Activity on Italian Literature

The Divine Comedy

Answer the following:

A. Directions: Give the meaning of the following words. Use each word in
a sentence. (15 pts.)
1. Gluttony - habitual greed or excess in eating.
 A bellyful of gluttony will never study willingly.

2. Ferocious - exhibiting or given to extreme fierceness and unrestrained

violence and brutality
 The president came in for some ferocious criticism.

3. Dismal - depressing; dreary.

 The weather here was pretty dismal the photos are not fit for display!
4. Anguish - is defined as causing or feeling extreme pain or worry.
 A look of anguish crossed Jonny's face.
5. Ledge - a narrow horizontal surface projecting from a wall, cliff, or other
surface
 Her fall was brutally interrupted by a rock ledge about five feet down.
B. Directions: Answer the following: (25 pts.)
1. Why Dante’s Divine Comedy is called a VISION?
- The Paradiso is consequently more theological in nature than the Inferno
and the Purgatorio. However, Dante admits that the vision of heaven he
receives is merely the one his human eyes permit him to see, and thus the
vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's personal vision.
2. Why is it called Divine Comedy?
- Dante's poem is called a comedy because it has a happy, as opposed to a
tragic, ending. The poem has three parts: Inferno, Purgatory and
Paradise. Dante journeys through each of the three; if he had ended in
either of the first two, his journey would have been comedy.
3. Describe the sinners in Hell and Purgatory. How are they punished?
- The Catholic Church's definition of Purgatory implies that the souls here
have not done anything honorable enough to earn a place in Heaven.
Because Purgatory is neither Heaven nor Hell, it does not make sense for
the souls kept here to receive a punishment like the sinners in Hell do.
4. What should you do not to suffer too much in the last judgment?
- I hope that you can truly appreciate the seriousness of this. God doesn't
send someone to hell, he allows us to choose hell against his will. It is
God's will that all of us spend eternity with him. God wills that we all
experience his love, joy and presence forever. And he gives every person
the opportunities and all of the grace that they need to make this choice.