Resumo de The Divine Comedy

Dante, realizing he has strayed from the true way,. into
worldliness, tells of a vision where he travels through all the levels
of Hell, up the mount of Purgatory, and finally through the realms of
Paradise, where he is allowed a brief glimpse of God.
The traveler sets out on the night before Good
Friday, and finds himself in the middle of a dark wood. There he
encounters three beasts: a leopard (representing lust), a lion (pride)
and a she-wolf (covetousness). Fortunately, his lady, Beatrice, along
with the Virgin Mary herself, sends the spirit of Virgil, the classical
Latin poet, to guide Dante through much of his journey. But as much as
Dante admires and reveres Virgil, and though Dante considers him to
have prophesied of the coming of Christ, Virgil is not a Christian. To
Dante he represents human knowledge, or unholy reason, which cannot
lead a person to God. This infidel may not pass into the highest
realms. Thus, Dante is finally led to Heaven by Beatrice, his own
personal and unattainable incarnation of the Virgin, who represents
divine knowledge, or faith.
Pilgrimage:
Terrified, lost midway in life's journey in the worldly darkness of
error, Dante met Virgil, who offered himself as a guide. Together they
passed through the gates of Hell inscribed with the terrifying words:
Abandon every hope, Ye that Enter. Dante, however, as a living soul
who had not yet tasted death, was exempt from such final despair. He
found Hell to be a huge funnel-shaped pit divided into terraces each a
standing-place for those individuals who were guilty of a particular
sin. After passing Limbo, reserved for the unbaptized, Dante observed
and conversed with hundreds of Hell's souls, many of whom, guilty of
carnal sins, were being whirled about in the air or forced to lie deep
in mud or snow, under the decrees of eternal damnation. Ciacco, a
fellow Florentine, implored of Dante ... When thou shalt be in the
sweet world, I pray thee bring me to men's memory.
In pity, Dante frequently offered to write about
those he met when he returned to mortality. These gluttons, seducers,
and robbers were, for the most part, either historical figures or
Dante's personal acquaintances - and each one of them represented one
of the apt and horrible possibilities of Hell. For example, Alexander
the Great and Attila the Hun were found dwelling in Hell's seventh
terrace, forced to grovel in boiling blood - a just end for those who
in life loved violence.
Dante and Virgil cautiously climbed down the body
of Satan. About midway, they turned and scrambled out through an
opening (earth's center of gravity) where all things were the opposite
of Hell: The sun was shining; it was Easter morning. Now hiking on in
silence, they finally arrived on the shores of the Mount of Purgatory,
located exactly opposite Jerusalem on the globe.
First and lowest on the mountain was
Antepurgatory, a place reserved for those spirits who were penitent in
life, who had died without achieving full repentance or without
receiving the last sacrament of the church. They were required to spend
time there before they could begin their arduous climb up the mountain.
A group of those poor souls who had passed away suddenly, unable to
receive extreme unction, pled with the mortal visitor to speak with
their relatives and friends, urging them to pray that their stay in
Ante-purgatory might be shortened.
As the pilgrims entered Purgatory, an angel
inscribed the letter P on Dante's forehead seven times, to represent
the seven deadly sins (pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony,
and lust). As Dante made his way through the seven areas reserved for
those who committed each of these sins, the letters were erased one by
one, and the climb became less difficult.
The travelers finally moved beyond the seventh
terrace. An angel directed them to pass through a huge wall of flames;
on the other side they would find Beatrice. Dante did notte.
Emerging from the flames, he saw a mountain. At its summit, Virgil bade
Dante farewell, for this was as far as Human Reason would allow a
non-Christian to go.
Dante noticed a beautiful garden nearby, and began
to explore it. A young woman appeared to inform him that this was the
Garden of Eden - and there, across a river, awaited Beatrice. But the
woman called out to Dante, demanding that, before entering the stream,
he stop to acknowledge remorse for his sins and confess them. Hearing
her, Dante was so overcome with remorse that he fainted and had to be
carried across Lethe, the river of forgetfulness of past sins.
On the other side of the river, accompanied now at
last by the beautiful Beatrice, Dante discovered that Paradise was
divided into various spheres orbiting the earth. Each of the first
seven (the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn)
represented a particular virtue, and those who in life had exhibited
this virtue became its inhabitants. Ascending through the spheres,
Dante encountered various famous saints, martyrs, and crusaders, in
addition to many of the just, the chaste and the meditative. One soul
he greeted was Cacciaguida, his own great great grandfather, who had
served as a crusader in the previous century. This ancestor addressed
him: O my own blood! O grace of God poured forth above measure! ...
and then went on to reminisce on the earlier glory and splendor of
Florence, and to lament its present fallen state.
At last Dante was conducted to the ninth heaven
(outerspace), where he received grace, and was permitted to gaze upon
divinity and hear the angels' chorus. Beatrice then departed the
reverent admirer, who witnessed the entrance of the triumphal Christ,
followed by Mary.

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