Winston Churchill once said, “If you're going through hell, keep going. » If you had to describe Dante's Divine Comedy as simply as possible, you would use this quote. However, Dante's Divine Comedy has never been so simple. Of course, it's about religion, hell and heaven. But it is also about political ideas. The way spirituality and politics mix in Dante's world has interested literary enthusiasts and political theorists alike. So, what is Dante's Divine Comedy? How did Dante's daily life affect this literary work? And more importantly, what were the political ideas that Dante managed to incorporate into his religion-fueled story? Dante's Divine Comedy is a story about how Dante goes through hell and finally makes it to heaven. Dante recognizes his sins and goes from misery to happiness in three stages: “Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso”. The poem is designed “to bring those who live in this life out of a state of misery and into a state of happiness” by showing the metaphorical turmoil that a soul must go through to reach inner content (Gilbert 82). Dante's Divine Comedy is famous for many reasons. It is considered the best epic poem in Italian history (Bigongiari 12). People were fascinated by it because it was the first literary work of this period to address political AND spiritual morality. Dante's Divine Comedy is an allegory. This means that the theme of the story is not obvious, the reader must decipher it to understand the meaning. (Gilbert 31). This caused controversy among readers, which is one of the reasons it has stood the test of time. Although the Divine Comedy is his most famous work, Dante wrote many plays before it in which he discusses beginnings and ends.... ... middle of paper ......very conflicted in society of today (i.e. separation of Church and State), the world is still deciphering its meaning and how we can let Dante's Divine Comedy influence the world so that we can obtain an appropriate order.Works Cited.Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy (Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.) New York: American Classics Publishing, 2001. Bergin, Thomas. Insights into the Divine Comedy. New Brunswick: RutgersUniversity Press, 1967.Bigongiari, Dino. Readings from the Divine Comedy. Dover: Griffon House Publications for the Bagehot Council, 2006. Clements, Robert. American critical essays on the Divine Comedy. London: 1997. Farnell, Stewart. The political ideas of the Divine Comedy. Lanham: University Press of America, 1985. Gilbert, Allan. Dante's conception of justice. Durham: Duke University Press, 1925.