The Divine Comedy By Dante Alighieri

This is the poem “The Divine Comedy” written by Dante Alighieri it has three part Inferno , Purgatorio ,  Paradiso. It is the part one of the divine comedy i.e. Hell(Inferno). It is the story about how a person roam through the parts of hell and get to know about it  and how the symbol of humanity lost in the wilderness of sin.

Characters

• Dante Alighieri

• Virgil

• God

• Satan(Lucifer)

• Beatrice

• Charon

• Minos

• Cerberus

• The Minotaur

• Paolo and Francesca of Rimini

  Analysis

  This poem ‘Divine Comedy’ is actually the depiction of life and afterlife how your life depend on your doings.

  Halfway through his life, the poet Dante find himself wandering alone in a dark forest, having lost his ways on the true path. He says that he doesn’t remember how he lost his way, but he has wandered into a fearful place, a dark and tangled valley. Above, he sees a great hill that seems to offer protection from the shadowed glen. The sun shines down from this hilltop, and Dante attempts to climb toward the light. As he climbs, however, he encounters three angry beasts in succession—a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf—which force him to turn back.

  The three of the animals represent different senses in human life:

  Leopard represent “fraud and malice”

  Lion represent “violence and brutality”

  She-wolf represent “incontinence”

  They push him towards a lower place where Dante met a Roman poet “Virgil”.

                                                                              Where his journey of underworld starts and Virgil is there to guide him through, where they cross the gate of hell where he sees an inscription “LASCIATE OGNE SPERANZA,VOI CH’INTRATE” means ‘Abandon any hope ye who enter here’.

  After entering he sees soul of many people, they were screaming and they were being tortured, these soul were neither in hell nor in heaven.

  Their sin was they never had taken sides either good or bad they were always neutral and Dante notice those souls running here and there running naked.

  

  Then he sees 9 levels of Hell

  1.  Limbo

  2. Lust

  3. Gluttony

  4. Greed

  5. Anger

  6. Heresy

  7. Violence

  8. Fraud

  9. Treachery

   

   These are concentric circles i.e. every next circle will be more dangerous than previous one. According to Dante Hell (9 circles) resides at centre of earth, and the devil is kept in captivity in the middle.

  1.    Limbo – In here those people resides who has never been baptised and essentially these people are non – Christian . This circle is inferior form of heaven, people here live in a castle which has 7 gates and these gate represents 7 deadly sins. In this circle Virgil also reside, here Dante meet history’s most prominent figures such as Aristotle, Julias Cesar, Socratics, etc

  2.    Lust – In here those people stays who had chosen lust as their choice in their life. Here people are being pushed and pull by a strong wind force so they can never feel peace and rest

  3.  Gluttony - When reaching the Third Circle of Hell, Dante and Virgil find souls of gluttons who are overlooked by a worm-monster Cerberus. Sinners in this circle of Hell are punished by being forced to lie in a vile slush that is produced by never-ending icy rain.  The vile slush symbolises personal degradation of one who overindulges in food, drink, and other worldly pleasures, while the inability to see others lying nearby represents the gluttons’ selfishness and coldness.

  4. Greed - In the Fourth Circle of Hell, Dante and Virgil see the souls of people who are punished for greed. They are divided into two groups – those who hoarded possessions and those who lavishly spent it – jousting. They use great weights as a weapon, pushing it with their chests which symbolises their selfish drive for fortune during their lifetime. The two groups that are guarded by a character called Pluto (probably the ancient Greek ruler of the underworld) are so occupied with their actions that the two poets don’t try to speak to them. Here, Dante says to see many clergymen including cardinals and popes.

  5. Anger- The Fifth Circle of Hell is where the wrathful and sullen are punished for their sins. Transported on a boat by Phlegyas, Dante and Virgil see the furious fighting each other on the surface of the river Styx and the sullen gurgling beneath the surface of the water. Again, the punishment reflects the type of the sin committed during their lifetime.

  6. Heresy -When reaching the Sixth Circle of Hell, Dante and Virgil see heretics who are condemned to eternity in flaming tombs. Here, Dante talks with a couple of Florentines – Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti – but he also sees other notable historical figures including the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and Pope Anastasius II. The heretics were souls who did not agree to the Christian doctrine. They are lying in burning tombs.

  7.  Violence - The 7th circle is divided into 3 rings — outer are murderers sinking into boiling blood, the middle are the suicides who turned into bleeding trees, and the inner ring are blasphemers and sodomites who reside in a desert of burning sand and are scorched by burning rain falling from above.

  8. Fraud - This circle of Hell is divided into 10 Bolgias or stony ditches with bridges between them. Each bolgia has a different kind of fraud and punishment such as whipped by demons, steeped in excrement etc.

  9. Treachery - The last Ninth Circle of Hell is divided into 4 Rounds according to the seriousness of the sin. Though all residents are frozen in an icy lake. Those who committed more severe sin are deeper within the ice. Each of the 4 Rounds is named after an individual who personifies the sin. Thus Round 1 is named Caina after Cain who killed his brother Abel, Round 2 is named Antenora after Anthenor of Troy who was Priam’s counsellor during the Trojan War, Round 3 is named Ptolomaea after Ptolemy (son of Abubus), while Round 4 is named Judecca after Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus with a kiss.

   

  It was the first part of Dante’s  Divine Comedy  there will be other parts as well.