Summary Of The Divine Comedy: Metaphoric Christianity In Dante's Inferno

Inferno: Metaphoric Christianity

Dante 's masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, began around 1307 and concluded shortly before his death. It is an allegorical narrative of great precision and dramatic force, in which the poet’s imaginary journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise is described. It is divided into three main sections, which receive their title on three stages of the journey. In each of these three worlds, Dante is finding with his mythological, historical or contemporary characters, each symbolizing a defect or virtue, either in the field of politics or in religion. Thus, punishments or rewards they receive for their works illustrate a universal scheme of moral values. During his journey through Hell and Purgatory, the poet’s

The poem is written in rhyme, the structure in which the rhyme is distributed is as follows: ABA BCB CDC ... etc. Dante 's intention in composing this poem was to reach the largest possible number of readers and thus wrote it in Italian and not in Latin. He titled it Commedia because it has a happy ending, in Paradise, which reaches the end of his journey. The poet can finally contemplate God and feel his self will merge with the divine. According to Jeremy Norman’s HistoryofInformation.com, the original work was simply called Commedia (comedy). The adjective, Divina (divine) was later added by Italian author and poet Giovanni Boccaccio, and did not appear in printed versions until the edition of 1555, published by Ludovico

The first circle of Hell, known as Limbo, Dante knows and sees people who are unbaptized, also many philosophers and wise poets of the ancient world are in this part of Hell. This is where the souls of people who have not chosen Christianity, but have done good deeds in their lifetime, are condemned. Limbo translates to mean waiting period. These souls are waiting for liberation. Here, we also find major characters of the Hebrew bible, “who- according to Christian theology- were liberated by Jesus following his crucifiction”