Importing New Connotations Into An Old Style: A Comparative Study Of Dante's Divine Comedy

Pante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote his epic poem, the Divine Comedy, during the last thirteen years of his life (circa 1308-21), while in exile from his native Florence. There are three parts to this massive work: Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. In each section Dante the poet recounts the travels of the Pilgrim, his alter ego through hell, purgatory, and heaven, where he meets God face to face. In a letter to his patron, Can Grande della Scala, Dante wrote that his poem was, on the literal level, about "The state of souls after death." It is, of course, that and much more. The poem works on a number of symbolic levels, much like the Bible, one of its primary sources. Like that sacred text, Dante meant his work and his Pilgrim traveler to serve as models for the reader. He hoped to lead that reader to a greater understanding of his place in the universe and to prepare him for the next life.The Inferno revealed the misuse of freewill, its abuse through incontinence, malice and fraud. The Purgatorio emphasises Dante's personal journey, and the spiritual reality, hope for his own salvation, hope for the reform of the Church, but also political hope for Italy. The Purgatorio is a preparation for the right exercise of freewill, a purgation of sin with effort and through time, a climb to the Earthly Paradise, and for Dante, guided by human philosophy, an ascent to his own personification of Love spiritualised, of divine philosophy, of an ascent to beauty, truth and goodness.Dante Alighieri was born into one of the most chaotic periods of Western European history. His birth in 1265 and death in 1321 meant that he witnessed the decline of the two most powerful social institutions of the Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy. This degeneration of His loss of power, control and respect affected Dante emotionally, psychologically and politically. The conflicts between Church and State constitute a major thread in Dante's Divine Comedy. The Vision of God, as Light and Love, embodies the theological virtues. Dante's apocalyptic view of the corruption of Papacy and Politics, the assault on the Church of God, and on the still achievable Empire of Justice, is shown in the symbolic procession of the chariot, a pageant of contemporary history, and a condemnation of temporal degradation.This thesis probes the ideas and the artistic views of Divine Comedy and a humanism kernel within its theological style. By a comparison between Divine Comedy and a great Chinese ancient poem Lisao (The Lament) the author discovers that they are quite similar in logical structures, images and internal rhythm of passion. The author eventually concludes that Divine Comedy not only summarizes the mediaeval knowledge and experience, but reflects a first dawn of the coming Renaissance.