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The Divine Comedy is an archetypal Hero's Journey. Dante literally (literarily?) crosses the threshold, meets a guide (Virgil), jouneys to the depths of hell,

The Divine Comedy is an archetypal Hero's Journey. Dante literally (literarily?) crosses the threshold, meets a guide (Virgil), jouneys to the depths of hell, meets the goddess (Beatrice), all the while struggling with the sins he's committed and the events of his life; in the end finding resolve.

tsimionescu 4y ago
The Divine Comedy begins with our hero in a place of great discomfort and fear. Then, he is taken on a journey where he is shown Hell, Purgatory, and at the end Heaven. Along the way, he only observes these places and is moved by them, but he never has to struggle or adapt, he only learns and understands. He pays no price for the journey, and in the end he sees God, is marveled by the beauty, and that's it - so no return. One could argue that the first-person style narrative implies a return to the world of the audience; on the other hand, since it is the metaphorical journey of a swimmer's soul to God, there is really no form of return. So, out of the original Hero's Journey model, this only matches the call to adventure, the threshold, and perhaps the challenges and the transformation. Looking at Campbell's precise steps there is even less match with all his original steps.
- teamonkey 4y ago
  > he never has to struggle or adapt, he only learns and understands Learning and understanding is the struggle. Dante is tormented by a number of fears and doubts and he doesn't know how to deal with them. His journey into hell and heaven highlight aspects of these and helps him come to terms with them, one by one. The book ends with him having resolved that struggle, he could only see the face of god after reaching clarity. There are a lot of ways you can interpret the book, but it's fundamentally a quest to find inner peace.
  - tsimionescu 4y ago
    Sure, I can take that argument. But I still don't see any argument that makes the story run in a circle, any way to argue he returns at the end to where he begun, but changed, with some new insight.
  - PuppyTailWags 4y ago
    By this logic any reaction to any challenging events is equivalent to overcoming in a story structure. I think this fits into stretching the original framework into meaninglessness.
deleted 4y ago
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tsimionescu 4y ago

The Divine Comedy begins with our hero in a place of great discomfort and fear. Then, he is taken on a journey where he is shown Hell, Purgatory, and at the end Heaven. Along the way, he only observes these places and is moved by them, but he never has to struggle or adapt, he only learns and understands. He pays no price for the journey, and in the end he sees God, is marveled by the beauty, and that's it - so no return. One could argue that the first-person style narrative implies a return to the world of the audience; on the other hand, since it is the metaphorical journey of a swimmer's soul to God, there is really no form of return. So, out of the original Hero's Journey model, this only matches the call to adventure, the threshold, and perhaps the challenges and the transformation. Looking at Campbell's precise steps there is even less match with all his original steps.

teamonkey 4y ago
> he never has to struggle or adapt, he only learns and understands Learning and understanding is the struggle. Dante is tormented by a number of fears and doubts and he doesn't know how to deal with them. His journey into hell and heaven highlight aspects of these and helps him come to terms with them, one by one. The book ends with him having resolved that struggle, he could only see the face of god after reaching clarity. There are a lot of ways you can interpret the book, but it's fundamentally a quest to find inner peace.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  Sure, I can take that argument. But I still don't see any argument that makes the story run in a circle, any way to argue he returns at the end to where he begun, but changed, with some new insight.
- PuppyTailWags 4y ago
  By this logic any reaction to any challenging events is equivalent to overcoming in a story structure. I think this fits into stretching the original framework into meaninglessness.

deleted 4y ago

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