Dante Reads Alvarez

Today, we discussed Dante's Fourfold Level of Analysis.

According to Dante Alighiere, allegories may be interpreted on four levels:

Literal or historical: the things that are actually happening in the story on a surface level.
Political: the level on which human beings relate to others in a community and in the world.
Moral or psychological: the way in which the self relates to the realm of ethics.
Spiritual: the universal level on which a person relates to the cosmos.

We talked about the following examples from Lear:

Literal: The fool mocks Lear
Political: The fool is jester and can make the King and other laugh, but at the same time, he is able to deliver the truth.
Moral: The fool’s job is to be funny, but he cares about Lear and wants him to know the truth.
Spiritual: The fool represents a person’s figurative recognition of the truth.

Literal: A father banishes his daughter because she fails to live up to his expectations.
Political: Lear is the King. He has the power to disinherit and disavow his daughter.
Moral: Cordelia was his favorite. His decision to banish her causes him internal conflict.
Spiritual: Lear feels that he failed his daughter and dies. Lear’s banishment of Cordelia, and his eventual death, represent a violation of the natural order.

In groups, you evaluated each sister. For the literal level you were instructed to pick the event that you felt was most symbolically significant.
If you were not in class today, you should definitely get this information in your notebook.

Homework:
1. Naviance Reflection - will be collected tomorrow and submitted to counselors
2. Read Ch. 7 in ITOB
3. Bring Outside Reading Book to class (Discussion #2 is due by Sunday)
4. Vocab cards due tomorrow--quiz Tuesday