Dante's "Divine Comedy"

Paper Summary:

The choices that people make will determine whether they go to Hell or Heaven, and this is a direct response to their own life choices and their own free will. This paper discusses how Dante's "Divine Comedy" delves into this theme.

From the Paper:

"Everyone has the freedom to choose good or evil. The nature of freedom is that people decide what they want. God gave people free will. One expert defines the term free will as "the power of agents to be the ultimate creators (or originators) and sustainers of their own ends or purposes" (Kane 4). Dante's Divine Comedy shows this. One Dante scholar notes, "The Commedia has a twofold subject (duplex subiectum): literally, its subject is 'the condition of souls after death, considered in itself'; allegorically, its subject is 'man, inasmuch as he is exposed to the justice of reward and punishment, through the merit and demerit he has attained by free will'" (Dronke 1). People choose evil over God, and then they are knowingly committing an act of betrayal against God. God's knowledge of the choices people make does not mean people have no free will. God wants people to join and to enjoy Heaven with Him. He tests every individual's faith throughout his or her life in some way."

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