Of Narcissists, Purgatory, Rage, Ugolino, And Our Poet Dante: INFERNO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 1 - 90

Our final episode on Count Ugolino! Yet there's so much left to say. We're going to have to pass on from this ghastly damned soul and let him return to his savage meal of Archbishop Ruggieri's brain.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I add on the condemnation of Pisa and try to come to terms one last time with this overwhelming figure from the COMEDY, a rival to Ulysses and Francesca in the amount of scholarly ink that has been spilled on their speeches.

Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:43] The passage one more time, but now through its conclusion: INFERNO, Canto XXXIII, lines 1 - 90. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[08:45] Ugolino points out Ruggieri as the traitor--and not himself!

[10:37] Ugolino is a master manipulator.

[13:04] Ugolino breaks his narrative to 1) absolve himself and 2) aggrandize himself.

[16:16] Ugolino breaks his narrative and shows his self-doubt, his humanity, as narcissists often do.

[19:05] Ugolino is a bad father, not because he doesn't comfort his sons, but because he turns to silence when he should be helping them pray to prepare for their deaths.

[22:29] Everyone debates why Ugolino is in hell, but why exactly is Archbishop Ruggieri in hell?

[25:25] Ugolino's dream anticipates the dream sequences in PURGATORIO.

[26:35] How can all Pisans deserve death if evil is an individual's choice?

[28:49] The condemnation of Pisa is Dante's attempt to bring a deep ambivalence back under control.

[32:44] Dante's rage is on full display at the end of Ugolino's monologue.