The Importance Of Hero's Journey In The Divine Comedy

Not only does each individual part of The Divine Comedy show some sort of progression towards an ultimate goal, but the whole trilogy is one giant record of Dante’s journey. This journey reflects some of the qualities of the temple pattern and is one of the examples of the great literatures that became the building blocks for the hero’s journey. Because the three sections of The Divine Comedy are parts of a whole, they don’t completely fulfill the temple pattern or hero’s journey. Only together is all the criteria completed. Still, there is progression and mini journeys in each. This is probably why Inferno is the most well-known of the three. They each hold some of the criteria or principles of the temple pattern, as well as some of the many

The only thing missing from his journey is the return, when brings back the knowledge of the Gods and bestows it to everyone he knew before his journey. Dante is a witness “…who witnessed from the deepest pit,” (Paradise 343) he was meant to see it all and testify of the truth of God’s never ending love. That isn’t part of story, it ends abruptly. Though it is probably assumed at the end that Dante’s story is meant to teach. We don’t get to see how exactly the story ends but sometimes that adds to the universal appeal of the hero’s journey. We can draw some of our conclusions at that point. What is the lesson to be learned from Dante’s extensive journey? There is a reason we are in love with the hero’s journey, why we will watch Luke Skywalker take on Vader over and over again. Why Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen, and Frodo became so popular so quickly because we believe in the hero’s journey. We want the hero triumph, we need someone to go on that daring adventure and come back with that hard earned knowledge so that we too can move forward. They do the hard work, the heavy lifting so that we too can taste the sweet elixir. We can’t all be a hero but the hero can be anyone and help those who can’t help themselves. The Divine Comedy is one verily old example of this cycle and why it still exists today. The hero’s journey is not a new concept and these stories are just one the earlier examples that help constitute that cycle in the world of literature. Each story has individual progress but ultimately they are parts of the greater journey. At the end of Hell, Dante sees the stars again but his journey isn’t done and at the end of purgatory he is ready to enter Heaven, but he stills needs to travel through the ten spheres. Each a section of his