| 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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