Why is the book "Divine Comedy" is called Comedy?

Answer 1

"The Divine Comedy (Italian: Commedia, later christened "Divina" by Giovanni Boccaccio), written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature."

"Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy". In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature. Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good. By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God. "

Answer 2

i’m not sure, but it may go back to the greek definitions of comedy and tragedy, which are different from ours today. for the greeks, a comedy is a drama with a happy ending and a tragedy is a drama with an unhappy ending. either can have laughs in the them. there’s more to it that i forget (tragedy involves a hero succumbing to hubris – that is, getting arrogant – and having a downfall, comedy probably had “plot rules” too), but the point is that those terms have changed. …. I think Shakespeare comedies may be the same thing: stories with happy endings and not necessarily the funny ones. A simple definition of comedy: A comedy is any work where a basically sympathetic character comes to a good end. Dante the character gets to see God. That is considered a good thing. Note to be confused with the other definition of comedy, which covers the ha ha type.

Answer 3

The word "comedy" is not to be taken literary but in the context of medieval poetics. It is a work of prose in verse, the plot advancing from distress to joy, from hell's bane to heaven's bliss.

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Answer 4

It's a very black comedy about Heaven, Purgatory and Hell....you know life.

Answer 5

because it has a happy ending (seriously).

Answer 6

relax
dont worry about it

Answer 7

search me.