Dante's Inferno (Day Four / Canti 21 - 27)

Please (1) take one of the questions below into consideration as you write for your blog and then (2) choose your own quotation from the text for commentary and analysis:

1. Given that we have now almost completed the Inferno, do you feel the text is "character driven"? (Meaning, are Dante and Virgil propelling the story along?) If not, then what? Why do you think Dante chooses to write the epic in this manner?

2. We have a reference (Canto 21, vv. 110-112) to the fact that Dante is following in Christ's path when he had his own descent into hell. What do you make of the fact that Dante puts himself here in the place where Christ once walked? (Don't forget that this journey takes place over Easter weekend, with the descent into Hell occurring on Good Friday). What can we tease out from all this?

3. We discover in Canto 22 that the demons make mistakes and can be tricked by the condemned souls. What does this have to say about the power of the demons here? Who is in charge and why? How might this play into Dante's world view?

4. What do you make of the fact that Dante places Ulysses in hell (Canto 26)? If you have ready the Odyssey, might this seem at odds (perhaps?) with the Ulysses we find there? What do you make of Dante's decision?