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Dante's Divine Comedy problematics and composition. "Divine Comedy" - Composition and symbolism. Nine circles of hell

The poem "The Divine Comedy" is the pinnacle of Dante's work. The poem was conceived as a “vision” - the poet’s journey through the afterlife, and is composed of 3 parts: “Hell”, “Purgatory”, and “Paradise”.
Even Roman poets depicted the afterlife. The afterlife genre became popular during the Middle Ages. The hero of the poem - Dante himself - embodies sinful humanity in his image. If only to get out of the guarantee of sinfulness and political anarchy, it must receive bliss (Paradise) through the world of condemnation (Inferno), purification (Purgatory).
Under the leadership of Virgil (a symbol of the earthly mind), Dante finds himself in Hell - the underworld, divided into 9 stakes, then climbs the mountain of Purgatory, is cleansed of sins and, accompanied by Beatrice (a symbol of the divine mind), rises to Paradise.
"Comedy" goes beyond the scope of the "vision" genre: Dante examines there the issue of theology, morality, history, science, and aesthetic concepts of the era. This is a poetic encyclopedia of the middle ages and the early Renaissance. Dante often decides theological questions in the spirit of Thomas Aquinas. However, his religion is of a private nature, which is due to the influence of heretical and mystical teachings of the 13th century
The central place in the poem is occupied by the issue of morality and politics; Dante gives political and social overtones to sins. Politics are discussed by the afterlife inhabitants of all three worlds. Dante, an active Florentine citizen, cares not only about the salvation of the soul, but also about a political system in which there would be no strife and people would live happily. He is concerned about the internal Florentine struggle for power, the fate of Italy, which was destroyed by wars, the decline of the authority of the church, the clash of papal and imperial power, and the idealmonarchies.
What is striking in the poem is the author’s negative attitude towards traitors, towards everyone who wants to gain wealth by dishonest means (church ministers also belong to such people). Dante denounces usury and the sale of church positions. His ideal, expressed in the 17th song of Paradise, is the patriarchal Florence of the past.
Dante's personal attitude towards each of the sinners - respect for Latini, hatred for Filippo Argenti - provides a special flavor to the poem. Dante appears in it both as an individual and as a representative of humanity as a whole
According to the theme and genre, "Comedy" is an allegory, which was the only justifiable art form at that time. Dante's work is closely connected with reality, reflects his time, creates the face of the author's contemporaries. The grievances of the sinners of “Hell” who did not repent appear most clearly in the poem - tragic figures who have not lost their passions - their characters and destinies are revealed in confession and a brief description of gestures, postures, and voices. The gentle Francesca and Farinata, who despises Hell, the brave Ulysses and the evil Ugolino, who saw the death of his children, are mentioned.
Less expressive are the images of sinners who repented in “Purgatory” - the patriot Sordello, the lazy Belacqua, the stern Mark Lombardsky.
A special place among the characters of the Comedy is occupied by Virgil, Beatrice and the poet himself. Virgil is depicted as a wise and forgiving mentor, which makes him soft and humane. The author portrays Beatrice as a symbol of divine wisdom, and in some episodes simply as a person. Dante himself emerges as a proud, passionate, intolerant man, and at the same time sensitive to human suffering. In the poem, where, according to its medieval religious pathos, the time of postures before the judgment of eternity, there is no historical perspective. Characters from all times and peoples appear side by side in every scene
The problems of Dante's "Divine Comedy" are ambiguous. The allegorical nature of the poem was noticed back in the time of the author. The lowliness of the images of sinners who repented and those who could not repent also has an allegorical meaning. Political subtext gives the poem a special sound
The author’s indifference to political problems also shows him to be a patriotic citizen of his homeland. The combination of philosophical, religious, moral and political motives in the poem puts it on a par with the best works of mankind of all times and peoples

Under the guidance of Virgil (a symbol of the earthly mind), Dante finds himself in Hell - the underworld, divided into 9 rings, then rises up to Purgatory, is cleansed of sins and, accompanied by Beatrice (a symbol of the divine mind), rises to Paradise.

"Comedy" goes beyond the genre of "vision": Dante considers there the question of theology, morality, history, science, aesthetic concepts of the era. This is a poetic encyclopedia of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Dante often resolves theological questions in the spirit of Thomas Aquinas. However, his religion is private in nature, which is due to the influence of heretical and mystical teachings of the XIII century.

The central place in the poem is occupied by the issue of morality and politics; Dante’s sins are given a political and social overtones. Politics are discussed by the afterlife inhabitants of all three worlds. Dante, an active Florentine citizen, cares not only about the salvation of the soul, but also about a political system in which there would be no strife and people would live happily. He is concerned about the internal Florentine struggle for power, the fate of Italy, which was destroyed by wars, the decline of the authority of the church, the clash of papal and imperial power, the ideal of the monarchy.

What is striking in the poem is the author’s negative attitude towards traitors, towards everyone who wants to gain wealth by dishonest means (church ministers also belong to such people). Dante condemns usury and the sale of church offices. His ideal is expressed in the 17th song of “Paradise” - the patriarchal Florence of the past.

Dante's personal attitude towards each of the sinners - respect for Latini, hatred for Filippo Argenti - provides a special flavor to the poem. Dante appears in it both as an individual and as a representative of humanity as a whole.

According to the theme and genre, "Comedy" is an allegory, which was the only justifiable art form at that time. Dante's work is closely connected with reality, reflects his time, creates the face of the author's contemporaries. The most striking images appear in the poem of the sinners of “Hell” who did not repent - tragic figures who did not lose their passions - their characters and destinies are revealed in confession and a brief description of gestures, poses, voices. The gentle Francesca and Farinata, who despises Hell, the brave Ulysses and the evil Ugolino, who saw the death of his children, are mentioned.

Less expressive are the images of sinners who repented in “Purgatory” - the patriot Sordello, the lazy Belacqua, the stern Mark of Lombardy.

A special place among the characters of the Comedy is occupied by Virgil, Beatrice and the poet himself. Virgil is depicted as a wise and forgiving mentor; sadness makes him soft and humane. The author portrays Beatrice as a symbol of divine wisdom, and in some episodes simply as a person. Dante himself emerges as a proud, passionate, intolerant man and at the same time sensitive to human suffering. In the poem, where, according to its medieval religious pathos, time does not stand before the court of eternity, there is no history

Dante's main work, on which his world fame is primarily based, is The Divine Comedy. The poem is not only the result of the development of Dante’s ideological, political and artistic thought, but also provides a grandiose philosophical and artistic...

This is Dante's main work, which brought the poet world fame - “The Divine Comedy”. The poem is distinguished by an unusually clear, thoughtful composition and is divided into three large parts: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Each part consists of 33 songs...

If Dante had not written anything else, his name would still have gone down forever in the history of world literature. And yet, his world fame is associated primarily with his last work - the poem “The Divine Comedy” (1313-1321). In it, Dante put together...

The end of the Middle Ages. The consciousness of Europeans is changing. The world is no longer limited by the walls of the city and amazes with its diversity. Heretics are still burned in the squares and masses are chanted, but the sharp critical thought of humanists is already ready to change Europe. Dante...

Around the middle of the 12th century, a new cultural movement gradually gained strength in Europe - the Renaissance, or Renaissance. Dante Alighieri was at the origins of this movement. Some literary historians consider him at the same time a representative of the Middle Ages...

The poem "The Divine Comedy" is the pinnacle of Dante's work. The poem was conceived as a “vision” - the poet’s journey to the afterlife, and consists of 3 parts: “Hell”, “Purgatory”, and “Paradise”. Even Roman poets depicted the afterlife. The afterlife genre became popular during the Middle Ages. The hero of the poem - Dante himself - embodies sinful humanity in his image. In order to get out of the state of sinfulness and political anarchy, it must receive bliss (Paradise) through the world of condemnation (Hell), purification (Purgatory). Under the guidance of Virgil (a symbol of the earthly mind), Dante finds himself in Hell - the underworld, divided into 9 rings, then rises up to Purgatory, is cleansed of sins and, accompanied by Beatrice (a symbol of the divine mind), rises to Paradise. "Comedy" goes beyond the genre of "vision": Dante considers there the question of theology, morality, history, science, aesthetic concepts of the era. This is a poetic encyclopedia of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Dante often resolves theological questions in the spirit of Thomas Aquinas. However, his religion is private in nature, which is due to the influence of heretical and mystical teachings of the XIII century. The central place in the poem is occupied by the issue of morality and politics; Dante’s sins are given a political and social overtones. Politics are discussed by the afterlife inhabitants of all three worlds. Dante, an active Florentine citizen, cares not only about the salvation of the soul, but also about a political system in which there would be no strife and people would live happily. He is concerned about the internal Florentine struggle for power, the fate of Italy, which was destroyed by wars, the decline of the authority of the church, the clash of papal and imperial power, the ideal of the monarchy. What is striking in the poem is the author’s negative attitude towards traitors, towards everyone who wants to gain wealth by dishonest means (church ministers also belong to such people). Dante condemns usury and the sale of church offices. His ideal is expressed in the 17th song of “Paradise” - the patriarchal Florence of the past. Dante's personal attitude towards each of the sinners - respect for Latini, hatred for Filippo Argenti - provides a special flavor to the poem. Dante appears in it both as an individual and as a representative of humanity as a whole. According to the theme and genre, "Comedy" is an allegory, which was the only justifiable art form at that time. Dante's work is closely connected with reality, reflects his time, creates the face of the author's contemporaries. The most striking images appear in the poem of the sinners of “Hell” who did not repent - tragic figures who did not lose their passions - their characters and destinies are revealed in confession and a brief description of gestures, poses, voices. The gentle Francesca and Farinata, who despises Hell, the brave Ulysses and the evil Ugolino, who saw the death of his children, are mentioned. Less expressive are the images of sinners who repented in “Purgatory” - the patriot Sordello, the lazy Belacqua, the stern Mark of Lombardy. A special place among the characters of the Comedy is occupied by Virgil, Beatrice and the poet himself. Virgil is depicted as a wise and forgiving mentor; sadness makes him soft and humane. The author portrays Beatrice as a symbol of divine wisdom, and in some episodes simply as a person. Dante himself emerges as a proud, passionate, intolerant man and at the same time sensitive to human suffering. In the poem, where, according to its medieval religious pathos, time does not stand before the court of eternity, there is no historical perspective. Characters from all times and peoples appear side by side in every scene. The problems of Dante's Divine Comedy are ambiguous. The allegorical nature of the poem was noticed back in the time of the author. The baseness of the images of sinners who repented and those who could not repent also has an allegorical meaning. The political subtext gives the poem a special sound. The author's indifference to the political problems of that time shows him to be a patriotic citizen of his homeland. The combination of philosophical, religious, moral and political motives in the poem puts it on a par with the best works of mankind of all times and peoples.

Calling his poem a “comedy,” Dante uses medieval terminology. Comedy is a poetic work of medium style with a terrifying beginning and a happy ending, written in the folk language; tragedy is any poetic work of high style with an admiring and calm beginning and a terrible ending.

“The Divine Comedy” is the fruit of the entire second half of Dante’s life and work. Dante as the last great poet of the Middle Ages.

(According to Dante) the plot of the “Divine Comedy” is man himself, since, acting righteously or unrighteously by virtue of his free will, he is subject to rewarding or punishing Justice; the purpose of the poem is to "lead people from their distressed state to a state of bliss."

The Divine Comedy is distinguished by its clear and thoughtful composition : it is divided into three parts (“edges”), each of which depicts one of the three parts of the afterlife, according to Catholic teaching - hell, purgatory or heaven. Each part consists of 33 songs (which should remind of the years of the life of Jesus Christ), and each of the edgings ends with the same word - stars (stelle). Another prologue song is added to the first cantika, so that there are 100 songs in total (100 appears here as the number of perfection). The entire poem is written in three-line stanzas - terzas. This dominance of the number 3 in the compositional and semantic structure of the poem goes back to the Christian idea of the Trinity and the mystical meaning of the number 3. The entire architectonics of the afterlife of the “Divine Comedy” is based on this number, thought out by the poet to the smallest detail: three symbolic wives, three colors in which Beatrice, three symbolic beasts, three mouths of Lucifer and the same number of sinners devoured by him; tripartite distribution of Hell with nine circles and nine heavenly spheres.

For all its originality, Dante's poem has various medieval sources. The plot of the poem reproduces the scheme of the popular genre of “visions” or “walks through torment” in medieval literature - about the secrets of the afterlife.

The theme of afterlife “visions” was developed in a similar direction in medieval literature and outside Western Europe (the ancient Russian apocrypha “The Virgin Mary’s Walk through the Torment” of the 12th century, the Muslim legend about the vision of Mohammed, who contemplated in a prophetic dream the torment of sinners in hell and the heavenly bliss of the righteous.

Plot

According to Catholic tradition, the afterlife consists of hell, where eternally condemned sinners go, purgatory - the abode of sinners who atone for their sins - and heaven - the abode of the blessed. Dante details this idea and describes the structure of the underworld, recording with graphic certainty all the details of its architectonics.

In the introductory song, Dante tells how he, having reached the middle of his life's journey, once got lost in a dense forest and how the poet Virgil, having saved him from three wild animals (personifying vices) that blocked his path to the exit (truth), accompanied Dante at the request of Beatrice to wandering through the afterlife. Together they walk through Hell, and then Dante goes to Purgatory and Paradise. On his way, Dante meets his relatives, acquaintances and famous political and cultural figures of that time.

Having chosen the year 1300 as the starting point, he looks from his 1306 as a seer and “distributes” with the hand of the poet punishment and mercy according to the merits of the heroes, assigning them places in various locations of the afterlife. He also summarizes all his accumulated spiritual and cognitive experience, applies his knowledge in practice, which follows from the numerous references to various sciences scattered throughout the text of the comedy: astronomy, astrology, history, politics, etc.

Hell. Having passed the threshold of hell, inhabited by the souls of insignificant, indecisive people, they enter the first circle of hell, the so-called limbo, where the souls of virtuous pagans reside, who have not known the true God, but have approached this knowledge and are therefore freed from the torments of hell. Here Dante sees outstanding representatives of ancient culture - Aristotle, Euripides, etc.

The next circle is filled with the souls of people who once indulged in unbridled passion. Among those carried by a wild whirlwind, Dante sees Francesca da Rimini and her lover Paolo, fallen victims of forbidden love for each other. As Dante, accompanied by Virgil, descends lower and lower, he witnesses the torment of gluttons forced to suffer from rain and hail, misers and spendthrifts tirelessly rolling huge stones, angry ones getting bogged down in the swamp.

They are followed by heretics and heresiarchs engulfed in eternal flames (among them Emperor Frederick II, Pope Anastasius II), tyrants and murderers floating in streams of boiling blood, suicides turned into trees, blasphemers and rapists burned by falling flames, deceivers of all kinds, torment which are very diverse.

Finally, Dante penetrates the last, IX circle of hell, intended for the most terrible criminals. Here is the abode of traitors and traitors, the greatest of them: Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius. They are gnawed with their three mouths by Lucifer, an angel who once rebelled against God, the king of evil, doomed to imprisonment in the center of the earth. The description of the terrible appearance of Lucifer ends the last song of the first part of the poem.

In constructing the picture of Hell, Dante proceeded from the Christian model of the world. According to Dante, Hell is a funnel-shaped abyss that, narrowing, reaches the center of the earth. Its slopes are surrounded by concentric ledges, the “circles” of Hell. Rivers of the underworld (Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon) - Lethe, the river of ablution and oblivion, stands apart, although its waters also flow to the center of the earth - this is, in essence, one stream formed by the tears of the Cretan Elder and penetrating into the bowels of the earth: first he appears as Acheron (in Greek, “river of sorrow”) and encircles the first circle of Hell, then, flowing down, forms the swamp of Styx (in Greek, “hated”), which washes the walls of the city of Dita, bordering the abyss of lower Hell; even lower it becomes Phlegethon (in Greek, “burning”), a ring-shaped river of boiling blood, then, in the form of a bloody stream, it crosses the forest of suicides and the desert, from where a noisy waterfall falls deep into the depths to turn into the icy Lake Cocytus in the center of the earth. Dante calls Lucifer (aka Beelzebub, the devil) Dit (Dis), this is the Latin name of King Hades, or Pluto, the son of Kronos and Rhea, brother of Zeus and Poseidon.

The origin of Hell according to Dante is as follows: An angel (Lucifer, Satan) who rebelled against God, together with his supporters (demons), was thrown from the ninth heaven to the Earth and, piercing into it, punched a hole to the very center of the Earth, the Universe and universal gravity: it’s time to fall further nowhere - and got stuck there in the eternal ice. The resulting funnel - the underground kingdom - is Hell, waiting for sinners who at that time had not yet been born, since the Earth was lifeless. The gaping wound of the Earth immediately healed. Shifted as a result of the collision caused by the fall of Lucifer, the earth's crust closed the base of the cone-shaped funnel, swelling in the middle of this base with Mount Golgotha, and on the opposite side of the funnel - Mount Purgatory. The entrance to the dungeon of Hell remained on the side, near the edge of the depression, on the territory of future Italy. Many images (the rivers of the underworld, the entrance to it, topology) were taken by Dante from ancient sources (Homer, Virgil).

Dante often illustrates the described torment of sinners with pictures of nature, alien to medieval descriptions, and the dead element of hell itself with phenomena of the living world. For example, traitors immersed in an icy lake are compared to frogs that “are caught to croak, snouts from a pond,” and the punishment of crafty advisers imprisoned in tongues of fire reminds the poet of a valley filled with fireflies on a quiet evening in Italy. The hellish whirlwind in Song V is compared to the flight of starlings: “And like starlings, their wings carry them away, / On days of cold, in a thick and long formation, /

There, this storm circles the spirits of evil, / There, here, down, up, in a huge swarm.

Purgatory. Having passed the narrow corridor connecting the center of the earth with the second hemisphere, Dante and Virgil emerge on the surface of the earth. There, in the middle of the island surrounded by the ocean, a mountain rises in the form of a truncated cone - purgatory, like hell, consisting of a series of circles that narrow as they approach the top of the mountain. The angel guarding the entrance to purgatory lets Dante into the first circle of purgatory, having previously drawn seven Ps (“peccatum” - sin), that is, a symbol of the seven deadly sins, on his forehead with a sword. As Dante rises higher and higher, passing one circle after another, these letters disappear, so that when Dante, having reached the top of the mountain, enters the "earthly paradise" located on the top of the latter, he is already free from the signs inscribed by the guardian of purgatory. The circles of the latter are inhabited by the souls of sinners atoning for their sins. Here the proud are cleansed, forced to bend under the burden of heavy weights pressing on their backs, envious, angry, negligent, greedy, etc. Virgil brings Dante to the gates of paradise, where he, as he did not know baptism, has no access.

Paradise. In the earthly paradise, Virgil is replaced by Beatrice, seated on a chariot (an allegory of the triumphant church). She encourages Dante to repentance, and then takes him, enlightened, to heaven. The final part of the poem is dedicated to Dante's wanderings through the heavenly paradise. The latter consists of seven spheres encircling the earth and corresponding to the seven planets (according to the then widespread Ptolemaic system): the spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, etc., followed by the spheres of the fixed stars and the crystal sphere, - behind the crystal sphere is the Empyrean, - the infinite the region inhabited by the blessed who contemplate God is the last sphere that gives life to everything that exists. Flying through the spheres, Dante sees the Emperor Justinian, introducing him to the history of the Roman Empire, teachers of the faith, martyrs for the faith, whose shining souls form a sparkling cross; ascending higher and higher, Dante sees Christ and the Virgin Mary, angels and, finally, the “heavenly Rose” - the abode of the blessed - is revealed before him. Here Dante partakes of the highest grace, achieving communion with the Creator.

Each of three piping the poem has its own basic colorful background : “Hell” - a gloomy coloring, thick ominous colors with a predominance of red and black: “And over the desert slowly fell / The rain of flames, in wide scarves / Like snow in the windless mountain rocks...” “So the fiery blizzard descended / And the ashes burned, like tinder under a flint...", "Everyone had fire snaking over their feet..." ; “Purgatory” - soft, pale and foggy colors characteristic of the living nature that appears there (sea, rocks, green meadows, trees): “The road here is not covered with carvings; / the wall of the slope and the ledge under it - / Solid gray stone color”; “Paradise” - dazzling brilliance and transparency, radiant colors of the purest light.

Similarly, each of the parts has its own musical decoration : in hell there is a growl, roar, groans, in heaven the music of the spheres sounds.

5. The tragic villain: a comparative analysis of the plays of W. Shakespeare: “Richard III” and “Macbeth”

In the works immediately after King Lear - in Macbeth and Coriolanus - the bearer of evil becomes the main character of the play. It was this construction of the tragedy that allowed Shakespeare to most fully concentrate the attention of the audience on the internal patterns that are inherent in characters of this kind, determine the evolution of these characters and, ultimately, their fate, as well as the fate of other characters.

This is not the first time Shakespeare has resorted to the method of constructing the play chosen for Macbeth. Among Shakespeare's early works there is a chronicle, the compositional features of which largely anticipate the composition of Macbeth - this is Richard III, a play in the center of which is the image of a bloody criminal who paved his way to the throne.

Often, because of love, actions are committed that go beyond understanding. It is customary for poets, having experienced love, to dedicate their writings to the object of feelings. But if this poet is still a person with a difficult fate and, at the same time, is not devoid of genius, there is a possibility that he is capable of writing one of the greatest works in the world. This was Dante Alighieri. His “Divine Comedy” - a masterpiece of world literature - continues to be interesting to the world 700 years after its creation.

“The Divine Comedy” was created in the second period of the great poet’s life - the period of exile (1302 - 1321). By the time he began work on the Comedy, he was already looking for a refuge for soul and body among the cities and states of Italy, and the love of his life, Beatrice, had already been in peace for several years (1290), having become a victim of a plague epidemic. Writing was a kind of consolation for Dante in his difficult life. It is unlikely that he then counted on worldwide fame or memory for centuries. But the genius of the author and the value of his poem did not allow him to be forgotten.

Genre and direction

"Comedy" is a special work in the history of world literature. If you look at it in a broad way, it is a poem. In a narrower sense, it is impossible to determine whether it belongs to one of the varieties of this genre. The problem here is that there are no more such works in terms of content. It is impossible to come up with a name that would reflect the meaning of the text. Dante decided to call the work “Comedy” by Giovanni Boccaccio, following the logic of Aristotle’s teaching on drama, where comedy was a work that started out bad and ended well. The epithet “divine” was invented in the 16th century.

In direction, this is a classic work of the Italian Renaissance. Dante's poem is characterized by special national elegance, rich imagery and accuracy. With all this, the poet also does not neglect the sublimity and freedom of thought. All these features were characteristic of the Renaissance poetry of Italy. It is they who form the unique style of Italian poetry of the XIII-XVII centuries.

Composition

Taken as a whole, the core of the poem is the hero's journey. The work consists of three parts, consisting of one hundred songs. The first part is “Hell”. It contains 34 songs, while "Purgatory" and "Paradise" have 33 songs each. The author's choice is not accidental. “Hell” stood out as a place in which there can be no harmony, well, and there are more inhabitants there.

Description of Hell

"Hell" represents nine circles. Sinners are ranked there according to the severity of their fall. Dante took Aristotle's Ethics as the basis for this system. Thus, from the second to the fifth circles they punish for the results of human intemperance:

in the second circle - for lust;
in the third - for gluttony;
in the fourth - for stinginess with wastefulness;
in the fifth - for anger;

In the sixth and seventh for the consequences of atrocities:

in the sixth for false teachings
in the seventh for violence, murder and suicide

In the eighth and ninth for lying and all its derivatives. A worse fate awaits Dante's traitors. According to the logic of modern, and even then, people, the most serious sin is murder. But Aristotle probably believed that a person cannot always control the desire to kill because of bestial nature, while lying is an exclusively conscious matter. Dante apparently followed the same concept.

In Inferno, everyone is Dante's political and personal enemies. Also there he placed all those who were of a different faith, seemed immoral to the poet and simply did not live like a Christian.

Description of Purgatory

"Purgatory" contains seven circles that correspond to the seven sins. The Catholic Church later called them mortal sins (those that can be “prayed away”). In Dante they are arranged from the hardest to the most tolerable. He did this because his path should represent the path of ascent to Paradise.

Description of paradise

“Paradise” is performed in nine circles, named after the main planets of the solar system. Here are Christian martyrs, saints and scientists, participants in the crusades, monks, church fathers, and, of course, Beatrice, who is located not just anywhere, but in the Empyrean - the ninth circle, which is represented in the form of a luminous rose, which can be interpreted as a place where God is. Despite all the Christian orthodoxy of the poem, Dante gives the circles of Paradise the names of the planets, which in meaning correspond to the names of the gods of Roman mythology. For example, the third circle (Venus) is the abode of lovers, and the sixth (Mars) is the place for warriors for the faith.

About what?

Giovanni Boccaccio, when writing a sonnet on behalf of Dante, dedicated to the purpose of the poem, said the following: “To entertain posterity and instruct in the faith.” This is true: “The Divine Comedy” can serve as an instruction in faith, because it is based on Christian teaching and clearly shows what and who will face for disobedience. And, as they say, she can entertain. Considering, for example, the fact that “Paradise” is the most unreadable part of the poem, since all the entertainment that a person loves is described in the previous two chapters, well, or the fact that the work is dedicated to Dante’s love. Moreover, the function that, as Boccaccio said, entertains, can even compete in its importance with the function of edification. After all, the poet, of course, was more of a romantic than a satirist. He wrote about himself and for himself: everyone who prevented him from living is in hell, the poem is for his beloved, and Dante’s companion and mentor, Virgil, is the favorite poet of the great Florentine (it is known that he knew his “Aeneid” by heart).

Dante's image

Dante is the main character of the poem. It is noteworthy that in the entire book his name is not indicated anywhere, except perhaps on the cover. The narration comes from his perspective, and all the other characters call him “you.” The narrator and the author have a lot in common. The "Dark Forest" in which the first one finds himself at the very beginning is the exile of the real Dante from Florence, the moment when he was truly in turmoil. And Virgil from the poem is the writings of a Roman poet that actually existed for the exile. Just as his poetry guided Dante through difficulties here, so in the afterlife Virgil is his “teacher and beloved example.” In the character system, the ancient Roman poet also personifies wisdom. The hero shows himself most well in relation to sinners who offended him personally during his lifetime. He even tells some of them in the poem that they deserve it.

Themes

The main theme of the poem is love. The poets of the Renaissance began to elevate the earthly woman to heaven, often calling her Madonna. Love, according to Dante, is the cause and beginning of everything. She is the stimulus for writing the poem, the reason for his journey already in the context of the work, and most importantly, the reason for the beginning and existence of the Universe, as is commonly believed in Christian theology.
Edification is the next theme of the Comedy. Dante, like everyone else in those days, felt a great responsibility for earthly life before the heavenly world. For the reader, he can act as a teacher who gives everyone what they deserve. It is clear that in the context of the poem, the inhabitants of the underworld were located as the author describes them, by the will of the Almighty.
Policy. Dante's work can safely be called political. The poet always believed in the benefits of the emperor's power and wanted such power for his country. In total, his ideological enemies, as well as the enemies of the empire, like Caesar's murderers, experience the most terrible suffering in hell.
Strength of mind. Dante often falls into confusion when he finds himself in the afterlife, but Virgil tells him not to do this, not stopping at any danger. However, even under unusual circumstances, the hero shows himself with dignity. He cannot not be afraid at all, since he is a man, but even for a man his fear is insignificant, which is an example of exemplary will. This will did not break either in the face of difficulties in the poet’s real life or in his book adventure.

Issues

The fight for the ideal. Dante strived for his goals both in real life and in the poem. Once a political activist, he continues to defend his interests, branding all those who are in opposition to him and do bad things. The author, of course, cannot call himself a saint, but nevertheless he takes responsibility by distributing sinners to their places. The ideal in this matter for him is Christian teaching and his own views.
Correlation between the earthly and afterlife worlds. Many of those who lived, according to Dante, or according to Christian law, unrighteously, but, for example, for their own pleasure and benefit for themselves, find themselves in the most terrible places in hell. At the same time, in paradise there are martyrs or those who during their lifetime became famous for great and useful deeds. The concept of punishment and reward, developed by Christian theology, exists as a moral guide for most people today.
Death. When his beloved died, the poet was very sad. His love was not destined to come true and be embodied on earth. “The Divine Comedy” is an attempt to reunite, at least briefly, with a woman who has been lost forever.

Meaning

“The Divine Comedy” fulfills all the functions that the author intended for this work. It is a moral and humanistic ideal for everyone. Reading the “Comedy” evokes many emotions, through which a person learns what is good and what is bad, and experiences purification, the so-called “catharsis,” as Aristotle dubbed this state of mind. Through the suffering experienced in the process of reading the everyday description of hell, a person comprehends divine wisdom. As a result, he treats his actions and thoughts more responsibly, because the justice laid down from above will punish his sins. In a bright and talented manner, the artist of the word, like an icon painter, depicted scenes of reprisals against vices that enlighten the common people, popularizing and chewing on the content of the Holy Scriptures. Dante's audience, of course, is more demanding, because they are literate, wealthy and perspicacious, but, nevertheless, they are not alien to sinfulness. Such people tended to distrust the direct moralizing of preachers and theological works, and here the exquisitely written “Divine Comedy” came to the aid of virtue, which carried the same educational and moral charge, but did it in a secularly sophisticated way. The main idea of the work is expressed in this healing influence on those who are burdened with power and money.

The ideals of love, justice and the strength of the human spirit at all times are the basis of our existence, and in Dante’s work they are glorified and shown in all their significance. “The Divine Comedy” teaches a person to strive for the high destiny with which God has honored him.

Peculiarities

“The Divine Comedy” has the most important aesthetic significance because of the theme of human love that has turned into tragedy and the rich artistic world of the poem. All of the above, together with a special poetic cast and unprecedented functional diversity, make this work one of the most outstanding in world literature.