The Divine Comedy

By Dante Alighieri

Dante called it “The Comedy of Dante

Alighieri, a Florentine by birth but not in

character.”

The Divine Comedy

• A poetic composition between nobility of tragedy and the popular elegy

• Does end happily

a poem that mourns the death of a person or laments something lost

Vocabulary

• cantos:

Vocabulary

• cantos: divisions in a long poem

Vocabulary

• cantos: divisions in a long poem

• vernacular:

Vocabulary

• cantos: divisions in a long poem

• vernacular: the everyday speech of the people

Vocabulary

• cantos: divisions in a long poem

• vernacular: the everyday speech of the people

• allegory:

Vocabulary

• cantos: divisions in a long poem

• vernacular: the everyday speech of the people

• allegory: a moralistic story that incorporates many symbols

Vocabulary

• symbol

Vocabulary

• symbol: person, place, thing, or event that represents something beyond itself.

Example: The dove is usually used as a symbol of peace.

Try brainstorming your own list of symbols.

Background

• Written between 1308-1321

Background

• One of the most important epic poems

Background

• Divine is attached centuries later--feelings about Italy’s greatest masterpiece

Background

• Christian allegory

The Divine Comedy

was enormously

popular when it was first

published. Reasons

include:• Composed in the

vernacular• Topical references

The 100 Cantos are divided into three equal

sections (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso)

Inferno Purgatorio Paradiso

The Poem recounts the journey that Dante takes through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise

• The journey begins on Good Friday, 1300 and takes three days, ending on Easter Sunday

• Beatrice, a woman

Dante loved, guides

him through Paradise

• Virgil, the Roman poet, guides him through Hell and Purgatory

Dante is not a theologian but a storyteller.

He places sinners according to the sin that

their respective stories most embody.