Dante’s Inferno in Season 3 Episode 5 of Community
By Annie Schlanger
As we’ve learned throughout this class, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy was a profound piece of literature at the time. Dante’s writing style transformed the world of poetry as we know it; the content of this work addressed pressing contemporary issues of his time in the realms of politics, religion, and Italian social life. The Divine Comedy was an extremely important story in the twelfth century. However, what sets Dante’s work apart from others is the continuation of its significance, both throughout time and space. Today, people from all over the world know about The Divine Comedy, and its content has remained relevant through the test of time.
As we consume media on a daily basis in this fast-paced society, it is easy for a trend to leave as quickly as it came. Popularity is fleeting for any one idea in our lives that unconsciously revolve around everchanging social media. The more we learned about Dante’s Divine Comedy, the more I was truly surprised at how important his work still remains globally.
I fell upon my topic of choice somewhat by accident. I had been casually looking for project topics, but hadn’t chosen one seriously yet. I was gearing up for Halloween by rewatching all of the Halloween episodes of my favorite sitcom: Community. I started playing season 3, episode 5: “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps”. Right away I realized that there were obvious connections between this episode and Dante’s Divine Comedy, specifically the Inferno canticle.
In its entirety, the episode of Community pays homage to The Divine Comedy by portraying each of the seven members of the study group as one of the seven deadly sins. The plot consists of the members of the study group taking turns telling ghost stories. Britta begins. She represents the worst of the sins: pride. Britta is studying to become a psychologist, and in surveying the group for an assignment, the results showed that one member is a psychopath. In her efforts to discover who it is, she invites everyone to tell stories to try and decipher the truth. This represents pride because she takes the role of therapist when she isn’t yet professionally trained to do so. She assumes that her survey results would surely not be the one considered as the psychopath, even though she took the survey as well, as a result of her excess of pride.
Next, Abed tells his version of the story. He criticizes Britta’s version, saying it didn’t follow the correct formula for a good scary story. His criticism comes from the sin of gluttony– he over-consumes movies and TV shows, which has manifested into an attitude of righteousness when it comes to narration. After Abed’s retelling, Annie tells a story where she teaches Jeff, a vampire, to read. Her story mentions Britta being stored in Jeff’s closet for him to drink blood from whenever he wishes. This backhanded version of slut-shaming from Annie is evidence of the sin of envy. She is jealous of Jeff’s relationship with Britta and wishes she were in her position.
Troy chimes in next, with a story that signifies his character’s sin: greed. Although Troy has an easygoing exterior, his history as a popular high school quarterback has made him unconsciously greedy; he takes advantage of the special treatment he has received from being good looking and charismatic all his life. Pierce follows by telling a story of hooking up with all three girls in the study group. Throughout the show, Pierce outwardly expresses the sin of lust, as he craves for lust from any female character that he interacts with in the show. This trait is obvious in Pierce overall, but in this instance is clearly laid out as a symbol of this sin.
In this sequence of storytelling, Jeff doesn’t contribute. His character is notoriously lazy. From tricking others into doing his schoolwork to purposely signing up for blowoff classes, Jeff is a great example of the sin of sloth. He prioritizes sloth in almost every aspect of his life, and uses this sin to his advantage in many ways, including failing to participate in the spooky story conversation in any unique way. Once the others tell their stories, Shirley presents her version. In general, Shirley represents the sin of wrath. As the only Christian member of the study group, she often criticizes everyone for having a lack of moral values. Her anger towards non-Christians can be seen in several ways; in this episode, it presents itself in the way she describes the other characters. Her story portrays them as evil and lethargic.
Aside from Shirley’s contribution to the setup of the seven deadly sins, her role here also includes the more general setup of The Divine Comedy in this episode. She uses her Christian influence to suggest that a good spooky story must be based on the concept of good versus evil. Her story is of the apocalypse; the other members of the study group get left behind while she ascends to heaven. The school’s dean appears as the Devil, and tortures the study group until Shirley descends as an angel to destroy the Devil once and for all. She tells the study group she forgives them for their sins, a concept that is prevalent throughout The Comedy as a collective literary piece.
References
Harmon, D. (2009-2015). Community. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/browse?jbv=70155589.
Mandelbaum, A. (1984). The Divine Comedy. Digital Dante, https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/.
Marquis, J., Wyeld, T. (2011). The Contemporisation of Dante’s Inferno. Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6004105/authors#authors.