Inferno 34
Study Guide Questions for Canto Thirty-Four
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Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)
Fear, Fortitude, Light vs. Darkness
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
To what did Dante compare his first glimpse of Dis (Satan)?
What was the situation of most of the souls in this innermost area of the ninth circle of Hell (Judecca)?
What was the Devil said to have “once” possessed?
What was Dante’s initial reaction to gazing upon the Devil?
How is Satan’s stature and form described?
What was said to be the source of the ice and bitter cold?
Who was Satan chewing upon?
In what manner did Dante and Virgil exit Hell?
Where did Dante and Virigil emerge?
What explanation did Virgil give as to how Satan came to be where they found him?
What does Dante lay his eyes upon right as Inferno comes to an end?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
What idea is Dante trying to communicate to the reader from the fact that in the lowest and innermost part of hell “the shades are all covered up in ice” whereas a little further from the center and bottom the heads of the souls were still exposed?
Why would Dante refer to Dis (Satan) as “the creature who once had a lovely face?”
Dante said, upon seeing the devil, “I did not die, did not remain alive. Think for yourself, if wisdom buds in you, what I became, deprived of life and death.” What did he become? What is Dante getting at?
Why might Dante have imagined Satan with three faces?
How should the reader interpret the different colors of the three faces of Satan? What might these represent?
What might be inferred about the three men upon whom Satan is chewing?
Why did Virgil have to turn himself to “face the devils shanks” as he climbed upon him?
Dante called Satan “the king of Hell” in the first line of this Canto. Having read the whole Canto, in what ways might this be accurate? In what ways might this title also be considered rather deceiving?
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
Virgil proclaimed, “Hell has nothing more for us to see.” Having now gone on this literary tour of Hell with Dante, what do you think the main purpose of this trip was for Dante? What are you as the reader supposed to take away from your time in Hell? Do you think that you and Dante are meant to learn the same thing(s) or different things from this trip? Do you think it has been beneficial to read Dante’s conception of Hell? Why or why not?
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read Job 1:1-12, Luke 10:17-20, and Revelation 12. What do you notice about where Satan is in Job and where he ends up upon the coming of Christ into the world? What should be inferred from these things?
Read Revelation 20:7-10 and Matthew 25:31-46. From these passages, what should we make of calling Satan “the king of Hell?”