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Study Guide
Bibliography
Course Hero. "Inferno Study Guide." Course Hero. 17 Aug. 2016. Web. 29 May 2020. <https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Inferno/>.
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(Course Hero)
Bibliography
Course Hero. (2016, August 17). Inferno Study Guide. In Course Hero. Retrieved May 29, 2020, from https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Inferno/
In text
(Course Hero, 2016)
Bibliography
Course Hero. "Inferno Study Guide." August 17, 2016. Accessed May 29, 2020. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Inferno/.
Footnote
Course Hero, "Inferno Study Guide," August 17, 2016, accessed May 29, 2020, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Inferno/.
| Section | Summary |
|---|---|
| Canto 1 | Thirty-five-year-old Dante finds himself in a dense, dark forest, unsure of how he arrived there except that he had "aba... Read More |
| Canto 2 | It is now evening. Dante calls upon the Muses to help him remember and express what he has seen. Concerned about the jou... Read More |
| Canto 3 | Dante sees the inscription above the gates of Hell that reads "Through me the way into the suffering city." Virgil tells... Read More |
| Canto 4 | Dante awakens suddenly to the sound of loud thunder. He sees that he is at the edge of a deep, dark valley, or abyss, fr... Read More |
| Canto 5 | This canto begins by describing Dante's entry to the second circle, noting that each circle is smaller than the one befo... Read More |
| Canto 6 | Dante wakes again, this time in the third circle of Hell. He is surrounded by suffering spirits who are punished by an u... Read More |
| Canto 7 | As Virgil and Dante continue to climb downward toward the fourth circle of Hell, they are challenged by the demon Plutus... Read More |
| Canto 8 | Virgil and Dante are still in the fifth circle. They look up at the top of the tower and see flickering flames signaling... Read More |
| Canto 9 | Dante becomes afraid, seeing that Virgil was not able to command the fallen angels the way he had commanded the other cr... Read More |
| Canto 10 | Virgil leads Dante past the tombs of Epicurus, a Greek philosopher who did not believe in immortality, and his followers... Read More |
| Canto 11 | Dante is still in the sixth circle, walking along the edge of another deep, stinking abyss. Virgil advises that they sto... Read More |
| Canto 12 | The poets continue on into the ravine and come to a great pile of shattered rock. The Minotaur of Crete—part bull, part ... Read More |
| Canto 13 | Nessus leaves them on the other side of the river and they enter a dark forest where twisted trees have black leaves. Po... Read More |
| Canto 14 | Dante is overcome with love for his city, Florence, so he does as the spirit asks before leaving this ring. As Dante and... Read More |
| Canto 15 | Dante and Virgil are still in the seventh circle. They come to a group of spirits moving around who peer intently at the... Read More |
| Canto 16 | Nearing the border of the seventh circle, Dante hears the sound of water falling into the next circle of Hell. Three sha... Read More |
| Canto 17 | A beast with the face of what appears to be a trustworthy man but with the body of a serpent and a tail tipped like a sc... Read More |
| Canto 18 | Dante and Virgil arrive in the eighth circle, called Malebolge, or "evil pouches." There, in ten ditches with a deep cen... Read More |
| Canto 19 | Unlike other cantos, this one opens with Dante's energetic admonition of Simon Magus (a man living in the 1st century A.... Read More |
| Canto 20 | Dante looks down into the fourth pouch, and sees souls walking as if in a church procession. They are weeping silently. ... Read More |
| Canto 21 | Crossing the bridge into the next pouch and looking down into it, Dante sees that it contains sticky, boiling pitch (a h... Read More |
| Canto 22 | Dante is surprised by the odd "signal." However, he goes with the ten demons chosen to lead Virgil and Dante on their wa... Read More |
| Canto 23 | Virgil and Dante walk single file, and Dante thinks about how the "present fracas" is similar to one of Aesop's fables. ... Read More |
| Canto 24 | This canto begins with an extended simile that describes Virgil's changing expression and both Virgil and Dante's emotio... Read More |
| Canto 25 | As Fucci finishes speaking, he shakes his fists at God. Dante says that now he is glad for the serpents who bind Fucci's... Read More |
| Canto 26 | Dante is still in the seventh pouch of the eighth circle in this canto. Like Canto 19, it opens with an apostrophe. In t... Read More |
| Canto 27 | Granted permission from Virgil to leave, the double flame moves away. Another flame approaches—one that is making a stra... Read More |
| Canto 28 | As Dante looks into the ninth pouch, he is stunned by the amount of blood and wounds he sees. It is as if a terrible, bl... Read More |
| Canto 29 | Dante is still in the ninth pouch, shaken and hesitant to move on. Virgil reminds him that they have further to go, and ... Read More |
| Canto 30 | Dante describes examples of people who went mad because of the terrible violence they suffered. But, he says, these exam... Read More |
| Canto 31 | This canto, which is the transition between the eighth and ninth circles of Hell, begins with images of darkness. Dante ... Read More |
| Canto 32 | Dante doubts his ability to express, through his poetry, a description of the ninth circle, through which he now travels... Read More |
| Canto 33 | The sinner who is chewing on his neighbor raises his head and, wiping his mouth on the other's hair, tells Dante that he... Read More |
| Canto 34 | Virgil tells Dante they are getting very close to the king of Hell, and so he should watch carefully. It is evening and ... Read More |
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