DANTE: The Divine Comedy [Purgatory]

Dante’s Purgatory begins where his Inferno leaves off. Dante and Virgil have ascended out of Hell to the bottom of the Mountain of Purgatory.

DANTE: The Divine Comedy [Hell]

The first sentence of Dante’s Divine Comedy is, “Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.” In other words, the Divine Comedy is a product of Dante’s mid-life crisis. He is disappointed in the life he has led thus far. He has an existential crisis and asks himself the “big question” – how should one live?