Divine Comedy-I: Inferno Lesson Plan

In contrast to the way that he treated Francesca da Rimini, Dante is quite harsh to Filippo Argenti. How does this behavior reflect Dante's own background and experiences?

Although it is not explicitly stated in the text, Dante's tense run-in with Filippo Argenti is clearly a reflection of his political leanings. Some students will guess this relatively quickly and suggest that he belonged to the Ghibelline faction that so beleaguered Dante in his life (as a matter of fact, Argenti was a Black Guelph). In any case, as other students might point out, this is the first time that we've seen how Dante reacts when faced with one of his old political foes. In contrast to his...