Background

This is the 4th book in Dan Browns series featuring character Robert
Langdon. Inferno was preceded by Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci
Code, and The Lost Symbol, all New York Times best sellers.

Major Characters
Robert Langdon: A professor of symbology at
Harvard University and the protagonist of the novel.
Bertrand Zobrist: The principle antagonist of the
novel despite committing suicide in the prologue. A
genius scientist and a madman who is obsessed with
Dante's Inferno, he is intent on solving the world's
overpopulation problem by releasing a virus.
(Felicity) Sienna Brooks: A doctor with a troubled
past and tasked with helping Langdon solve the
hidden secrets of Zobrists hologram map of hell and
the virus.
Elizabeth Sinskey: The head of the World Health
Organization who hires Langdon to find Zobrist's
virus.

Major Characters
The Provost: (a senior academic administrator). The
head of The Consortium and the secondary
antagonist. He is hired by Zobrist for location secrecy
to work on his project in peace. The Provost
knowingly hides Zobrist from the WHO other
government organizations.
Vayentha: Secondary antagonist and The
Consortium's spiked-blonde haired agent in Florence
who has orders to follow Langdon.
Christoph Brder: Head of the SRS team (part of the
European Centre for Disease Prevention and
Control) who is ordered by Sinskey to find Langdon
after she lost contact with him

Plot Nothing is what seems!!

Florence, Italy - Robert

Langdon wakes up in a
hospital with no recollection
of how he got there, what has
happened to him, or why he
is in Florence and not
Cambridge. Sienna Brookes,
a doctor caring for Langdon,
begins to explain that his
head was grazed by a bullet
and he now has a concussion
and amnesia. Before much
more can be explained,
Vayentha, a female assassin
charges through the hospital
and kills one of Langdons
doctors. Langdon and
Sienna barely escape to her
apartment.

The Image
While listening to Sienna
explain the strange night
before to him, Langdon finds
a cylinder in his jacket
containing an altered
version of Botticellis Map of
Hell. At the bottom of the
projection are the words
The truth can be glimpsed
only through the eyes of
death. Before they can
figure out more Siennas
building is raided by
soldiers in black, and they
narrowly escape.

The Mask

Upon deciphering the altered image, Langdon discovers the message CERCA
TROVA hidden in the ten layers of the Malebolge of the map. Langdon connects
the eyes of death phrase in the map to the Dante death mask. Once found, the
mask itself contains its own hidden messages leading them further into Zobrists
puzzle. The next few days are spent connecting dots, deciphering cryptic phrases
and escaping death throughout Italy.

Setting

The overall setting of the novel takes place in Florence, Italy. This is completely appropriate
to the story since the plot focuses on the protagonists knowledge pitted against the
antagonists obsession with Dante Alighieri.
Florence is fitting because it is said that Dante had two loves in his life, Beatrice and
Florence. Dante found himself in his own personal hell when Beatrice married and he was
banished from Florence forever by a ruling political faction.

Allegory Review
Allegory is a literary device in which
characters or events in a literary, visual, or
musical art form represent or symbolize
ideas and concepts.
An allegory conveys its hidden message
through symbolic figures, actions, imagery,
and/or events.
As a literary device, an allegory in its most
general sense is an extended metaphor
As a class, lets discuss how Dantes Inferno is an
allegory, as a review

The Allegory of Browns Inferno

Browns Inferno is Dantes Inferno reversed.
Dantes Inferno is an allegory of a man journeying through
Hell to save himself while metaphorically equaling every
humans journey on a path back to God.
Browns Inferno is a man on a real life journey and struggle to
save himself and the human race while metaphorically feeling
like his own personal hell.
Similar to Dantes Inferno, Browns novel is a comment on human
behavior.
Distrust of government companies
Fanatical groups
Transhumanism a movement designed to better the human race and
condition through technology and its study
Bertrand Zobrist
Over population
Virus

Questions to Consider
How does Robert Langdons journey resemble that of Dantes?
Are there 3 separate stages?
Is the meaning of the struggle the same?

What symbolic images are mirrored in Browns Inferno that also

appear in Dantes Inferno?
Pay attention to multiples of 3.
Who is similar to the guide Virgil?

VS