1) Choose 15 to 24 lines of text that you felt were significant to theme and/or character. Type the passage into your blog and then do a close reading of these lines by considering elements of language such as diction, imagery, tone, syntax, mood, symbolism. Organize your paragraphs by focusing on key patterns within the passage and how the significance to theme or character is revealed.
2) Consider the following passage from Circle 4 where Dante and Virgil discuss Dame Fortune :
No mortal power may stay her spinning wheel.
The nations rise and fall by her decree.
None may foresee where she will set her heel:
she passes, and things pass. Man's mortal reason
cannot encompass her. She rules her sphere
as the other gods rule theirs. Season by season...
What do you think Dante is saying here about fate and fortune through this mythological figure of Dame Fortune? How does this relate to Dante's conception of God? How do you think this compares with the way fate is explored in Sophocles' works?
3) In Circle 7, the Violent are punished in three separate rounds depending on the nature of their violent tendencies. Choose one round within Circle 7 and explore an archetypal symbol that Dante uses there to explore the sin. You may, for example, look at the river of blood in Round 1 or the trees in Round 2 or the desert and fire in Round 3. Consider the archetype itself and then how Dante utilizes the symbol to enhance his own work.
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