The Divine Comedy (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Dante
- First Published: 1320
- Type of Work: Poetry
- Type of Plot: Allegory
- Time of Work: The Friday before Easter, 1300
- Setting: Hell, Purgatory, Paradise
- Principal Characters: Dante, Virgil, Beatrice
- Genres: Poetry, Allegory, Epic, Narrative poetry
- Subjects: Mythology or myths, Sin or Original sin, Adultery, Punishment, Good and evil, Forests or forestry, Hell, Fate or fatalism, Devils or demons, Middle Ages, Saints or sainthood, Treason, Mountains, Animals, dangerous, Heaven, Satan or Satanism, Fourteenth century, Baptism, Easter
- Locales: Hell, Paradise, Purgatory
The Story:
Dante found himself lost in a dark and frightening wood. Trying to regain his path, he decided to climb a mountain to get his bearings. Strange beasts blocked his way, however, and he was forced back to the plain. As he was bemoaning his fate, the poet Virgil approached him and offered to conduct him through Hell, Purgatory, and blissful Paradise.
When they arrived at the gates of Hell, Virgil explained that here were confined those who had lived their lives without regard for good or evil. At the River Acheron, where they found Charon, the ferryman, Dante was...
[The entire page is 3041 words long]
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