante's experiences in hell?  How is he a fit emblem for perfect evil?  How does Dante participate in his sin?  Are you shocked by Dante's behavior in Canto XXXIII?  Some Biblical passages to keep in mind as you read Ugolino's story:  "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4 and Deuteronomy 8:3); "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26); "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35); "This is my body, which is given for you" (Luke 22:19); "O taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8); "Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?" (Matthew 7:9).
3. Is Satan an anticlimax after Ugolino?  Is the last canto of the Inferno a disappointment?  If so, what might Dante be saying about the nature of sin and evil by ending his poem this way?