The Divine Comedy was written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. This poem showed the people’s idea of the Christian afterlife at that time. The Divine Comedy is made up of three sections: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. It is written in the first person with Dante telling the reader of his journey through the three realms of the dead. The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory, and Beatrice guides him through Heaven.

The story starts out with Dante being lost in the woods and he is surrounded by wild beasts and cannot find the right path to take. At the last moment Dante is rescued by Virgil and they both begin their journey to the underworld. Dante comes up to the gates of Hell and sees souls of people who did neither good nor evil in their lives. These souls are neither in Hell nor out of it, but just reside right outside of it. Their punishment is to eternally pursue a blank banner while being chased by hornets and continually getting stung by them. “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,” is written on the Gates of Hell. In Hell Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. Each circle’s sinners are punished in a fashion fitting their crimes: each sinner is afflicted for all eternity by the chief sin he committed. The circles get worse and worse, and the souls in each one get more and more wicked until it reaches the center of the earth, where Satan is held. Dante and Virgil survive Hell and ascend to the mountain of Purgatory. The people in Hell are those who have sinned and try to justify their sins and don’t repent while people in Purgatory are those who have sinned but prayed for forgiveness before their death. The mountain is on an island, created with earth taken from the excavation of Hell. Virgil guides Dante through the seven terraces of Purgatory. Each terrace corresponds to each of the seven deadly sins. Those in Purgatory can leave whenever they want, but there is an honor system where nobody leaves until they corrected the nature within themselves that caused them to commit that sin. Souls can only move upwards and never backwards, since the intent of Purgatory is for souls to ascend toward God, in heaven. Like Hell, though, each terrace has a punishment that corresponds to the sins that those people have committed. At the top of Purgatory there is the Garden of Eden. This place is meant to return one to a state of innocence that existed before the sin of Adam and Eve caused the fall from grace. Since Virgil is a pagan he may not enter Heaven so he vanishes and Beatrice then becomes the second guide and will accompany Dante in his vision of Heaven. Dante drinks from a river which makes him forget his past sins. He is then ready to ascend to Heaven and he is totally purged of sin and “aims for the stars.” After that ascension Beatrice guides Dante through the nine celestial spheres of Heaven. The First Sphere is for souls who abandoned their vows. The Second Sphere is for souls who did good out of desire for fame. The Third Sphere is for souls who did good out of love. The Fourth Sphere is for souls who are wise. The Fifth Sphere for souls who fought for Christianity. The Sixth Sphere is for souls who personified justice. The Seventh Sphere is for souls who embody temperance. The Eighth Sphere the sphere of Church Triumph. The Ninth Sphere is the abode of angels. In this last sphere Dante sees God as a point of light surrounded by nine rings of angels. The book ends with Dante asking himself questions of things that he still cannot understand about Heaven even after seeing it.