He wrote a series of lyric poems in praise of the woman he loved, Beatrice. In these poems, he highly idealizes women. Beat Ritchie was written as an angel who came down from heaven to show miracles. After her death, Dante connected her poems with prose and named them "New Life". Dante's love for Beatrice is spiritual love with strong mystery.
The artistic techniques he used are dreams, meanings and symbols commonly used in medieval literature. Besides The Divine Comedy, New Life is Dante's most important literary work. However, no major social issues were involved at that time, and art had not yet reached a mature level.
Dante is studious, good at thinking, and has mastered extensive knowledge in the field of medieval culture, which provided favorable conditions for his later creation.
He took part in political activities and was elected as the chief executive of Florence in 1300. He firmly opposed the Pope's interference in Florence's internal affairs. He was exiled from 1302 and never returned to his hometown until his death.
Political life brought Dante into contact with major issues in the real society. During his exile, he was strong and unyielding; He saw the magnificent rivers and mountains of the motherland, contacted all walks of life and deepened his patriotic thought. His vision expanded to Italy and the whole Christian world.
In his early exile, Dante wrote two books. The banquet (1304~ 1307) was written in Italian. By reading some of my own poems, I introduced all kinds of knowledge at that time to ordinary readers as spiritual food, so I named it Fan Yan. The book praised the advantages of proverbs, criticized the feudal hierarchy, and clarified that real nobility lies in humanistic thought with excellent moral quality. This book laid the initial foundation of Italian academic prose.
On common sayings (1304~ 1308) is written in Latin, aiming at attracting intellectuals' attention to national languages. This is the earliest book about Italian, its style and poetic rhythm. This book expounds the superiority of common sayings and the necessity of forming standard Italian, which plays an important role in solving the problems of Italian national language and literary terms. From this book, we can see the theoretical basis of Dante's writing Divine Comedy in Italian.
In exile, Dante deeply realized that the peaceful reunification of the motherland was a major issue at that time. He couldn't see the power of Italy to achieve peaceful reunification, so he pinned his hopes on the holy Roman emperor. The Theory of Imperialism, written in Latin, systematically expounded his political views in the way of scholasticism, and demonstrated that the purpose of human society is to enable human beings to give full play to their potential talents, which can only be realized under the condition of peace and freedom under the rule of the emperor. This view is a strong utopia. However, he emphasized the separation of church and state, opposed the Pope's interference in politics, and expressed the requirements of the new era. The book also warmly praised the glorious tradition of ancient Rome and revealed the author's patriotic thought.
The writing of Divine Comedy began in the early years of Dante's exile (about 1307) and was completed shortly before his death. Political setbacks and personal misfortunes made Dante feel confused about life. During his exile, he saw that Italy and Europe were in a state of dispute and chaos, so he was deeply worried about the fate of his motherland and mankind. However, he is not pessimistic and firmly believes that someone will realize peaceful reunification in the near future. He realized that he was shouldering the historical mission of exposing reality, awakening people's hearts and pointing out the road to political and moral rejuvenation for the Italian people. This is the motivation for writing the Divine Comedy.
The story of The Divine Comedy takes the form of medieval fantasy literature. The poem tells that Dante got lost in the forest, walked out of the forest and was suddenly blocked by three wild animals (leopard, lion and wolf). At the critical moment, the Roman poet Virgil appeared. He was entrusted by Beat Ritchie to save Dante and guide him to hell and purgatory. Then Beat Liqi guided him to heaven. The process of traveling constitutes a trilogy of hell, purgatory and heaven. Each book has 33 songs, including 65,438+000 songs and the first song as a prelude to this book. This symmetrical structure is based on the mysterious meaning and symbolic concept of numbers in the middle ages, and it is not produced from the inherent inevitability of the works themselves.
The plot of the whole book, like many medieval literary works, is full of moral meaning, which has caused a lot of controversy in interpretation. However, the theme that Dante wants to run through in his works is quite clear: how individuals and human beings go through hardships and tests from confusion and mistakes to reach the position of truth and perfection in the era when the old and the new alternate. Virgil symbolizes reason and philosophy. He led Dante to hell and purgatory, symbolizing the process that individuals and human beings, under the guidance of philosophy, realized sin and mistakes with reason, and thus repented and reformed. Beya Treize symbolizes faith and theology. With Virgil as the guide, she led Dante to heaven, symbolizing the process that individuals and human beings know the highest truth and reach perfection through faith and theology, which cannot be achieved by reason and philosophy. Belief and theology are superior to reason and philosophy, which is totally Dante's prejudice as a medieval poet. His knowledge of truth and kindness is obviously limited to the viewpoint of Christian theology. However, his spirit of pursuing the highest truth and his enthusiasm for caring about human destiny still have progressive significance in the Middle Ages.
Around this central idea, The Divine Comedy reflects the reality widely, summarizes the medieval culture artistically, and shows the dawn of humanism in the Renaissance.
When Dante fantasized about hell, purgatory and heaven, he met a famous person in history and died soon. In his conversations with various positive and negative figures, he widely reflected the political and social situation at that time, as well as the achievements and main problems in the field of medieval culture. For example, the dialogue with Chaco (the sixth song of hell) reflected the social situation in Florence at that time; The dialogue with Lucca (Song of Purgatory No.24) poet Bonajunta reflects the development of Italian lyric poetry. The dialogue with the manuscript painter Odyssey (Song 1 1 Purgatory) reflects the development of Italian painting. Virgil's words and Dante's own narrative (the fourth song of hell) illustrate the understanding and evaluation of medieval Greek and Roman poets and philosophers. Especially Virgil and Beat Ritchie, by answering questions, extensively expounded the important issues and theories in philosophy, science and theology at that time. Therefore, The Divine Comedy is not only a long poem with strong political inclination, but also has the function of spreading knowledge and has the nature of an encyclopedia. This has damaged the artistry of the work to some extent. Some parts of the book (such as the origin of the black spots on the moon in the second song of the Kingdom of Heaven) are more prosaic academic essays than poems.
However, the progressive significance of The Divine Comedy mainly lies in its exposure of the realities at that time, such as the greed and corruption of the church, the cruelty and tyranny of feudal rulers, and the citizens' greed for money and profits. Among them, the criticism of the church is the most acute. Although Dante is an orthodox Catholic, his criticism of the church is objectively consistent with the anti-church sentiment of the people in the heresy movement. The poem also faithfully describes the social and political changes in Florence during the transition from feudal relations to capitalist relations; However, he beautified Florence in the feudal patriarchal clan system era into a quiet and simple pastoral society to compare with the turbulent real society.
The revelation of reality in The Divine Comedy is generally carried out through characters. Most of the whistleblowers and whistleblowers are famous figures in history or contemporary times, such as using St. Peter to expose the corruption in the Vatican, using the ancestor of the Gaby dynasty in France to expose the crimes of the French royal family, and using Pope Nicholas III to expose the crimes of himself and his successors, Buniface VIII and Clemens V, because Dante believes that only famous people and events can touch people's hearts and promote the early realization of reform.
Dante's attitude towards the characters in his poems is often contradictory. On the one hand, according to the moral standards of the church, he put Paul and Franciska in hell as criminals who committed adultery, but at the same time he expressed deep sympathy for their fate and fainted; Put Farnata into hell as a heretic and praise his heroism and patriotic behavior at the same time; As a traitor, he sent Ugurino to the bottom of hell, but from the perspective of human nature, he expressed extreme anger and curse at the tragedy that he and his sons were imprisoned in Gaota prison and starved to death. The book has repeatedly exposed the crimes of Pope Boniface VIII, and declared that he must go to hell when he was still alive, but he was very indignant at the insult he received in anany. Similarly, among the ancients, Cato, as a heretic and a person who committed suicide against Caesar, should go to hell according to Dante's consistent moral standards; But he became the supervisor of purgatory, because Dante regarded him as a model of moral perfection and love for freedom. Virgil, as a heretic, was imprisoned in a "hanging prison" on the periphery of hell and could not ascend to heaven, but Dante chose him as a guide to hell and purgatory, calling him "the glory of Latin", "the honor and light of other poets" and "the ocean of wisdom", and he had infinite respect and love. Other Greek and Roman poets, philosophers and politicians in the "hanging prison" also showed different degrees of respect. Dante regarded Ulysses, the hero of Homer's epic, as a schemer and went to hell, but described his heroic behavior of refusing to go home and insisting on sailing exploration with praise.
Poets' views on some issues are often contradictory. He regards secular life as a preparation for eternal life in the afterlife, and puts the saints representing asceticism and mysticism in the highest heaven. However, his interest in secular life is mainly manifested in this poem. Even if he "came from Florence to the upright and sound people" (referring to the kingdom of heaven), he would never forget "the threshing floor that made us so fierce" (referring to the earth). He talked about the illusory impermanence of honor through the mouth of Odyssey, and affirmed the necessity of pursuing honor through the mouth of Virgil, and said that he would borrow the Divine Comedy to be immortal. From a philosophical point of view, he affirmed the limitation of reason through Virgil's words: "Whoever wants human reason to go through the endless road taken by the Trinity God is a madman;" But through the words of Ulysses, it is a humanistic thought to think that human beings are "not born to live like animals, but to pursue virtue and knowledge". Politically, he longed for the peaceful reunification of the motherland, but at the same time pinned this patriotic ideal on the holy Roman emperor, a purely medieval political force.
All these contradictions are contradictions in Dante's world outlook as the last poet in the Middle Ages and the first poet in the new period.
Although the Divine Comedy describes the afterlife, it is not from the perspective of asceticism. The afterlife in poetry is the reflection of the present world: hell is the actual situation of the present world, the kingdom of heaven is the ideal to be realized, and purgatory is the only painful process from reality to ideal. The part that exposes reality accounts for a large proportion in the book, but Dante also focuses on describing the ideal of life. This shows that the Divine Comedy is not purely realistic, but also romantic. On the basis of dark reality, his bright ideal came into being, and the poet longed for a world without darkness and sin.
The characters depicted in The Divine Comedy have distinct personalities, forming a colorful character gallery. As the protagonist of The Divine Comedy, the poet described his personality and mental outlook in the most nuanced way. Dante often depicts his own character (especially in hell) by excavating the actions and behavioral motives of characters in the drama scene. He sketched out the characteristics of the characters, sometimes in just a few words. For example, "He stood with his head held high, as if he had great contempt for hell", these two lines made Farinata's heroic spirit appear before our eyes.
The description of hell, purgatory and heaven in The Divine Comedy is not as vague and chaotic as that in medieval literature, but with clear conception and rich imagination. Poet fantasy hell in the northern hemisphere, is a huge abyss, from the ground to the center of the earth, shaped like an amphitheater; Purgatory is a magnificent mountain, standing in the ocean of the southern hemisphere, and the top of the mountain is a paradise on earth; The kingdom of heaven consists of the nine heavens in Tromi's astronomical system and the pure fire sky beyond time and space (that is, the kingdom of heaven in a strict sense). Nine days around the earth, the pure fire sky is eternal and motionless. The three realms are subdivided into several layers, which embodies the moral significance that the author wants to clarify according to philosophical and theological viewpoints. The nature of the three realms is different, so the colors are different. Hell is a state of pain and despair, with gray or uneven color; Purgatory is the realm of tranquility and hope, and the color is the purpose of softness and coolness; The kingdom of heaven is a joyful realm with dazzling colors. In Hell, Dante only takes natural scenes as a foil, mainly depicting the suffering scenes of characters, while in Purgatory, he directly depicts natural scenery, while in Paradise, the ethereal phenomenon of natural light is widely used to express the degree of spiritual pleasure. The descriptions of these realms are very real, which makes people feel immersive. The description of nature is often highly picturesque, which shows that Dante is extremely sensitive to the beauty of nature. This is also his characteristic as a poet in the new period.
Dante is good at using metaphors from real life and nature when portraying characters and describing scenes. For example, describing ghosts staring at Dante and Virgil, just like an old tailor staring at the eye of a needle when threading a needle. Describe two teams of elves meeting and kissing, just like ants foraging on the road. When they meet, they meet and ask for information. Describing the soul of fasting, the eyes are very thin and deep without God, like a ring with a lost gem. The more unusual an object is, the more familiar it becomes. Describe Christ rising, shining down and shining on saints, just as the sun shines through clouds on the flowery lawn. These metaphors make the characters and scenes more prominent and achieve the effect of plastic arts.
Although the detailed description skills of Divine Comedy are superb, its main achievement lies in its high generalization and synthesis. This work combines the poet's inner life experience, religious enthusiasm, patriotic thought and major political and cultural issues, and integrates the factors of history and reality, classicism and Christianity into a harmonious whole. At this point, the Divine Comedy is indeed very successful.
Divine Comedy is a long poem written in three-rhyme sentences, with a total of 14233 lines. The three-rhyme sentence was created by Dante on the basis of a meter commonly used in folk poetry at that time. More importantly, The Divine Comedy was written in Italian, which played a great role in solving the problem of Italian literary terminology and promoting the unification of Italian national language, making Dante the first national poet in Italy. Marx and Engels spoke highly of Dante and listed him as one of the greatest poets in the world.