History Literature / TheDivineComedy

''[[VideoGame/DantesInferno Dante's Inferno]]'' leads to the page for the VideoGame based off this work, (With a few liberties taken.)

!!Tropes:

** In particular, suicides are turned into trees. They can scream, when someone breaks off a branch. And traitors are just frozen. Their eyes are actually frozen shut with their tears.
*** The worst off are probably the ones at the very bottom, completely frozen in ice in grotesque positions.

* CorruptChurch: There are many clergy members and a few Popes in Hell, punished for their greed and for perverting the Church by selling indulgences and church offices.

* CrapsackWorld: Seems there are more ways to get banished to Hell than admitted to Heaven.
** Although that's really more HumansAreBastards.
* CulturalTranslation: In DorothyLSayers's translation, Arnaut Daniel, who, in the ''Purgatorio'', spoke Provençal rather than the narrative's Italian, now speaks in the Scots language. (However, most, if not all translations choose to explain Dante's historical and cultural references in [[FootnoteFever footnotes or endnotes]].)

* HandWave: Two pagans are in Heaven, despite Christians being the only ones able to get in. This is [[HandWaved hand waved]] away by the narrator as the mysteries of God, which are unknowable to all.

* {{Hellhound}}: Cerberus, who has the traits of a human like beard and hands and later the black bitches (as in female dog) chasing and maiming the damned in the Forest of Suicides.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: At one point while in the Cocito, Dante pulls a traitor's hair in order to force him to tell his story.

* PopCulturalOsmosis: The concept of circles of Hell and the quote "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" (or a close variant) are well-known and alluded to/copied in innumerable places, but their origin isn't as widely known. (However, in pop culture, they are usually seen with a FireAndBrimstoneHell, instead of the more varied and complex IronicHell of the Inferno.)
** In Italy, many quotes from Hell have actually become proverbial. It's also worth nothing that about 15% of the most used words in the modern Italian language were first used in literature by Dante in the Comedy.

* ScienceMarchesOn: ''Paradiso'' features a geocentric universe.
** And in ''Purgatorio'', we learn that the island of Purgatory is the only piece of land in antipodes, surrounded by a huge ocean that covers one full hemisphere.

* SevenDeadlySins: Purgatory is patterned after these; Hell includes punishments for lust, gluttony, greed, and wrath.

* SingleTear: A soldier Dante meets in purgatory was put there instead of Hell because he shed a single tear before dying.

* TakenForGranite: The Furies on the walls of Dyte threatens to call forth Medusa to turn Dante to stone, but Vergil shields him with his cloack.

* ThisLoserIsYou: Dante faints, weeps, kicks the heads of incapacitated shades, and lambastes in the narration things his character self almost immediately does.

* ToiletHumour: One of the Malebranche "makes a trumpet of his ass" as a salute to his fellow demons. Also, some of the damned are immersed in shit. Even Italians have always thought fart jokes are hilarious.

* RecycledINSPACE: Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's novel ''{{Inferno}}'', in which the protagonist is a DeadToBeginWith, GenreSavvy sci-fi author who tries (unsuccessfully) to explain Hell as LostTechnology or an "Infernoland" created by aliens. His guide is [[spoiler:BenitoMussolini]]. Additions to the original include a Hellish version of a CelestialBureaucracy in which damned souls as well as demons work, new torments for [[StrawmanPolitical both extreme environmentalists and wanton environment-destroyers]], and the theologically questionable revelation that [[spoiler:anyone can escape Hell through redemption and sincere effort]].

*** The book and movie ''What Dreams May Come'' is also more than a little indebted to Dante's vision.

* EvilIsBurningHot: A large portion of hell is torturously hot, like the firey sands and the river of blood. It notably averts associating {{Satan}} with [[{{Hellfire}} fire]], as he's trapped in the coldest part of hell.

* FateWorseThanDeath: One might think that The Inferno is chock full of these, but the people who ''really'' have it bad are the ones trapped in Hell's Vestibule-- The Opportunists. As they never took sides between good and evil in life, so is their fate in death. They're not actually a part of Hell, and they have no chance at redemption. They just have one small place to be tormented for eternity alone by themselves.

* PetTheDog: Count Ugolino, a traitor in the depth of Hell, actually becomes pitiable when he tells his tale about his sons.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Uncommitted souls aren't even considered worth of hell. Also in the fiery desert of the seventh circle, blasphemers and sodomites keep themselves away from the usurers.

* AuthorFilibuster: At the very entrance of Hell, there is a special place of punishment for people who never took a stand for anything during their lives, and were neither good enough to deserve Heaven (or Purgatory), nor bad enough to end up in the rest of Hell. These particular sinners are regarded as the {{Butt Monkey}}s of the afterlife. Dante was very passionate about politics, and had a deep contempt for people who just wanted to mind their own business [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder and were ready to change their allegiance whenever it was more convenient]].

* EvenEvilHasStantards: The Uncommitted souls aren't even considered worth of hell. Also in the fiery desert of the seventh circle, blasphemers and sodomites keep themselves away from the usurers.

* ALoadOfBull: The Minotaur is the guardian of the three Violent circles, and is depicted as very wrathful and savage.

* AuthorFilibuster: At the very entrance of Hell, there is a special place of punishment for people who never took a stand for anything during their lives, and were neither good enough to deserve Heaven (or Purgatory), nor bad enough to end up in the rest of Hell. These particular sinners are regarded as the [[ButtMonkey Butt Monkeys]] of the afterlife. Dante was very passionate about politics, and had a deep contempt for [[TrueNeutral people who just wanted to mind their own business]] [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder and were ready to change their allegiance whenever it was more convenient]].

* BeamMeUpScotty: Dante referred to the poem simply as his "comedy." The title ''The Divine Comedy'' was not adopted until later.
** Speaking of which, ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' said that Dante said something along the lines of "The hottest place in hell was reserved for good men who let evil happen." First, the center of hell is ice. Secondly, it's for traitors; people who are completely neutral aren't even allowed in hell, and their punishment is to go and be stuck between hell and purgatory, desiring ''any'' respite.
** ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' fans are famous for their "four barons of hell" theory about the Evas' design. The most commonly cited source of this is the ''Inferno''. There are no four barons of hell.

* CirclesOfHell: The TropeNamer, if not the TropeMaker. Dante traverses all of them in ''The Inferno.''

* PopculturalOsmosis: The concept of circles of Hell and the quote "Abandon all hope ye who enter here" (or a close variant) are well-known and alluded to/copied in innumerable places, but their origin isn't as widely known. (However, in pop culture, they are usually seen with a FireAndBrimstoneHell, instead of the more varied and complex IronicHell of the Inferno.)

* WordOfDante: The TropeNamer is both the author of this work and the effect the work has had on people's perceptions of {{Hell}}.

* CulturalTranslation: In [[{{Ptitlewo6dni8e}} Dorothy L. Sayers]]'s translation, Arnaut Daniel, who, in the ''Purgatorio'', spoke Provençal rather than the narrative's Italian, now speaks in the Scots language. (However, most, if not all translations choose to explain Dante's historical and cultural references in [[FootnoteFever footnotes or endnotes]].)

* AuthorAvatar: Purgatory has seven levels corresponding to the SevenDeadlySins. Dante experiences the penances for only three: Pride, Anger, and Lust. Translator [[{{Ptitlewo6dni8e}} Dorothy L. Sayers]] commented that these were ''precisely'' the three faults people tend to accuse Dante of, so sharing these penances was probably a deliberate confession on the poet's part.

* ToiletHumour: One of the Malebranche "makes a trumpet of his ass" as a salute to his fellow demons. Also, some of the damned are immersed in shit. Italians have always thought fart jokes are hilarious.

** Although that's really more [[HumansAreBastards]].

** Uh... that's more about [[HumansAreBastards humanity being filthy]], not the world being fulthy

Not to be a confused with just a {{Comedy}} by modern definition, as it's not very funny. It's called the ''Comedy'' because it's written in a vernacular style and has a happy ending, which is the original meaning of the word as opposed to tragedies (which were considered a bit more high-brow). The adjective "Divine" does not refer to the work's religious setting, but got added later by people who thought the poem was awesome.

In 1994, it was adapted into a {{manga}}, of all things.

''[[VideoGame/DantesInferno Dante's Inferno]]'' leads to the page for the VideoGame based off this work.

* FluffyCloudHeaven: Often depicted as such in illustrations; the actual "landscape" of Paradise is a bit vaguely described.

* WordOfDante: TropeNamer.

''VideoGame/DantesInferno'' leads to the page for the VideoGame based off this work.

* InThePastEveryoneWillBeFamous: Everyone in the afterlife is either a well-known historical figure or someone who would be familiar to Dante's readers. It gets a [[JustifiedTrope justification]] as Dante's guides point out these exemplary figures. They also usually have more important places in Heaven or more picturesque punishments in Hell. There are some exceptions, though-- the hoarders and spenders, for instance, are so featureless that they can barely be distinguished from each other, and Dante does pause to talk with a nameless Florentine suicide.

*** This is because the DivineComedy is one of the first works to be written in Italian, rather than Latin.

** This is taken to its logical extreme by Sandow Birk's translation, which translates Dante's vernacular Italian verse into slangy (and profanity-ridden) vernacular AmericanEnglish prose. Many of Dante's allusions to medieval life, history, and culture are replaced or augmented with references to modern life and pop culture, and the lists of sinners in Hell now include such figures as BillClinton, "[[RonaldReagan Reagan]], and [[GeorgeHWBush Bush]] ([[GeorgeWBush both of them]])."

* IntendedAudienceReaction: Beatrice is used by ThisWiki as the example of a "good" MarySue to show that TropesAreNotBad. Dante is similarly a "good" MartyStu.
** Dante isn't a MartyStu, he's got loads of character faults: he's cowardly, petty, violent at times and he submits himself to the penances for Pride, Lust, and Wrath in Purgatory. Beatrice's faultlessness can possibly be explained by the fact that Dante was madly in love with her when he wrote the poem.

** It should be noted that Dante sees his mentor in the burning desert, as he was gay. Also, that part took place in the middle of Inferno, which has a special place in the other books as well. Thirdly, he depicts homosexuals as constantly running from being burned, which might be symbolic for how gay people had to run from being marked during their lives.

** It boils down to whether you think she was abducted by Paris or gave in to lust and ran off with him willingly. Also, Dante is unashamedly on the side of Troy, as he saw Aeneas as the future founder of Rome.

** It boils down to whether you think she was abducted by Paris or gave in to lust and ran off with him willingly.

* AlienGeometries - While Hell and Purgatory have clearly defined geography, that of Paradise is more complicated. The spheres of {{Heaven}} correspond to the celestial spheres of a geocentric universe, but can equally well be seen as orbiting around {{God}} in the Empyrean, or as all existing in the same space. To enter Paradise or cross between the spheres, one must AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, rather than doing any physical climbing. The structure of Heaven has been interpreted as an early description of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-sphere#In_literature fourth-dimensional hypersphere]].

* AndIMustScream - The Inferno is made of these.

* AndThatsTerrible - Dante ''really'' hated corrupt priests.
* TheAnnotatedEdition - Most good editions of ''The Divine Comedy'' are heavily annotated: at the remove of 700 years or so, and given that Dante went on {{Author Tract}}s and {{Author Filibuster}}s in long stretches of the work about now-forgotten Florentine politicians or abstruse theological issues, it's often very difficult to tell who's who or what Dante is on about now without extensive footnotes.
* AuthorAvatar - Purgatory has seven levels corresponding to the SevenDeadlySins. Dante experiences the penances for only three: Pride, Anger, and Lust. Translator [[{{Ptitlewo6dni8e}} Dorothy L. Sayers]] commented that these were ''precisely'' the three faults people tend to accuse Dante of, so sharing these penances was probably a deliberate confession on the poet's part.
* AuthorFilibuster - At the very entrance of Hell, there is a special place of punishment for people who never took a stand for anything during their lives, and were neither good enough to deserve Heaven (or Purgatory), nor bad enough to end up in the rest of Hell. These particular sinners are regarded as the [[ButtMonkey Butt Monkeys]] of the afterlife. Dante was very passionate about politics, and had a deep contempt for [[TrueNeutral people who just wanted to mind their own business]] [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder and were ready to change their allegiance whenever it was more convenient]].

* BadassBookworm - Dante in RealLife; he was a poet, but he also fought as a knight ("Feditore a cavallo", a particularly dangerous task) for the faction of the Guelphs.
* BeamMeUpScotty - Dante referred to the poem simply as his "comedy." The title ''The Divine Comedy'' was not adopted until later.

* BodyHorror - Several levels of Hell involve grisly torments, including the fortune tellers having their heads turned around backwards and people who committed suicide being turned into trees that are broken by harpies and demon hounds and can only speak when bleeding.
* BuryYourGays - Homosexuals and usurers get the same level in Hell - so they'll both throw the best parties and be able to pay for them.
** By placing both homosexuals and usurers in the circle of the violent, and in a setting that so strongly symbolizes sterility (the burning desert), Dante establishes each sin as the opposite of each other: the homosexuals make sterile that which should be fertile (their sexuality -- according to medieval theology, all sex should have procreation as its final purpose), while usurers make fertile that which should be sterile (wealth should be generated by nature or art, not by interest accumulated by existing wealth.)

*** There is an actual critical debate if the group in which Dante places his mentor (Brunetto Latini) is where homosexuals are punished or if it's for pedophiles. Sodomy was in fact a common "contracepting technique" in the middle ages (NO JOKE -- it is noted by famous Dante scholar Vittorio Sermonti), and it would be unlikely that Dante punishes the act of sodomy in that circle. Moreover, when Dante asks his mentor to name some other fellow sinners, he enumerates only clergymen and literates, indicating a sort of "master-student" relationship issue.
*** Homosexuals (yes, just homosexuals --- the men running pause to ogle The Pilgrim and Virgil in the fourth or fifth verse of that canto) are running through a hail of fire as an allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah, which were consumed by fire and brimstone.

* CharacterFilibuster - Paradiso in particular features long discussions of theology, philosophy, and morality.
* TheChosenOne - Dante says that he was chosen for its spiritual journey in order to help to REDEEM MANKIND with the book that he is going to write based on this experience (i.e. the Divine Comedy - intended as a sort of fifth gospel, so to speak).
* CirclesOfHell - The TropeNamer, if not the TropeMaker. Dante traverses all of them in ''The Inferno.''
* ClownCarGrave - The heretics in Hell lie in flaming tombs, each of which can hold some ''thousands'' of sinners.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment - Trope Exemplar.
* CorruptChurch - There are many clergy members and a few Popes in Hell, punished for their greed and for perverting the Church by selling indulgences and church offices.

* CrapsackWorld - Seems there are more ways to get banished to Hell than admitted to Heaven.

* CulturalTranslation - In [[{{Ptitlewo6dni8e}} Dorothy L. Sayers]]'s translation, Arnaut Daniel, who, in the ''Purgatorio'', spoke Provençal rather than the narrative's Italian, now speaks in the Scots language. (However, most, if not all translations choose to explain Dante's historical and cultural references in [[FootnoteFever footnotes or endnotes]].)

* DeadUnicornTrope - A typical description of the Inferno would probably mention "demons with pointy sticks torturing sinners chained to the wall,". This is actually a fairly ''uncommon'' punishment in Dante's Hell, and is shown directly only a couple of times; sinners are tormented by fire, ice, storms, hounds, snakes, ''etc''.
* TheDevilIsALoser - Some readers and critics have noted that Satan is one of the least colourful villains of the whole ''Inferno'', but this was actually deliberate.
* DidNotDoTheResearch - A lot of people will tell you that Dante's ''Inferno'' revolves around the SevenDeadlySins. It doesn't. The SevenDeadlySins are covered in ''Purgatorio'', but sins are classified differently in ''Inferno''.

* EmpathicEnvironment - When the CorruptChurch is discussed in Heaven, the sky turns dark and reddish, as if the whole cosmos is ashamed of how the true religion has been perverted.
* TheEveryman - "Midway through the journey of ''our'' life..."

* EvilIsDeathlyCold - The deepest circle of Hell, reserved for traitors and lorded over by a monstrous but helpless Satan, is a frozen lake.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin - It's a story with a happy ending — seeing God.
* EyeScream - Traitors to their guests are encased in the frozen lake Cocytus, with only their faces coming out. The intense cold freezes their tears, encrusting their eyes in ice. Any further tears cannot get out and increase pressure on the eyes.
* {{Fainting}} - Dante faints twice near the beginning of ''Inferno'', as the first tortures terrify him before he braces himself for the rest of the journey. He faints again towards the end of ''Paradiso'' as he approaches God.
* FateWorseThanDeath - One might think that The Inferno is chock full of these, but the people who ''really'' have it bad are the ones trapped in Hell's Vestibule -- The Opportunists. As they never took sides between good and evil in life, so is their fate in death. They're not actually a part of Hell, and they have no chance at redemption. They just have one small place to be tormented for eternity alone by themselves.
* FantasyWorldMap - Diagrams of Hell and Purgatory are featured in many translations; some fine ones can be found [[http://www.worldofdante.org/maps_main.html here]].
* FluffyCloudHeaven - Often depicted as such in illustrations; the actual "landscape" of Paradise is a bit vaguely described.

* {{Hellgate}}- Possibly the TropeMaker.

* HijackedByJesus - Despite the generally Christian nature of this work, Dante borrows aspects of Hell (including the four rivers and various creatures) from the Greek underworld.
* IntendedAudienceReaction - Beatrice is used by ThisWiki as the example of a "good" MarySue to show that TropesAreNotBad. Dante is similarly a "good" MartyStu.

* InThePastEveryoneWillBeFamous - Everyone in the afterlife is either a well-known historical figure or someone who would be familiar to Dante's readers. It gets a [[JustifiedTrope justification]] as Dante's guides point out these exemplary figures. They also usually have more important places in Heaven or more picturesque punishments in Hell. There are some exceptions, though -- the hoarders and spenders, for instance, are so featureless that they can barely be distinguished from each other, and Dante does pause to talk with a nameless Florentine suicide.
* IronicHell - A quite famous one at that.

* TheMuse - Not only does Beatrice inspire Dante, but he invokes all 9 of them (plus Apollo!) to help write the epic the way it deserves.
* NoFourthWall - Dante addresses the reader repeatedly.
** MediumAwareness - Dante, at least.
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty - Ugolino, according to some interpretations, is implied to have eaten his children when imprisoned in the "Hunger Tower". In Hell, he continually eats the head of the man who imprisoned him there.
* NotDrawnToScale - Dante provides some scattered measurements for places and things in Hell (such as the distance around one circle and the height of a [[OurGiantsAreBigger giant]]); from these, one can attempt to infer the overall dimensions of Hell, but the results are wildly inconsistent. But considering that it's ''Hell'', see AlienGeometries.
* TheNothingAfterDeath - Limbo, inhabited by virtuous heathens (it's not an oxymoron) and unbaptized children who died without knowledge of Christ; they do not suffer torments but live forever without hope or the light of God. And while, depending on your faith, this might be a horrible fate, for people who exist there, like Socrates and other eminent pre-Christians, it's not a bad place. They essentially do there what they did in life: wax philosophic about everything without the distractions of sleep or sustenance.
* NumerologicalMotif - The number 3 appears a lot, naturally. So does 9, which is 3*3.

* TheObiWan - Virgil, who's stuck in the First Circle of Hell because he was [[ValuesDissonance born before Christ]] and can't be saved.
* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness - Beatrice and her companions in Heaven, watching over Dante.
* PatchworkMap - Hell juxtaposes regions with wildly different climates; justified in that it's a supernatural world shaped by divine will.
* PetTheDog - Count Ugolino, a traitor in the depth of Hell, actually becomes pitiable when he tells his tale about his sons.
* PopculturalOsmosis - The concept of circles of Hell and the quote "Abandon all hope ye who enter here" (or a close variant) are well-known and alluded to/copied in innumerable places, but their origin isn't as widely known. (However, in pop culture, they are usually seen with a FireAndBrimstoneHell, instead of the more varied and complex IronicHell of the Inferno.)

* RecycledINSPACE - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's novel ''{{Inferno}}'', in which the protagonist is a DeadToBeginWith, GenreSavvy sci-fi author who tries (unsuccessfully) to explain Hell as LostTechnology or an "Infernoland" created by aliens. His guide is [[spoiler:BenitoMussolini]]. Additions to the original include a Hellish version of a CelestialBureaucracy in which damned souls as well as demons work, new torments for [[StrawmanPolitical both extreme environmentalists and wanton environment-destroyers]], and the theologically questionable revelation that [[spoiler:anyone can escape Hell through redemption and sincere effort]].

* {{Satan}} - Although he's a rather weak and pitiful (albeit gigantic) being, stuck in ice at the very bottom of Hell and chewing on Judas, Brutus, and Cassius; he doesn't even put up a fight when Dante and Virgil climb down his body to access the path to Purgatory.

* SelfDeprecation - Several times in ''Purgatorio'', Dante meets someone and tries to show off some of his poetry, but Virgil rushes them along, saying his poetry doesn't matter.
* SelfInflictedHell - The damned are implied to have chosen their own fate, as they clamber madly to cross the river Acheron.
* SelfInsertFic - The main character is Alighieri himself. [[TropesAreNotBad It's still a good story, though.]]
* SevenDeadlySins - Purgatory is patterned after these; Hell includes punishments for lust, gluttony, greed, and wrath.
* SevenHeavenlyVirtues - They appear as beautiful maidens dancing around Beatrice's chariot in her triumphal procession at the end of Purgatory.
* SingleTear - A soldier Dante meets in purgatory was put there instead of Hell because he shed a single tear before dying.
* SnicketWarningLabel - Some early verses in the ''Paradiso'' warn readers not to continue further if they are not ready to deal with the complex theology discussed therein. Most people who end up reading it regret not taking the warning more seriously and end up with a headache, and left very confused.
* SympathyForTheDevil - Although Dante has nothing but contempt for Satan and his minions, he often shows feelings of empathy, pity, and even respect for several sinners he meets in Hell. Virgil sometimes tells Dante off for this. After all, if an omniscient and all-loving God has decided they're not worth pity, why should anyone go against divine will and feel sorry for them?
* TakeOurWordForIt - At the end of ''Paradiso'', this is how Dante describes God. Anything else would have been underwhelming.

** Dante's personal and political enemies, as well as historical villains -- even some of his ''friends'' -- often end up in Hell. One of the most notable examples is none other than the then-current ''Pope'', Bonifacius VIII, of whom Dante was not a big fan. According to [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18430_6-historic-acts-revenge-that-put-kill-bill-to-shame.html Cracked.com]], this was a big "screw you" to "Pope" Boniface and the town of Florence for double-crossing and exiling him (in an order that [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2145378/Dantes-infernal-crimes-forgiven.html wasn't repealed until 2008]]). The pope's not in Hell yet, but it's stated that he will be.

* ThisLoserIsYou - Dante faints, weeps, kicks the heads of incapacitated shades, and lambastes in the narration things his character self almost immediately does.

* ToHellAndBack - Literally.
* ToiletHumour - One of the Malebranche "makes a trumpet of his ass" as a salute to his fellow demons. Also, some of the damned are immersed in shit. Italians have always thought fart jokes are hilarious.
* TransformationTrauma - In Hell, thieves are turned into snakes and have to regain human form by attacking others. The poet's vivid description of the transformation is HighOctaneNightmareFuel.
* WishFulfillment - Seeing as he gets to beat up people he doesn't like in Hell, confronts Satan, meets the woman he fell in love with during her life and be saved by her, sees ''God Himself'', and transcends the mortal realm forever. The real kicker is that it's actually pulled off fairly well as far as self-inserts go. See AuthorAvatar above.

* WriteWhoYouKnow - Dante populates the spirit world with his friends and enemies, alongside mythical and historical characters.

*** So technically speaking, that statement is true, but not in the way they intended.
**** No, it's still wrong. Hell doesn't get progressively colder as you descend -- the river of boiling blood and the burning plains of circle seven, among other features, would beg to differ -- it's just that the 9th circle (i.e., the center) is made of ice.

* HijackedByJesus - Despite the generally Christian nature of this work, Dante borrows aspects of Hell (including the four rivers and various creatures) from the Greek underworld.

* TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste - Beatrice is used by ThisWiki as the example of a "good" MarySue to show that TropesAreNotBad. Dante is similarly a "good" MartyStu.
** Dante isn't a MartyStu, he's got loads of character faults: he's cowardly, petty, violent at times and he submits himself to the penances for Pride, Lust, and Wrath in Purgatory. Beatrices' faultlessness can possibly be explained by the fact that Dante was madly in love with her when he wrote the poem.