The Divine Comedy By Dante Alighieri Essay

Dante’s Inferno The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri is the most notable epic poem produced during the Middle Ages. In the instance of the title the word comedy is taken from an Italian word defined as the prosperous ending after a difficult beginning. The Divine Comedy is a trilogy of poems the first being the Inferno, the story of Dante’s journey through hell. Two unique aspects of the Divine Comedy are that it was the first major epic to be written in Italian, rather than Latin, and the protagonist is Dante himself. In the poem, Dante uses personal experiences to demonstrate despair, revelation, repentance, and ultimately salvation. The Divine Comedy is a religious piece, with strong political themes that were causes of concern in medieval Italy. Dante uses The Divine Comedy as a platform to express his anger towards the corrupt government of his native city Florence. Dante places various inhabitants of the ancient world and Florence in Heaven, purgatory, or Hell solely on where he thought they would end up. In the first verse of the Inferno, the entire poem is written in the first person, Dante says, “When I have journeyed half of our life’s way, I have found myself within a shadowed forest, for I have lost the path that does not stray.” Dante is saying that halfway through life he found himself lost. In the phrase “I have lost the path that does not stray”, Dante is stating that he has lost the spiritual path, or the path that leads to God. Dante says that…