Teacher Guide: Dante's Divine Comedy

In the middle of a midlife crisis, the protagonist Dante finds his path barred by ferocious beasts, allegorical representations of his own besetting sins. Unable to continue his climb up the mountain toward Paradise, he is approached by the character Virgil, who, sent by Dante’s deceased and sainted patroness, Beatrice, guides the poet on a tour of Hell in hopes that his experience there will reform him. In Book One of the Comedy, Inferno, Dante relates his descent through concentric circles of hell, describing the occupants who lodge there, their diverse crimes and mete punishments. Resurfacing on Easter morning, Dante and Virgil continue their excursion up Mount Purgatory in Book Two, Purgatorio. There Dante encounters saints enduring purgatives to become fit for Paradise. At the top of this mountain, where the Garden of Eden lies, the poet meets Beatrice herself and, with her aid, comes to a degree of self-knowledge and repentance. In Book Three, Paradiso, Beatrice assumes the role of guide. Dante meets the inhabitants of the heavenlies, learning of their hierarchical degrees of blessedness, yet finding among them a ubiquitous contentment. Dante’s vision ends in the throne room of the heavenly King and gains from his trifold vision a new understanding of sin and self; he has become a new man, who has learned to love the right things the right way.

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