Commentary on The Divine Comedy Essay

Dante Alighieris The Divine Comedy is a moral comedy that is designed to make one think about his/her own morals. The poem could have been used almost as a guide for what and what not to do to get into Heaven for the medieval people. Dante journeys through the "afterlife" to express what could happen if all under God dont lead a devout life, and makes one think about where they will go when they die and where they would like to go when they die. Through his epic poem, Dante tries to change the spiritual attitudes of the time from what he believed to be lawless and corrupt to god-fearing and ethical.

During the Medieval Ages, obeying God was extremely important and was to be taken very seriously. Churches thought that sin was a deliberate and purposeful violation of the will of God, and also a failure to live up to societys moral codes. If one sinned then they were saying and proving that they hated God. Sin was considered to be pure evil, and if one sinned then they would have to face the consequences whatever they may be. The bigger the sin is, the greater the consequence is in The Divine Comedy. Based on what Dante personally believed to be the most horrid of sins to the lightest, he organized the inferno and purgatory in that fashion from bottom to top, using well known mythological and historical individuals to help classify what type of person belongs where.

In a sense, Dante is trying to scare righteousness into people. For example, the inscription above the gate to the inferno that read, ABANDON EVERY HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE," implies the panicked feeling of total despair. His masterful use of language allows the sensitivity of being able to see what he sees, to hear what he hears, and to feel what he feels, and thus making the experience more real. After demonstrating in the inferno what terrors lurk there waiting for the sinful, Dante brings back the thrill of hope by stating that hell is not the only option, and that other places such as purgatory and heaven await the repentant and pure.

To make the realms of paradise and purgatory appeal more than they already would have after the terrifying experiences of hell, Dante depicts paradise as a very holy and beautiful place beyond comprehension which is how most people would perceive it. Unlike hell where it is eternal, people in purgatory will eventually complete their penance and make it to paradise. This is the hope that Dante presents for those that enter the afterlife in purgatory. However, for those that make it to paradise like Dante describes in his journey, it is so beautiful and filled with white light and other mystical things that it becomes indescribable. This indefinite knowledge of heaven allows for one to imagine freely the possibilities of heavens delights instead of knowing what will truthfully await them. This option makes the sinful or unfaithful whom pay attention to the novel strive for a new, upright way of life.

Dantes purpose of writing the epic was to make people evaluate their own morals, and what could happen if they lived a sinful life, or if they lived a devout life. He believed that to live a good Christian life guaranteed access to heaven in the afterlife, and a life of sin led to a sentence to hell. Through The Divine Comedy, Dante was able to advocate his thoughts on what society needed to do in order to keep its significance in the eyes of God.