Inferno 5

Study Guide Questions for Canto Five

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Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Fate, Light vs. Darkness, Indulgence

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. How did the souls entering Hell get assigned to their proper place?

2. What warning did Minos give to Dante?

3. What punishment are the souls enduring in the second circle of Hell?

4. Dante said the torment in this part of Hell was “designed for the damned” who committed what kind of sins?

5. What was Dante’s reaction to seeing the “innumerable shades” in that place?

6. When Dante was able to speak with Francesca what word did she repeat most frequently?

7. According to Francesca, what awaited the person who “quenched” her and Paolo’s lives? 

8. What had Francesca and Paolo been doing which encouraged them toward their sinful deeds?

9. What happened to Dante after listening to Francesca’s story?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. Where have we seen Virgil respond in the same manner before as he did to Minos?

2. What does it mean to have “made reason subject to desire?”

3. Of Semiramis it is said that “she altered ‘lust’ to ‘just’ by her decree.” What does that mean? 

4. What do most of the souls who are named in this circle have in common?

5. How is Achilles different from most people in this circle of Hell? Why might it still be fitting for him to be there according to the story?

6. Why did Dante refer to the people here as being part of “Dido’s flock?”

7. Why do you think Francesca repeated the same word so much in her speech to Dante?

8. What should we understand “the realm of Cain” to refer to?

9. Why was Lancelot’s story so harmful to Francesca and Paolo?

10. Why is the type of punishment seen in Canto Five fitting to the crimes (sins) of those who have been consigned there?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. What does it mean to be led by reason? What does it mean to be led by desire? How can we avoid participating in the kinds of sins which condemned the souls in the second circle of Hell who “made reason subject to desire?”

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Relate the following passages to our present Canto.

   1. Jude 1:10

   2. Leviticus 19:17-19

   3. Romans 6:1-14