April 10th Is Dante's Inferno

  

A Few Thoughts and Questions from Iain For Our Meeting Thursday On The Inferno

Greetings. I  am not sure anything has been written about Dante's influence on Lewis, and I know that as a young student, Lewis admired the latter part of "Purgatoria"   - perhaps used in Perelandra.  I suspect that Paradiso provided backdrop for "The Great Divorce" although the progression is the reverse of the Inferno?

1. Who are Dante's guides? Why?
2. Can you identify Dante's major sources?
3. Identify the circles of  The Inferno?

4. Why the imagery of  _____  ice, fire?
5. Can you identify a Dantean usage (structure, Image, etc) in Lewis' works?

6. Why entitled "Divine Comedy?'
7. What is its purpose for Dante? For us as the readers?
8. Why a guide (Virgil and Beatrice?)
9. What is the significance of the overall structure of the Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise)?

10. What is written above the portals of the Inferno?
11. How are individual sins portrayed and also punished?
12. And the worst sin/s is/are?
13. Any themes, images, lessons drawn upon or used by Lewis  in the Science Fiction trilogy, Screwtape Letters, The great Divorce or in his overall conceptions of the world and humanity?

See you at the meeting at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble in Harrisonburg!  Or perhaps a bit earlier at Panera's for a quick dinner.