English (2T)

• We Wear the Mask is about oppressed African-Americans having to wear a mask to conceal their true feelings and opinions
• We Wear the Mask was written

  1895
• We Wear the Mask is considered one of Paul Laurence Dunbar's best works, even cited by scholars
• We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar uses the Historical approach
• Types of Literary Theories

  • Historical
  • Naturalist
  • Allegorical
• Literary Theories concern the type of content the literary piece uses
• The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant uses the naturalist approach
• Characters in The Necklace

  • Mathilde Loisel
  • Monsieur Loisel
  • Madame Forestier
• The Necklace was published

  1850
• The Necklace teaches the dangers of discontent, materialism, and deception
• Summary of The Necklace
• Dante Alligheri is the poet and author of The Divine Comedy
• The Divine Comedy is an epic poem and allegory divided into three books, each set in one of the three realms of the afterlife
• Dante was born in Florence, Italy during the Middle Ages and was adopted by Brunetto Latini after his parents died
• The Divine Comedy is considered a comedy because it has a dark start and a happy end
• Dante was in love with a girl named Beatrice whom he met at 9 years old, but she died young
• Historical events relevant to Dante's time include the conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines
• Summary of Dante's Inferno, Canto 1 - Dark Woods of Error
• Dante’s Inferno: 'Canto 1 - Dark Woods of Error'
• The Guelph won but eventually split due to corruptions in the church
• Types of Guelphs

  • White Guelphs: Against corruptions of church but not religion itself
  • Black Guelphs: For Church
• Dante's Descent

  1. Dante must endure a battle through hell

  2. Dante made an invocation to his muse

  3. Dante was reassured by Virgil mentioning Beatrice

  4. Dante mentions Aeneas and St. Paul as the only ones who got out of hell, considering himself unworthy compared to them

  5. Beatrice, St. Lucia, and Virgin Mary were concerned for him
• The Ghibillies (Sided with Empire) fought
• Dante's encounter in the Dark Woods

  1. Dante was lost in the woods

  2. Met three beasts representing his moral failures: leopard - malice and fraud, lion - violence, she-wolf - incontinence

  3. Dante met Virgil, sent by Beatrice to guide him, who was an extension of the real Virgil, a Roman poet
• Dante's experience at the Gate of Hell

  1. Law of Divine Retribution: every sin has a punishment; contrapasso

  2. Dante saw the opportunists, souls who are neither good nor bad, refused to take a stand, chased a banner, chased by insects

  3. Dante brought to River Acheron with Charon, who refuses them for Dante is alive and has hope for salvation

  4. Dante sees Pope Celestine, who rejected his role as a pope/abdicated/coward, taken by Boniface VIII (Benedetto) by gaslighting
• People in Modern Era in Limbo

  • Atheists, agnostics, different religions, indigenous
• Punishment in Limbo

  Sorrow and hopelessness, no torment
• Biblical Figures spared in Limbo


  • Adam, Abraham, Noah, David, Moses, Rachel, etc.
• Nature of Sin in Limbo

  Not a consequence of sin but an outcome of being born before Christ
• Circle One: LIMBO

  • A circle for virtuous pagans born before Christianity, not baptized, no torture
  • Separated into the Citadel into three: the philosophers, the naturalists, the heroes and heroines
• Virgil's group in Limbo

  • Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan
• Nature of Sin in The Carnal

  Lust: abandoning of human reason for appetite/desires, incontinence, inability to control desires
• Contrapasso in The Carnal

  Since they cannot control themselves from their desires, they too cannot control themselves from the winds
• Punishment in The Carnal

  Punished by swirls of violent winds
• Characters in The Carnal

  • Tristan, Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen, Paris, Achilles
• People in Bolgia 4: False prophets

  • Tiresias
• People in Bolgia 3: Simoniacs

  • Pope Nicholas III
• People in Bolgia 2: Flatterers

  • Interminelly, Thais
• Circle 8: Malebolge (Deceit)


  • Bolgia 1: Seducers and panderers whipped by demons naked
  • Bolgia 2: Flatterers drown in human waste
  • Bolgia 3: Simoniacs head-first in hole with burning feet
  • Bolgia 4: False prophets with heads twisted 180 degrees
  • Bolgia 5: Grafters or corrupt politicians immersed in lake of boiling tar guarded by demons
  • Bolgia 6: Hypocrites wear heavily gilded cloak
• People in Bolgia 1: Seducers and panderers

  • Jason, Vendedico