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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.