Pen Pal

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, sexual violence and harassment, rape, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual content.

The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written in the early 14th century by Italian poet Dante Alighieri. In the poem, Dante enters the afterlife with the help of Virgil, Beatrice, and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who guide him through the three stages of the afterlife: Inferno (hell), Purgatorio (purgatory), and Paradiso (heaven). Dante’s journey through hell shows him sin and punishment, with Virgil aiding in explaining the specific sins and their connection to punishment. Hell, in Dante’s vision, is split into circles, and his representation of the afterlife is consistent with 14th-century understandings of Christianity. After Inferno, Dante enters limbo, or purgatory, in which he learns more about the seven deadly sins and the corruption of God’s love through sin. In Paradiso, Beatrice guides Dante into heaven, revealing virtue and introducing Dante to various saints and theologians. Paradiso concludes with Dante seeing and understanding the divine trinity, which allows him to see God’s vision for humanity and the love he feels for his creation.

Pen Pal mirrors The Divine Comedy in that it is split into parts titled Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, though The Divine Comedy is split into equal parts; Pen Pal dedicates more time to Inferno.