The Divine Comedy

This article is about the epic poem. For information about the band of the same name, see The Divine Comedy (band).

The Divine Comedy (in Italian "Comedia" or "Commedia", later christened "Divina" by Giovanni Boccaccio), written by Dante Alighieri between 1307 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the greatest epic poem of Italian literature, and one of the greatest of world literature.

Table of contents
1 Structure and Story
2 Thematic Concerns
3 Response and Criticism
4 External links

Structure and Story

Warning: Plot details follow.

The Divine Comedy is composed of three canticas, Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise), composed respectively of 34, 33, and 33 cantos. The verse scheme used, terza rima, is the hendecasyllable (line of eleven syllables), with the lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC...

The poet tells in the first person his travel through the three realms of the dead, lasting during Holy Week in the spring of 1300. His guide through Hell and Purgatory is the Latin poet Virgil and the guide through Paradise is Beatrice, Dante's ideal of a perfect woman.

Inferno

The poem begins with the author lost in a dark wood and assailed by allegorical forces of darkness and spiritual calamity (Canto 1). He is rescued by Virgil at the intercession of Beatrice (Canto 2), and he and Virgil enter the Gate of Hell (Canto 3).

Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. The circles are concentric, with each new one representing further and further evil, culminating in the center of the earth, where Satan is held bound. The nine circles are:

  1. Limbo - those unbaptized yet virtuous (Canto 4)
  2. Those overcome by lust (Canto 5)
  3. Gluttons (Canto 6)
  4. The greedy who hoarded possessions and the indulgent who squandered them (Canto 7)
  5. The wrathful (Canto 8). The next stage of hell is headed by the gate of Dis (Canto 9).
  6. Heretics (Cantos 10-11).
  7. The violent (Cantos 12-17). These are divided into three rings:
    1. The violent against people and property (Canto 12).
    2. The violent against themselves - suicides (Canto 13).
    3. The violent against God - blasphemers, sodomites, usurers, (Canto 14-17).
  8. The fraudulent (Cantos 18-30). These are divided into ten ditches:
    1. Seducers (Canto 18).
    2. Flatterers (Canto 18).
    3. Those who committed simony (Canto 19).
    4. Sorcerers and false prophets(Canto 20).
    5. Corrupt politicians (Canto 21-22).
    6. Hypocrites (Canto 23).
    7. Thieves (Canto 24-25).
    8. Fraudulent advisors (Cantos 26-27).
    9. Sowers of discord (Canto 28-29).
    10. Alchemists, forgers, liars (Cantos 29-30). The passage to the ninth circle contains the Biblical giants (Canto 31).
  9. Traitors (Cantos 32-34). This is divided into four zones:
    1. Traitors to relatives (Canto 32).
    2. Traitors to cities (Canto 32-33).
    3. Traitors to guests (Canto 33).
    4. Traitors to benefactors (Canto 34). This is the most serious section, with Judas Iscariot and Satan contained therein.

Purgatorio

The two then ascend out of the undergloom to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world (in Dante's time, it was believed that Hell existed underneath Jerusalem). The initial parts of the book describe the shore of Purgatory (Cantos 1-2) and its slopes, where those who were excommunicated, those lazy to repent and those who repented just before death await their turn to ascend the mountain (Cantos 3-6). Finally, there is a valley housing European rulers and the door to Purgatory (Cantos 7-9).

From there, Virgil guides Dante Pilgrim through the seven terraces of Purgatory. These correspond to the seven deadly sins, with each terrace causing the purging of a particular sin:

  1. Pride (Cantos 10-12).
  2. Envy (Cantos 13-15).
  3. Wrath (Cantos 15-17).
  4. Sloth (Cantos 18-19).
  5. Avarice (Cantos 19-21).
  6. Gluttony (Cantos 22-24).
  7. Lust (Cantos 25-27).
The ascension of terraces culminates at the summit, which is the Garden of Eden (Cantos 28-33). Virgil, as a pagan, is a permanent denizen of Limbo, the first circle of Hell; thus he may not enter Paradise. Beatrice then becomes the second guide, (accompanied by an extravagant procession) as well as a redemptrix and mediatrix. Beatrice is modeled after Beatrice Portinari, a woman Dante loved in childhood and who passed away in 1290, leaving Dante grief-stricken. She is exemplified in La Vita Nuova ("The New Life") and is further beatified.

Paradiso

After an initial ascension (Canto 1), Beatrice guides Dante Pilgrim through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology. The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it. The nine spheres are:
  1. The moon - those who abandoned their vows (Cantos 2-5).
  2. Mercury - those who did good out of a desire for fame (Cantos 5-7).
  3. Venus - those who did good out of love (Cantos 8-9).
  4. The sun - souls of the wise (Cantos 10-14).
  5. Mars - those who fought for Christianity (Cantos 14-18).
  6. Jupiter - those who personified justice (Cantos 18-20).
  7. Saturn - the contemplative (Cantos 21-22).
  8. The stars - the blessed (Cantos 22-27). Here, Dante is tested on Faith by Saint Peter, Hope by Saint James and Love by Saint John.
  9. The Prime Mover - angels (Cantos 27-29).
From here, Dante ascends to a substance beyond physical existence called the Empyrean Heaven (Cantos 30-33). Here he comes face-to-face with God himself and is granted understanding of the Divine and of human nature.

Thematic Concerns

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: each canto, and the espisodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings. Dante's allegory, however, is more complex and in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala") he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory: the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical.

The structure of the poem is likewise quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work: particularly 3's and 9's. What has made the poem as great as it is are its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics, and his powerful poetic imagination. The fact that he uses real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno," allows him the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Response and Criticism

The work was not always so well-regarded. After being recognized as a masterpiece in the first centuries after its publication, the work was largely ignored during the Enlightenment, only to be "rediscovered" by the romantic writers of the nineteenth century. Modern authors as disparate as William Blake, T.S. Eliot and James Joyce have drawn on it for inspiration; modern poets, such as Seamus Heaney and William Merwin, have given us powerful translations of it. Gustave Doré's illustrations for the Comedy are widely used in modern editions.

External links

Texts of The Divine Comedy


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