Resumo de The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy is composed of three canticas (or "cantiche"),
Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise),
composed respectively of 34, 33, and 33 cantos. The first cantica,
Inferno, is by far the most famous of the three, and is often published
separately under the title Dante's Inferno. As a part of the whole
literary work, the first canto serves as an introduction to the entire
Divine Comedy, making each of the canticas 33 cantos long. The number 3
is prominent in the work, represented here by the length of each
cantica
(also, three is the sacred number of the trinity and the rhyme scheme
is believed by many critics to imply that in order to go forward, one
must go back). Also, that they add up to 100 cantos is not
accidental. The verse scheme used, terza rima, is the hendecasyllable
(line of eleven syllables), with the lines composing tercets according
to the rhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC . . . YZY Z.

The poet tells in the first person his travel through the three
realms of the dead, lasting during Holy Week in the spring of 1300. His
guide through Hell and Purgatory is the Latin poet Virgil, author of
The Aeneid, and the guide through Paradise is Beatrice,
Dante's ideal of a perfect woman. Beatrice was a real Florentine woman
whom he met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the
then-fashionable courtly love tradition.

In Northern Italy's political struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines,
Dante was part of the Guelphs, who in general favored the Papacy over
the Holy Roman Emperor. Florence's Guelphs split into factions around
1300: the White Guelphs, who opposed secular rule by Pope Boniface VIII
and who wished to preserve Florence's independence, and the Black
Guelphs, who favored the Pope's control of Florence. Dante was among
the White Guelphs who were exiled from Florence in 1302 after troops
under Charles of Valois
entered the city, at the request of Boniface and in alliance with the
Blacks. This exile, which lasted the rest of Dante's life, shows its
influence in many parts of the Comedy, from prophecies of Dante's exile
to Dante's views of politics to the damnation of some of his opponents.

In Hell and Purgatory, Dante shares in the sin and the pentinence
respectively. The last word in each of the three parts of The Divine
Comedy is "stars".

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