Summary of Devine Comedy

The Divine Comedy is a three-part epic poem by Dante Alighieri. It is a spiritual journey
expounding the evils of sin through the first-person narration of the main character,
Dante the Pilgrim. The poem is a "comedy" in that it is of the classical style that existed
in partnership with tragedy. Dante's journey through the realms of the dead lasts from
the eve of Good Friday to the Wednesday following Easter in the year 1300. Virgil is
Pilgrim's guide through Hell and Purgatory, and Beatrice, Dante's ideal woman, leads the
passage through Heaven.

The three aforementioned sections in literary terms are known as canticas and total
14,233 lines. Each cantica is made up of thirty-three cantos, once again giving
significance to the number "three." The poem has an introduction, which is considered
part of the first cantinca thus giving the work a total of one hundred cantos. The
opening section of the poem, Inferno, finds Dante lost in sin, symbolically depicted as a
dark wood. He is attacked by a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf and cannot find a way out
to safety. Virgil leads Dante to Purgatory, a mountain on the far side of the world that
was formed upon Hell's creation.

Purgatory is structured as nine circles into which sinners are classified. Sins are
classified more based on one's motives than on one's actions. Love is a significant
theme in The Divine Comedy, becoming sinful when driven by pride, envy, or wrath. An
additional region of Purgatory is the Ante-Purgatory home of those excommunicated
from the church and those who died who may have been repentant but had not received
rites. The structure of Purgatory shows a medieval knowledge of the Earth as a sphere.

On the final leg of his pilgrimage, Beatrice escorts Dante through Paradiso, that is,
Heaven. She guides him through the nine celestial spheres of Heaven. While Hell and
Purgatory were based on classifications of sin, Heaven is structured around the four
cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues. The initial seven spheres of Heaven
are concerned with the cardinal virtues of prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance
and are where those embodying said virtues find themselves. The eighth sphere
contains those who achieved faith, hope, and love, which are considered the theological
virtues and represent the achievement of human perfection. The ninth circle of Heaven
is the place of angels, the beings never touched by sin. A final level, which in a sense
brings the total to ten, is the Empyrean wherein lies the essence of God. Paradiso is of a
more spiritual nature than the other two regions of The Divine Comedy. Dante interacts
with several saints there including Thomas Aquinas, and Saints Peter and John. At the
end of the text, Dante has an epiphany, which although he cannot fully explain, unravels
for him the mystery of Christ, and he feels one with God.