Dante’s Divine Comedy | ||
The epic was the literary form of choice for some of antiquity’s greatest poets. Epics were | Párr. 1 | |
written to celebrate the achievements of a hero—often partly divine or possessed of | ||
exceptional strength and valor—and the stories were often allegories of transitional | ||
moments in history, such as the birth of a nation or the conquest of an enemy. For example, | ||
5 | while Homer’s Iliad is the story of the hero Achilles, it is also, more importantly, about the | |
defeat of Troy by the great armies of Greece. Such poems often weave together the | ||
contemporary with the mythic, and their heroes play key roles in building civilization. | ||
Long after the fall of classical civilizations, the epic poem remained the favored | Párr. 2 | |
literary form through which to celebrate national power. For example, English poet | ||
10 | Edmund Spenser’s 1590 epic The Faerie Queene is a paean to the ascendancy of Elizabeth | |
I and her country, while Italian Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, written in 1516, | ||
applauds the increasingly influential House of Este. | ||
Dante’s The Divine Comedy fits into the postclassical epic tradition—it is long, | Párr. 3 | |
heroic, allegorical, and often nationalistic, reflecting Dante’s active role in Florentine | ||
15 | politics. However, it is also unusual and innovative in a variety of ways. Whereas in earlier | |
epics the omniscient narrator remained “outside” the story, Dante sets the narrator within | ||
the text; the book audaciously uses Tuscan (Italian) vernacular language rather than | ||
traditional Latin; and Dante stretches the form of the epic by combining classical thought | ||
and mythological motifs with contemporary European philosophy and Christian | ||
20 | symbolism. | |
Dante takes the reader on a journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven—from sin | Párr. 4 | |
and despair to ultimate salvation—mapping out the geography of each realm in detail, | ||
evoking an almost physical reality. The work recalls many classical epics that describe | ||
journeys to the underworld and, like earlier epics, it is an allegory: the journey through | ||
25 | the underworld is symbolic of Dante’s search for personal meaning. | |
Originally, Dante called this poem simply the Commedia, or “Comedy,” which at | Párr. 5 | |
the time was a term used for works in which the difficulties or challenges faced by the | ||
protagonist were resolved in a broadly happy ending (in contrast to the classical tragedies, | ||
which focused on loss and suffering). It was the 14th-century poet Giovanni Boccaccio who | ||
30 | first called the poem “Divine,” a reflection on its spiritual content as well as the extreme | |
beauty of its style. | ||
When Dante began The Divine Comedy —a work that was to take him 12 years to | Párr. 6 | |
complete—he was already established as a poet, working in the dolce stil novo (“sweet new | ||
style”), a movement characterized by its introspection, and liberal use of metaphor and | ||
35 | symbolism. Politics and personal passions were the subjects of his poetry, and late 13th- | |
century Italy provided plenty of inspiration. | ||
Dante himself was embroiled in the political life of his beloved Florence, which was | Párr. 7 | |
involved, along with the rest of Italy, in struggles for power between the church (the Pope) | ||
and the state (the Holy Roman Emperor). Key figures from these conflicts were portrayed | ||
40 | in The Divine Comedy, and the inclusion of real people provided a degree of sensationalism | |
that contributed to the poem’s success. Dante was eventually exiled from Florence for his | ||
political allegiances and, although it greatly pained him, his removal from public affairs | ||
allowed him the distance to produce his celebrated allegory of the philosophy, morals, and | ||
beliefs of his medieval world. | ||
45 | The Divine Comedy is structured in thirds, reflecting the significance of the number | Párr. 8 |
three in Christian theology (where it symbolizes the trinity of the Father, the Son, and the | ||
Holy Spirit). The journey comprises three books (“Hell,” “Purgatory,” and “Heaven”), plus | ||
one introductory chapter, to make 100 cantos in total. It is written in a verse style called | ||
terza rima, an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme, which was developed by Dante. | ||
50 | Told from a first-person perspective, the work is in the form of an eschatological | Párr. 9 |
journey (one about death and the afterlife). The story begins in a dark forest, a symbol of | ||
sinful life on Earth. Dante attempts to climb a mountain to find his way out of the forest, | ||
but his path is blocked by wild animals (which represent sins). Hopeless, weak, and in need | ||
of spiritual guidance, he meets the Roman poet Virgil, who has been sent to guide him by | ||
55 | Beatrice, the lost love of his past. For Dante, Virgil represents classical thinking, reason, | |
and poetry. Virgil assures Dante he will achieve salvation—but only after he has journeyed | ||
through the afterlife. The two then begin their journey, starting with the descent into Hell. | ||
Dante’s hell is situated below the city of Jerusalem and is shaped like a gigantic | Párr. 10 | |
funnel that leads to the very center of the Earth. Outside Hell is a “vestibule” containing the | ||
60 | souls of those who in life did neither good nor evil. Hell itself is made up of nine circles, | |
which contain the souls of sinners, from the least offensive (the unbaptized) to the most | ||
offensive (the treacherous). A wall, guarded by devils, impedes Dante’s progress to Lower | ||
Hell, where violent and malicious sinners are punished. At Hell’s core, trapped in ice, is a | ||
winged, three-faced Satan. | ||
65 | The first book of The Divine Comedy describes the levels of hell, and the ways in | Párr. 11 |
which punishments are tailored to the sins of individuals. The souls of flatterers, for | ||
example, spend eternity buried in excrement, a reminder of the excrement that they spoke | ||
on Earth. Seducers are tormented by horned devils who crack their whips over them until | ||
they become lumps of well-beaten flesh. In his visceral descriptions of the punishments and | ||
70 | layout of hell, Dante invites readers to reflect on their own failings, to change direction, and | |
to live in harmony with other people and with God. | ||
When that journey to the bottom-most reaches of hell is complete, Dante and Virgil | Párr. 12 | |
begin the ascent of Mount Purgatory, with its circular terraces, where the souls of the | ||
penitent undergo a different kind of suffering on each level to purge themselves of sin and | ||
75 | enter the Earthly Paradise. Purgatory is a place for sinners who lived selfishly on Earth, but | |
showed enough remorse to offer hope for salvation. In purgatory, they may purge | ||
themselves in preparation for entering heaven. As they climb the mountain, passing through | ||
seven levels representing the seven deadly sins, Dante and Virgil meet individuals painfully | ||
working to overcome the flaws that led to their sins. Proud souls, for example, carry huge | ||
80 | stones on their backs while they learn humility. | |
Once out of Purgatory, Beatrice takes over as Dante’s guide: this is because Virgil | Párr. 13 | |
was born before Christ and therefore could not enter the “Blessed Realms.” Beatrice can be | ||
seen as the eternal feminine guide, the heart and soul of humankind. It is she who | ||
intervenes for Dante’s salvation and through her, Dante comes to understand the love of | ||
85 | God. Dante journeys through Heaven’s nine spheres, each of which is linked with a | |
celestial body, in line with medieval Earth-centric ideas about the structure of the universe, | ||
and with the hierarchy of angels. Beyond the spheres is God in the Empyrean—a heaven | ||
beyond time and space. | ||
Dante adapted the form of the classical epic, with its adventurer-heroes and multiple | Párr. 14 | |
90 | gods, to express a profound vision of Christian destiny, incorporating both personal | |
and historical events into the story. Innumerable artists and writers have been inspired by The | ||
Divine Comedy, and American-born writer T.S. Eliot described it as “the highest point that | ||
poetry has ever reached or ever can reach”. | ||
95 | Fuente: | |
Canton, J. & D. K. (2016). I found myself within a shadowed forest: The Divine Comedy (c.1308-1320), Dante Alighieri. En Gilbert, R., Loxley, D. Symour-Ure, K., Walisiewicz, M. y Westhorp, C. (Eds.). The Literature Book (62-65). Nueva York: DK-Penguin Random House. | ||
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