The Divine Comedy is 14233 lines long and consists of three parts: hell, purgatory and heaven. It is a magical description of Dante's fantasy journey to the Three Realms. The poet described himself as in the spring of the holy year of Amnesty 1300, which happened to be the middle of his 35-year-old life. On April 8, 2008, the poet got lost in a dark forest. Just as he tried to climb the mountain, the only exit was blocked by the female leopard, the male lion and the female wolf, which symbolized lust, rape and greed. The poet panicked and was in a dilemma. At this critical moment, the great Roman poet Virgil suddenly appeared. Entrusted by Beatrice, Dante's spiritual lover and an angel, he rescued Dante from danger and went to hell and purgatory. Under Virgil's leadership, Dante entered hell for the first time, but when he saw the evil wind whistling and the evil waves surging, his mood was terrible and his scenery was shocking. Hell is divided into nine layers, shaped like a funnel, getting smaller as it goes down. The people who live here are all people who committed serious crimes before their death. Their souls are arranged at different levels and punished forever according to the severity of their crimes. There are corrupt officials, hypocrites, evil popes, mentors, businessmen, thieves, prostitutes, false accusers, usurers, and greedy, greedy and irritable cultists. The poet hated traitors and traitors most, and locked them in the ninth floor, frozen in the cold lake and tortured them.
Cross the center of the earth from the bottom of the ice lake and you will come to purgatory. Purgatory is an isolated mountain in the sea, and it is also divided into nine floors. This is a place where guilty souls wash their sins. After their sins are purified, they still hope to enter heaven. Criminals who repent late are not allowed in and wait outside the mountain gate for a long time. In each floor of purgatory, the souls of the lesser of the seven deadly sins of Christianity, such as arrogance, jealousy, anger, laziness, greed, food and lust, live respectively. Dante traveled layer by layer, and finally came to the top heaven, and Virgil left immediately. It turns out that he is eligible to enter heaven and can only wait in the "waiting room". At this time, the sky is full of colorful clouds and auspicious clouds. In the colorful rain curtain, Beatrice, wearing an olive-leaf laurel tree, a raccoon red dress and a white gauze, slowly descended. Beatrice gently rebuked the poet for being lost in the forest symbolizing evil, and guided him to appreciate the scenic spots around. Under her guidance, Dante entered Forgotten Sichuan, refreshed and forgot the pain of the past, and then Beatrice took him to heaven.
There are nine heavenly ways, namely, the moon, mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, stars and crystals. Angels live here, and those who can enter heaven are upright people, wise monarchs and scholars. Only saints and devout priests can enjoy eternal happiness here. The weather in heaven is magnificent and solemn, full of brilliance, love and joy. On the eighth day, Dante was ecstatic when asked by three saints about the theological virtues of "faith, hope and love". He followed St. peinado into the mysterious and bright sky and got a glimpse of the profound significance of the "Trinity", but when he saw the golden light, his fantasy and whole poem came to an abrupt end in a blissful atmosphere.
Today's readers often feel that the Divine Comedy is complicated in content, bizarre in plot and obscure in meaning, which is due to their unfamiliarity with the medieval cultural background of the book. The Divine Comedy is actually rigorous in structure, and the plot obeys the theme of the poem, in which both the characters and the scene refer to something. Here we only talk about related issues from a big perspective. Dante hated Pope Benifa west eight I and some heinous popes at that time, and held a clear negative attitude towards religious ignorance, but he did not deny Christian belief. The last chapter of the third volume of Imperialism written in 1309 is a key to understanding the Divine Comedy. Dante believes that there are two kinds of happiness in life: "the happiness in this life lies in personal kindness;" The happiness of eternal life lies in accepting God's grace. ""The happiness in this life is symbolized by heaven on earth, and the happiness in eternal life is symbolized by heaven. The happiness of this life must be realized through the practice of morality and knowledge under the guidance of philosophy (including all human knowledge). The happiness of eternal life must be realized through the practice of theological virtues (faith, hope and love) under the guidance of enlightenment. "This is actually a replica of the paradise on earth and the kingdom of heaven put forward by Augustine in The City of God. In The Divine Comedy, Dante carefully arranged two characters as his mentor, one is Virgil, who symbolizes reason and knowledge, and the other is Beatrice, who symbolizes faith and piety. As we said before, Christianity believes that everyone is a sinner. So prisoners in hell and purgatory are guilty souls. The only difference is the nature of the crime and the severity of the crime. Are the manifestations of people of all colors in real society. People in heaven are souls who have experienced purgatory and can share glory with God. Before Dante entered purgatory, heaven carved seven words "P" (the first letter of the word "sin" in Italian) on his forehead with a sharp knife. Every time the poet climbs a layer in purgatory, the angel erases a word. When he walks out of the mountain of purgatory, all seven words "P" are erased, indicating that his sin has been cleared and he can go to heaven. Hell, purgatory and heaven correspond to "paradise on earth" and "heaven" respectively. Virgil, who symbolizes rationality, can only act as a guide for the poet in "paradise on earth", and Beatrice, who symbolizes faith, is qualified to lead the poet into "heaven". This clearly shows that Dante put faith above reason. The theme of Divine Comedy is to explore the future destiny of the poet himself, the Italian nation and even mankind. Dante's conclusion is that the Italian nation and all mankind must be inspired by faith, rationally regulate their behavior, and constantly surpass their moral perfection and spiritual realm, so as to be integrated with the highest truth and gain a bright future. The structure of the nine heavens in Dante's works is based on Ptolemy's theory of heaven accepted by the church. The so-called "permanent roulette" in the poem is a portrayal of Ptolemy's theory that the universe is a sphere composed of nine heavens on the same axis.
As a poet in the transitional period between the old and the new, Dante could not fail to accept the baptism of medieval culture, but the profound critical spirit and the germination of new ideas in The Divine Comedy made the poet a prophet of the coming Renaissance. Dante sincerely praised the sages of ancient Greece and Rome, such as Plato, Aristotle, Homer, Virgil and others, affirmed the representatives of these splendid cultures in the pagan period, affirmed the spirit of knowledge and rationality, and objectively criticized the cultural absolutism and obscurantism in the Middle Ages. Although as a Christian, Dante could not arrange them directly in heaven, he put these "noble" pagans in a beautiful and quiet place in hell without suffering. Dante also sympathized with Paul and France, who were killed for love and suffered in hell, and criticized the asceticism of the church. In many places, long poems show a strong desire to end party disputes and achieve national unity, and the love for the motherland often makes poets unable to help themselves. In the sixth poem of "Hell", divided Italy caused Dante's infinite regret:
Alas, slave-like Italy, your sad journey, your boat without a helmsman in the storm, you are no longer a housewife from other provinces, but a brothel! ..... You sick people live in you, not a day goes by without war, but people surrounded by city walls and moats kill each other. You poor bastard! Look at the coast of your country and look at your hinterland. Is there a land that enjoys peace and happiness? Sighing the reality of national homeland has turned into anger at those who have brought disaster to the country and people. Dante revealed that some popes interfered in secular politics and coveted power, which was the chief culprit in the dispute between the state and the city-state. In hell, the poet met the soul of Pope Nicholas III and denounced: "Because of your greed, the world was plunged into suffering, the good people were ravaged, and the evil people were promoted". Pope Boniface VIII thought it was fashionable on earth, but the poet found a place for him in prison, fell into a cave and was punished by fire. Dante also attacked the corrupt church forces, comparing the products of the greedy bishop and the apostle Peter to "a wolf in a shepherd's coat". The poet despised those politicians who lost their principles and got caught in fierce political struggles in have it both ways, so he set up a gallery for their souls outside the first floor of hell. These people refused to take refuge in hell, were stung by numerous rhubarb peaks in the promenade, and were blown to the east and west by strong winds. In fact, although the Divine Comedy took the form of a dream, its specific description-especially in the chapter of hell-was a microcosm of Italian social reality at that time.
The Divine Comedy has made great achievements in art and is a treasure bred by medieval literature. With the help of the Christian concept of redemption and the theological teaching of hell, purgatory and heaven, the poet put complicated materials into a rigorous framework. Long poems are naturally divided into three articles, each with 33 articles and a preface, *** 100. Every three lines are divided into sections, and the verses of each poem are roughly the same, which is not only neat and symmetrical, but also symbolic in structure itself. Although many characters in the poem are ghosts in Dante's works, they are all based on reality, so they are flesh and blood and have distinct personalities, which make readers unforgettable. The poet inherited the tradition of prophetic literature and apocalyptic literature, combined the surging passion with incredible fantasy, combined the judgment of reality with sincere belief in the "kingdom of heaven", showed the poet's amazing imagination, and pushed the medieval literature and art characterized by fantasy, implication and symbol to the peak.