Get Best Essay Written by Essay Writers
Guaranteed Higher Grade!
Get Best Essay Written by Essay Writers
Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy is considered a landmark in the history of Italian and world literature. Born in the Republic of Florence in Italy in 1265, Dante was, supposedly, a descendant of the ancient founders of Florence and one of the most learned minds in Middle Age Italy. His Divine Comedy is a philosophical and theological treatise that sought to educate his fellow countrymen about contemplating happiness & their purpose in life.
The Divine Comedy is a multifarious piece of work. It is a rich & poignant commentary that delivers a startling depiction of those times and exhibits different themes & characteristics. The poem is:
It is overtly Christian literature but is also a critical, creative, & deeply analytical account of a true intellectual who appreciates different perspectives, values, and ideals and does not shy away from calling out flaws in systems or individuals.
There are numerous characters in The Divine Comedy, each a medium for poet Dante to relay his ideas & opinions and/or allude to events. Three pivotal characters in the poem are obviously:
- Dante, the pilgrim or protagonist
- Virgil, Dante’s companion, and
- Beatrice, Dante’s unrequited love and companion in the later stages
Throughout his journey, Dante, the pilgrim, encounters an array of characters from kin, friends, acquaintances, teachers, and personal & political rivals to Popes, faction leaders, Englishmen, saints, Greco-Roman mythological characters, and many more.
The piece is divided into three sections or canticles, subdivided into approximately 32 cantos or sections. Inferno is the first canticle where Dante, the protagonist, begins his journey.
Inferno 1 and 2 establish the setting, the plot, and the chief characters. Dante, the poet, turns himself into the protagonist of the Divine Commedia. The first two cantos are full of imperfect tenses; this indicates that Dante is recollecting & reminiscing about his journey to Hell and then onwards to redemption. Dante, the protagonist, does not find himself in Hell until the third canto, and the first two cantos are akin to an introduction. 1 and 2 are, thus, heavily introspective and confessional, with the narrator's words steeped in regret, confusion, and a sense of despair.
Inferno begins with Dante, the protagonist, stating how, midway through his life journey, he came to a dark wood. This dark wood symbolizes the dark recesses of his sinful mind, savage and dense as he describes it. He has strayed from the designated path of his life, lost from the path of truth, and wandered off onto the dark side.
- Inferno is the start of Dante, the poet’s musings on human nature, the compulsions behind committing sins, why men stray from the path of God, and how they can find redemption. Dante, the pilgrim, is a sinner who has lost his way but has since realized his folly. He wonders how he got there, just like sinners who end up lost in the darkness of evil and sins, unbeknownst to themselves.
As he wanders, the forest parts, and Dante witnesses a hill atop, a beacon of light that may be the salvation he yearns for. Yet, as he made his way towards the hill, three beasts obstructed his path. The beasts (a leopard, a lion, and a wolf) are allegories of sins preventing Dante from attaining any redemption or salvation.
- He is still teetering on the verge of normal human perception and consciousness. The distant illuminated peak symbolizes enlightenment through God and the dark wood, a stark contrast to the twisted depths of Dante and the average human mind.
Dante, the sinful pilgrim's redemption, is not so easily achieved. He fails to reach the light by himself; he needs guidance, which arrives in the form of Virgil, a Roman poet from the ancient Augustan period, who Dante admires.
- This is particularly symbolic and depicts Dante’s veneration of ancient Roman scholars, culture, philosophy & ideas. Such appreciation and inspiration are evident in succeeding verses in Inferno and the other two canticles, with literary critics citing the substantial influence of Aristotle's philosophies on Dante's prose.
Inferno 3 brings about a drastic change in the mood of both the protagonist and the poem itself. The third canto depicts a liminal space, a pivotal point of choice for believers in Christianity. As Dante and Virgil stand in front of a giant gateway (the purported gateway to Hell), the inscriptions confound the pilgrim who seeks answers from his guide.
THROUGH ME, THE WAY INTO THE SUFFERING CITY,
THROUGH ME, THE WAY TO THE ETERNAL PAIN,
THROUGH ME THE WAY THAT RUNS AMONG THE LOST.
JUSTICE URGED ON MY HIGH ARTIFICER;
MY MAKER WAS DIVINE AUTHORITY,
THE HIGHEST WISDOM AND THE PRIMAL LOVE.
BEFORE ME, NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS
WERE MADE, AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY.
ABANDON EVERY HOPE WHO ENTER HERE.
These words ring as a final warning, absolution for all who wish to enter Hell. Dante, the poet, ideas, and musings on Hell are striking and contrast with common Christian beliefs. Sinful souls can enter Hell at their own will, and it is at the Hellgate, a liminal realm, where they must shed all cowardice and make the ultimate choice.
- The chief idea that the poet tries to put forth Is the inherent connection between free will, sin, and salvation. Just as we have the free will to choose whether to sin or not, souls who enter Hell have the free will to redeem themselves by believing in an all-powerful, eternal God.
There’s a key difference in Dante’s understanding and perception of GOD between Canto 1 & 2 and Cantus 3. In the first two canto, God is the creator of all eternity, a benevolent force who aids every form of human inquiry and action. At the same time, he metes out the ultimate judgment for willful sinners and those seeking redemption & salvation.
The liminal realm depicted in Inferno 3 is mingled with entities who walk the thin line between good and evil. Souls and angels, who didn't have the courage and conviction to be either good or evil, find a place in this liminal space. They will never be accepted in Paradise, nor does Hell have anything to do with them. Virgil warns Dante not to think too much about them but look and pass them on.
- Dante portrays a vicious condition through these entities stuck in Limbo. They are the basest of the base, suffering from ultimate moral cowardice. They chose to remain neutral during situations of moral crisis when even silence is considered a betrayal of righteousness.
Dante considers the human souls stuck in Limbo to have never been able to realize their fullest potential and showcase the courage necessary to take a stand.
The second phase of Inferno 3 depicts souls crossing the river Acheron to Hell. Dante finds crowds of souls eager to cross the river and enter the Inferno. He has many questions for his guide, but Virgil dismisses them later.
On the other side lies the first circle of Hell, Limbo, which in Catholic theology, is a place where souls are stuck in eternal suspended animation. Canto 4 introduces Limbo, where the souls are stuck forever, never finding redemption. The souls of renowned philosophers, thinkers, & academics, noble warriors & kings of the pre-Christian era, Ptolemy, Caesar, Euclid, Diogenes Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, and even Saladin, are forever stuck in eternal Limbo, never cleansed of the original sin.
- Dante makes a key distinction between noble pagans and those Christian souls who have been found lacking in moral courage. Dante points out how the dignity and virtue of the noble pagans shield them from the violence & suffering in Hell, & this is a clear appreciation of the virtues of the pre-Christian world that laid the foundations of civilization. As he depicts the noble paganists & non-Christians stuck in Limbo, Dante's Christian outlook clashes with his appreciation of ancient cultures built on rational law & reasoning and his firm belief in Jesus Christ, the savior, and a Christian paradise.
Inferno 5 introduces the circle of lust, 6 depicts the circle of gluttony, 7 introduces the circle of wrath & sullenness, and Cantos 8 & 9 describe the events before moving on to the circle of heresy and violence.
Once Virgil and Dante arrive at Circle 5, they encounter Minos, the judge of all souls, about to enter the second circle. The souls here gave in to the temptations of the flesh and are tossed helter-skelter by violent winds. Minos is the monstrous judge who verifies the personal accounts of every soul, calls upon them, and learns about their lives & misdeeds.
Dante encounters the tortured souls of Cleopatra, Helen, Dido, Semiramis, etc., and two with whom he is closely acquainted, Francesca and Paolo, who was accused of adultery and killed by Francesca's vengeful husband.
- Dante's descriptions of what he encounters in the second circle of Hell allude to his aversion to any marital or romantic relationship outside of holy wedlock.
He considers it to be the one sin that's farthest from Satan, but as such, sinners have chosen desire above reason; to Dante, they deserve punishment for abandoning their higher reasoning and free will.
One notable ambiguity is between pilgrim Dante's sympathy for Francesca & Paolo and poet Dante's harsh depictions.
Inferno 6 introduces the circle of gluttony and the dog-like beast with three heads, Cerberus. Cerberus mauls all guilty souls and tosses them into a stinking, filthy muck. Dante meets Ciacco, a fellow Florentine, who recognizes Dante and prophesizes the clash of Florence’s leading political factions, victory, and eventual retribution. Ciacco also tells Dante that several prominent Florentines are suffering in the further circles of Hell before disappearing in the filthy muck of the circle of gluttony.
- Dante, the pilgrim's encounter with Ciacco, serves as a medium for him to lay out his reactions and observations on the then political climate & clashes in Florence. Simultaneously, Ciacco’s dialogue with Dante about gluttony showcases a stern condemnation but not spiteful abhorrence.
Dante lays down what he thinks will be the eventual outcome of the conflict between the white and black Guelphs. He also lays down his opinions about some notable Florentines and his general belief about Florentine noblemen consumed and corrupted by greed and gluttony.
Inferno 7 begins with the circles of avarice and prodigality. Dante and Virgil encounter a wolf-like beast called Plutus. Plutus warns Satan in the layers below, warning him of Virgil and Dante, but Virgil rebukes him to silence. The damned souls in this circle are all damned of possessing too much wealth or wanton waste. The two groups of damned are punished by rolling massive boulders with their chests, each group in the opposite direction, until they collide. They curse each other and then have to start again.
Virgil reports the presence of numerous clerics, cardinals, and popes in this circle, which informs us of his belief that many prominent individuals of the Catholic Church indulged in wanton avarice and prodigality. And through Virgil, Dante also presents a commentary on the role of wealth & fortune in human life and its misuse & misinterpretation.
- Akin to the Christian belief that avarice or the lust for money & material gain is the root cause of downfall for many and the worst sin, Dante holds particular spite against this sin. His views and condemnation of lust and gluttony were tempered with some consideration, as evident from the sympathy he exhibits and the dialogue with Francesca and Ciacco, respectively.
Dante's encounters with the fifth circle of wrath begin in Inferno 7 and extend to Inferno 9. The wrathful and spiteful souls are afflicted by anger and hatred, biting, slashing, and battering one another in the murky waters of the river Styx. Dante’s crossing of Styx is quite eventful as a spiteful fellow Florentine (an arrogant person named Filippo Argenti) tries to come on board and capsize the boat piloted by the entity Phlegyas. Virgil shoves him back, and they continue to Dis, the fortressed city that guarded the entrance to lower Hell.
The fallen angels standing guard denied Dante and Virgil entry, and horrifying Furies beset them, calling upon Medusa to turn Dante to stone. However, the timely arrival of a messenger from Heaven saves them. This arrival holds a deeper meaning, as it appears right when Virgil fails to believe in the wrong power, pre-Christian Roman paganism.
- Many things are alluded to in the cantos describing the fifth circle of Hell.
Poet Dante describes the walled fortress of Dis as the entrance to the lower and progressively more damned & horrifying areas of Hell. References to the fall of Lucifer, Christ’s Harrowing of Hell, and the destructive nature of ancient pagan powers are used imaginatively to create a doom-laden atmosphere & event.
The heavenly entity symbolizes Dante's wholehearted acceptance of the Christian truth over pagan false realities. It drops a pall over classical antiquity dismissing it as blasphemy and sin in the face of Christianity.
Inferno 10 to 16 depict Dante’s encounters in circles of heresy & violence, though the depictions start near the end of Canto 9. From Inferno 12 to 17, Dante describes his visions of the seventh circle of violence.
At the end of Canto 9, we find our duo entering lower Hell and the circle of heresy with some heavenly intervention. The circle of heresy is depicted as a barren cemetery full of graves in which heretics burn. The burning souls produce such an awful stench that Dante and Virgil paused their journey and took respite in the tomb of a heretical former pope.
- Heretical souls suffer eternally in the very tombs where they were interred. Poet Dante accuses his major political rivals of heresy for obviously partial reasons. He also condemned Cavalcante De’ Cavalcanti, a member of the Florentine Guelph and allied to Dante’s political camp, as a heretic for marrying his son to the rival Ghibellines. Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and Pope Anastasius are also found to be eternal prisoners of this circle of Hell, as Dante dismisses their beliefs & actions be heretical.
Dante, the poet, delivers a somewhat eclectic & flawed moral structure of Hell through dialogue between Dante, the pilgrim, and Virgil. When analyzed closely, this depiction is heavily inspired by Aristotle's ideas of partitioning the negative character qualities of human nature. Virgil's messy depiction of Hell's layers results from Dante, the poet, combining ideas from different, discrete belief systems, an attempt to impose the self-righteous aspects of Catholic Christianity over and above every other approach.
Violent shades, souls corrupted thoroughly by anger, spite, and hatred, suffer horrifying punishments here.
Dante and Virgil ride atop the Centaur Nessus and witness the torture of ruthless tyrants, murderers, and bandits submerged in rivers of boiling blood. Further on, they find themselves in a forest of suicide trees, where gnarled and stunted trees are the souls of people who commit suicide. Dante finds harpies eating leaves, inflicting immeasurable pain, and creating gnawing wounds that act as the outlet of the pain. They find a scorched desert drenched by a rain of fire, where blasphemers of Christ, sodomites, and usurers suffer. Dante meets numerous prominent souls in the circle of violence, including tyrants & plunderers of old times, three Florentine Sodomites, and even his teacher, Brunetto Latini.
Eventually, Dante and Virgil descend upon the second last circle of Hell aboard the flying Geryon, an event that Dante depicts with derision through classical stories of aviators whose ambitions led to their deaths.
- The Minotaur and Centaurs inhabit this circle of Hell where violent and destructive sinners are punished for their misdeeds. Dante’s fixation with the mesmerizing elements from ancient Greco-Roman mythology and literature is evident.
The Centaurs identify several notable historical figures, all warlords and conquerors. From Alexander The Great to Attila the Hun, Guy De Monfort, Pyrhus and Sextus, and even highway robbers, all kinds of violent souls are punished in this circle. By categorizing murderers and robbers as warlords & conquerors of old, Dante hints at the common flaw they all suffered from, irrespective of their origins and achievements.
The forest of suicidal souls, tormented by harpies, the shades, and the souls drowning in rivers of boiling blood, each a different ring in this circle, is an attempt by Dante to categorize the different kinds of violence.
Dante's categorization is quite in-depth and befitting of his intellectual capabilities. His emotional reactions allude to his perceptions of the different categories of violence, from neutral observation of the warlords & conquerors and somewhat sympathy for the souls in the horrid forest as well as certain Florentine sodomites to absolute abhorrence towards usurers.
Dante's particular hatred towards usurers was, in all probability, due to bad personal experiences with lenders. Much more surprising was poet Dante’s nuanced views of sodomy/homosexuality and suicide in these cantos.
As the depiction of the circle of violence draws near the end of Inferno 17, we find Dante transitioning to the eighth circle of fraud, which he describes in substantial detail across Inferno 18 to 30.
The eighth circle of Hell metes out punishment to frauds and treacherous individuals. It comprises multiple pouches, ditches, or malbolges reserved for the torture of fraudulent individuals. The nature of this circle, as depicted by Dante, the poet, consists of twisted urban architecture in contrast to the perverted natural environment of the previous circles. Also, unlike the previous circles, which had monstrous versions of animals as guardians, here, demons stand guard. This is symbolic of Dante depicting fraud as an entirely man-made nature of human fraudulence.
Inferno 24 to 30 find Dante & Virgil climbing out of the pit of hypocrites and finding their way to the remaining four ditches of Hell, where several other fraudulent souls are punished. They witness thieves, liars, counterfeiters, impersonators, tricksters, famous strategists, orators, and maleficent counselors. The duo encounters numerous notable individuals such as Ulysses, Diomedes, Mohammed, and his grandson, Ali.
- The circles of fraud are depicted to possess multiple evil pouches or malbolges, akin to pocket dimensions, each a place of damnation for different kinds of fraudulent entities. And Dante, the poet, dismisses myriad types of people and notable personalities of the medieval & Middle Ages as fraudsters.
Pimps, soothsayers, flatterers, corrupt political officials, Popes Boniface (subject of particular hatred for Dante) and Clement V - abusers of their power & position, hypocrites, Jason of the Argonauts, Caiaphas- the high priest of Jerusalem (who called on to Romans to crucify Christ but not to persecute the Jewish people) -- all are condemned to malbolges 1 to 6 by poet Dante.
Malbolges 7 to 10 were places of punishment and torture of renowned strategists, fraudulent counselors, orators, and persuasive speakers. Ulysses & Diomedes, Mohammed & Ali, Bertrand De Born, alchemists Griffolino & Capocchio, Sinon from Virgil's Aeneid, Adam, an English trader --- an eclectic mix of people are encountered by Dante and Virgil in the last malbolges. And, all were fraudsters and corrupt in the eyes of a Christian God, and, in the context of this poem, poet Dante.
Numerous events were alluded to in cantos 24 to 30 as Dane describes the remaining malbolges in the circle of fraud, such as Elijah’s chariot to the heavens, the battles of Southern Italy, the Aegina Plague, etc.
The last five cantos depict the ninth circle of treachery and a chilling description of Satan, the fallen angel, Lucifer, lying at the center of Hell.
The ninth circle depicts the worst form of sin, betrayal, and Dante & Virgil reach it with the help of giants who lower them to their frozen depths. Embedded at different points of this frozen anomaly are souls who have betrayed their kin, friends, benefactors, or country.
Dante, the pilgrim, meets several political rivals and traitors. As they move further on, Dante and Virgil come face to face with the fallen angel, the lord of Hell, Lucifer, or Satan. Poet Dante describes Satan as a massive entity with three horrifying faces and six massive bat-like wings. Two mouths feed on Brutus and Cassius, the traitors of Julius Caesar, while the middle mouth fed upon Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus.
Lucifer lies at the center of the underworld, and beyond him lies the other half of the world, & the mountain of Purgatoria.
- Treacherous souls who have betrayed their kin, their country, their religions and God are considered the worst by the poet Dante.
One of the most grotesque and gory depictions of hellish events is the description of Ugolino eating the back of Riggieri’s head, two of the worst and most treacherous Ghibellines known to Dante.
Finally, Dante and Virgil come down to the center of Hell where the fallen angel, Lucifer resides, forever feasting on the most corrupt and treacherous entities known to Dante, Brutus, and Cassius of Roman Antiquity & Judas, the enemy of every true Christian.
Dante's descriptions and encounters throughout Inferno are the views of a privileged, intellectual, biased, and not wholly enlightened individual. His amazing visualizations hint at his immense imaginative capabilities and exceptional mastery of language & all its mechanisms and aspects. His views, however, reek of political, religious, and ideological bias & intolerance. And in some cases, his views and depictions are his reactions and reflections to the contemporary political and theological climate of Florence and Italy, as well as hint at a clash of ideals and reasoning.
After traversing Hell in its damning entirety, Dante & Virgil emerge from Hell and arrive at the shores of Purgatoria.
Dante’s depictions of Purgatory, the realm of the afterlife where saved souls absolve themselves of the last of their sins before ascending to Paradise. He had considerable leeway in crafting descriptions of Purgatoria as there are no clear descriptions in the Bible or any Christian text. Dante derived his descriptions from certain references in specific Biblical passages.
Dante’s Purgatory is theologically closer to Paradise than Hell. It is an intermediate realm with a mountain formed when Lucifer fell from Grace and had its first visitors during Christ's Harrowing of Hell. From a conceptual point of view, the idea of Purgatory in Catholic Christianity became necessary with the rise of different socioeconomic classes and new religious dogmas to guide their views, actions, & reactions.
Virgil and Dante emerge from the depths of Hell and stand in front of Purgatory at the dawn of Easter Sunday. They come across Cato, a politician of pagan Rome who grants them entry into the realm.
- This symbolizes Dante's everlasting fascination with the entities and events of pre-Christian Rome.
Casella, an old friend of Dante sings hymns to soothe the heart and minds of the weary travelers, and Virgil cleans Dante's face, tear-stained face with dew before Cato urges them to continue their journey.
Purgatory is depicted to be divided into multiple terraces, where souls that died in the Grace of the Christian God find and get a chance to wash off all their earthly faults and misdeeds before ascending to Heaven.
In front of the gate to Purgatory, Dante encounters an angel who marks his forehead with seven Ps, the seven sins that poet Dante depicts through his encounters; as they climb the terraces towards the high heavens, Dante encounters souls doing penance for sins such as pride, envy, and wrath.
- An encounter with a man named Marco Lombardo and pilgrim Dante's discussion with Virgil regarding the nature & origin of all sins allows poet Dante to make an acute observation. He points out states that in every case, sin is just love gone wrong or twisted beyond recognition.
Further on, the duo encounters souls absolving themselves of sloth and idleness. On higher levels of Purgatory, they witness numerous souls, including a Pope, doing penance for their greed lying face down in a prone position. The symbolism is that they let their earthly desires cloud their higher reasoning and the perception of Heaven's light.
They suddenly experience massive tremors and are joined by the soul of an ancient poet, Statius, who was just released from Purgatory. Statius joins Virgil and Dante for the remainder of their journey.
- Dante’s inclusion of a pagan poet in Purgatory, when he condemns other notable medieval and pagan scholars to Limbo, is a purposeful revision of history. Like Cato, Statius is portrayed by poet Dante as a convert to Christianity and a tool for portraying the redeeming power of Christ yet again.
The trio, now, encounter souls fasting as a penance for their gluttony. Here, poet Dante uses Statius to deliver a philosophical discourse on God’s creation of souls, the human body, and the souls in Purgatory.
At the highest level of Purgatory, they find souls purified through the fire of lust. Every soul must pass through this cleansing fire before exiting Purgatory. After a night in Purgatory where Dante dreams about practical lifestyles with spiritual contemplation, Virgil tells Dante that he no longer needs guidance. Dante has absolved himself of all sins, and his renewed free will is enough to take him further.
Pilgrim Dante finds himself in the Garden of Eden, the birthplace of pure and innocent human souls. Poet Dante effectively marks the transition towards heavenly and gracious realms by describing the presence of nymphs, gryphons, ladies, virtues, graces, the seven authors of the New Testament., etc.
And, as pilgrim Dante stands astonished at their beauty, he meets his beloved Beatrice. He is frozen by her stern beauty, who says that Dante wandered away from love and God's Grace after Beatrice died. This journey was her machination of leading Dante back to the light.
- Dante's everlasting love for Beatrice, his first love, is the all-encompassing theme of The Divine Comedy. Poet Dante could never forget Beatrice or lose his love and appreciation for her.
Matilda and Beatrice tend to pilgrim Dante's troubled mind and soul. Beatrice also prophesizes the state of the Roman papacy, mentioning all the key players who have & will strive to corrupt the Catholic Church. She also prophesizes the coming of a king who will purge all heretics and instructs Dante to write down about his encounters to warn & guide all mortals on Earth.
- As Purgatorio draws to a close, we find Dante instilled with renewed vigor and free will & cleansed of all his sins. His encounters with souls doing penance, of redeemed souls on their way to Paradise, and of Beatrice symbolize his repentant nature, his indomitable will to find true love, and his concrete belief in the Christian Truth as the ONLY WAY to find his true love once again.
Beatrice and Dante traverse the many spheres of the lower heavens on their way to the Empyrean. According to poet Dante, they encounter Emperor Justinian, the noblest Roman Emperor of the past. They discuss the justification behind Christ's crucifixion and how it acted as a medium to dole out God's justice & attain humanity's redemption through the atonement of sin.
As they traverse through the different spheres, pilgrim Dante encounters heavenly beings, old friends, and passionate lovers, all redeemed by the holiness of God. In the sphere of the Sun, Dante encounters the noblest souls and finest intellects to grace the Church, who led the religion in the right part and reconciled it with reasoning & intellect. Dante then meets his great, great grandfather Cacciaguida who points out the gradual deterioration of Florence in the last two centuries and warns Dante of persecution and exile due to his outspokenness against the decadence.
An eagle in the sphere of Jupiter and the souls of contemplatives, Peter Damian, and St. Benedict amaze Dante through their condemnation of rampant corruption among European Christian rulers and monks of the Church.
As Dante nears the Empyrean, he is quizzed and examined in faith, love, and hope by saints Peter, James, and John. Dante succeeds in every examination, and the heavens cry out in joy with St. Peter re-invigorating him to speak out against the corruption in the Church.
Dante and Beatrice finally reach the Empyrean, where Dante drinks from a river of light to gain the ability to perceive and understand the angelic being & entities, saints, and God himself.
Beatrice leaves Dante's side as Dante attains further enlightenment. He witnesses the Grace of the Virgin Mary and, eventually, experiences a vision of God.
Dante's journey comes to a close as he sees the creation and its diversity bound within God's unified plan and gets a fleeting, soul-satisfying glimpse of the Holy Trinity & a vision of Christ in all his human and divine glory. Thus ends his redeeming and enlightening journey.
- Pilgrim Dante points out how difficult it is for mortals to comprehend the beauty of the High Heavens.
Poet Dante’s Paradise and his voyage through the High Heavens are entirely his own, albeit flavored by the previous portrayals. Medieval cosmology and theology merge in his descriptions as Dante the Pilgrim embarks on a journey through the cosmos in pursuit of the light of God. Paradise is depicted as eight concentric spheres with heavenly body/s revolving around an immobile Earth, in line with medieval perceptions of the cosmos. Poet Dante sourced his descriptions from ideas and knowledge from medieval commentaries of greats such as Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Plato.
As Dante makes his way through the spheres of Paradise, Dante and Beatrice talk about God's providence. Beatrice also points out how all pure souls, angels, and true saints live in the light and Grace of God in a realm separate but perpetually connected to Paradise called the Empyrean, the highest sphere of the heavenly realm. She states how all redeemed and saved souls return to God, effectively dismissing claims by old world Philosophers such as Plato.
Yet, poet Dante’s depiction of the high heavens is in line with descriptions by ancient and medieval authorities. Furthermore, ancient and medieval works that explore the cosmos from a theological & philosophical perspective (such as the Cosmographia, Anticlaudianus, and the Islamic Book of Ladder) also inspire Dante's depictions. Dante, the pilgrim, describes his journey through Heaven not as a dream, but as a conscious experience. Overall, poet Dante's portrayal of Paradise is coherent and carefully crafted.
There are nine levels of Hell in Dante's Inferno.
Dante began writing the poem in 1308 and finished it around 1321, shortly before his death.
Dante’s Inferno has 34 canto or sections.
The Divine Comedy is considered one of the most notable works in Italian literature and one of the greatest in medieval and world literature.
It is a vast work with numerous allusions to people and events of pre-Christian, late antiquity, and medieval times. Time, dedication, and research are necessary to appreciate this amazing work.
Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest literary prodigies in medieval Italy, is the author of this epic poem.
Inferno. Purgatorio and Paradiso are the three parts of The Divine Comedy.
Dante and Virgil, the two main characters, are the most colorful characters in the poem.
Dante wrote this epic poem after his political rivals exiled him from Florence. The Divine Comedy is at once an outburst of criticism & an attempt to find peace through religion and God.
You Might Also Like
100+ Trending Informative Speech Topics
Students are not new to presentations. From your junior school days to today, your teacher has often asked you to speak on a topic and educate your pe...
Communication has always been at the heart of society since the dawn of time. Conflicts arise when communication goes down! In today's world, people ...
6 Tips To Save Money On College Textbooks
It's not a secret that pursuing a college education in the USA is expensive. Those with hefty student loans feel it a little more than the others. Kee...
Essay On Academic Topics Presentation-Free Essay Examples
Have you ever wondered how to win the best presentation title in your university semester or grade school? Do you think presenting your topic in front...
Case Study: A Small Business's Digital Transformation Journey XYZ, a small business specializing in handmade crafts, struggled with the pandemic's im...
Bid Adieu to Deadline Stress and Secure Top Scores