Topic Research: Dante's Inferno

After reading through different parts of Dante's Inferno I feel like I've developed a better understanding of the different possible roads I could take in making my own story. While I've got some ideas, I haven't quite ironed out the details. Hopefully after reading this I can get some helpful comments on what the next best step may be!

1. One of the first ideas that came to mind was to tell the story of Dante traversing through Hell's circles from the point of view of Lucifer. In the original story we don't see an interaction between Dante and Lucifer really. Most of Dante's experience of Hell is passive, but what if we changed it to an active experience? Perhaps Dante only thinks he's touring Hell when in reality he belongs there and Lucifer tries to actively keep him from escaping.

2. My next story line idea requires Dante to take an active role. The plot for this would be something along the lines of Dante searching for someone in particular to save from Hell while he encounters other people he knew in his lifetime along the way. Dante has to battle through different circles of Hell to save a friend after he wakes up one day in one of the circles of Hell. I'm not sure if this rendition would include the presence of Virgil, his guide in the original story, or if he would discover his way through his interactions with the people he meets.

3. This third idea is still a little shaky. In this rendition I have Dante traveling through Hell and gaining knowledge about each circle from Virgil who guides him. As they walk through Virgil tells of the legend of how a worthy soul would one day come to shepherd righteous souls, that happened to become lost in Hell, to a gateway that they could pass through that would bring them to Heaven. By the end of Dante's journey through Hell he would come to realize that Virgil was preparing him to take on this task, and he becomes the shepherd for the good souls as Virgil rises up to Heaven. I feel like this story may need some more appearances of divine power to hint at the righteousness within Dante's own soul. Or maybe throughout his tour he overcomes some inner evil and develops a more righteous soul that allows him to take this position in Hell but because of his sin he is not allowed into Heaven for a certain period of time.

A depiction of the different circles of Hell. An engraving by J. Wierix found on wikimedia.

Bibliography

Dante's Inferno from the  Dante Unit in the Un-Textbook

 

Topic Brainstorm for StoryBook

Before looking at any of the suggestions for topic choices I thought I should take some time to think to myself if I had any stories in mind that I was already leaning towards. After a brief moment I felt like I would enjoy doing something with Dante's Inferno, some sort of Peter Pan story, or even a story involving the tale of Robin Hood. With these in mind, I jumped into the list of suggested topics to see what other ideas I might come across.

1. Dante's Inferno

Well, I have never read the Divine Comedy myself but I have heard bits and pieces of it from different pieces of literature and from a philosophy class I have taken. I find Dante's description of the different levels of hell fascinating and appreciate the imagery he uses in describing them. I also like the way that he presents hell via a guide named Virgil who takes you down through each unique level. I'm not sure in what manner I would change the story to make it my own. Perhaps it would be interesting to take the point of view of the devil trying to keep Dante's soul in hell.

Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood Meets Little John For The First Time. This is a photo of a famous sculpture in Sherwood Forest near Nottinghamshire in Great Britain.

2. Robin Hood

Ever since I saw the Disney cartoon version of Robin Hood as a kid I've loved this story. I like the idea of a character that lives outside the law, because it is unjust, and takes from those who are greedy and gives to those in need. The idea of a good criminal always has interested me. If I was to use this for my StoryBook I might consider changing the setting of the original story. The original story seems to take place in medieval England, but in my revision I would have it take place in the Wild West during the Land Run era. I think using that setting would allow enough similarities for most people to recognize the influence from the original story.

3. Peter Pan

While I thoroughly enjoyed the Disney cartoon of Peter Pan, I think I would have to say that Hook was my all-time favorite Pan depiction. The original story of Peter Pan was written by a Scottish novelist named J.M. Barrie and despite being a huge fan of the story I can't say that I've ever read the original. What made me remember this story was the example linked above which takes you to a StoryBook made by a previous student. His adaptation was so enjoyable I'm strongly considering pursuing my own for this project. That being said I'm not sure what approach I would take towards a revision. Maybe I will rely more heavily on the Hook adaptation and write about something to do with Rufio, the Lost Boy who is in charge while Peter Pan was gone.

4. Beowulf

Since I had chosen three topic that I already had some sort of knowledge about prior to reading the list of suggestions, I thought I should pick a story that I hadn't had much experience with before. Beowulf is the tale of a strong English warrior who slays monsters. While the previous heroes/explorers I chose tend to rely on agility or cunning Beowulf relies on a little more on strength than speed to overcome obstacles and defeat the evil in the story. I have heard of Beowulf but never looked much into it and decided this would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about this character. I'm not sure how I would write my own revision of the Beowulf story. Maybe there should be a plot twist involving Beowulf being a monster himself and that is how he is able to defeat these other monsters and obtain superhuman strength.