1. The Divine Comedy
Miss Johnson

2. Dante’s Divine Comedy An Epic Narrative Poem Written between 1308-1320
Written in vernacular Italian; one of the firsts texts written in vernacular
Classical traditions mixed with Christian traditions
Classical Achievements celebrated
Virgil is the guide for most of the story
Virgil wrote the Aeneid
Written between

3. Dante Born in Florence, Italy Loved a woman named Beatrice
Poet
Loved a woman named Beatrice
Died in 1290
The Father of the Italian Language

4. Political Atmosphere The Guelphs versus the Ghibellines
urban elite and artisans
For Florentine independence from the Holy Roman Empire
Dante a Guelph
Ghibellines
Ancient feudal aristocracy
Wanted Florence apart of the Holy Roman Empire
Guelphs won
Guelphs divided into the Blacks and
the Whites in a civil war
The Whites
stood for independence from the Pope
Dante a White
The Blacks
stood for dependence upon the Pope
The Blacks won
Dante was condemned to exile
Political Atmosphere

5. Breakdown of the Text
EX:
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintery bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
*Original Poem In Italian; Translation does not have the Terza Rima Pattern very clearly
Three Canticles: the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso
Each 33 Cantos
Plus 1 Prologue Canto at beginning of Inferno
Reflects the Trinity
Tercets
Terza Rima: an arrangement of triplets (tercet), especially in iambs, that rhyme ; literally means third rhyme
EX: aba bcb cdc
Each line contains eleven syllables
11 syllables X 3 lines = 33 syllables total

6. Further Breakdown of the Text
In Hell
Three major areas: Incontinence, violence, and fraudulence
Each area has three levels
3 X 3 = 9
In Purgatory:
Three major areas: misdirected, defective, and excessive
Ante-Purgatory, seven terraces, and the earthly Paradise
= 9
In Paradise
Three major areas: incomplete love, those with the four Cardinal virtues, those nearest perfection
Nine Spheres

7. The punishment for sin is the sin itself.
The Nine Levels of Hell
The punishment for sin is the sin itself.
Exodus 21: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”
St Augustine: “So you [God] have ordained and so it is: that every disorder of the soul is its own punishment”

9. Themes and Motifs Displays medieval Christianity’s central doctrines
Conflict between pre-Christian characters, like Virgil, and post- Christians
Sense of sympathy for humanities sin
Celebrates achievements of the classical world
Allegory of the soul’s journey
The natural inclination of every human being is love, a movement toward something outside the self
Sin occurs when love is immoderately directed to the wrong object