to define evil than would people of either Chaucer's or Dante's

time. Medieval Christians would have a source for it -- Satan --

and if could easily devise a series of ecclesiastical checklists

to test its presence and its power. In our secular world, evil

has come down to something that hurts people for no explicable

reason: the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the

burning of black churches in the South. We have taken evil out of

the hands of Satan, and placed it in the hands of man. In doing

so, we have made it less absolute, and in many ways less real.

Nonetheless, it must be recognized that in earlier times

evil was not only real but palpable. This paper will look at evil

as it is portrayed in two different works -- Dante's Divine

Comedy, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales -- and analyze what the

nature of evil meant to each of these authors.

The Divine Comedy is an epic poem

is not a Christian. Virgil's experience in the underworld,

Dante, takes a visionary journey through Hell, Purgatory, and

into the culture of Christianity but who themselves had never

In Hell Dante is presented with insight into the nature of

Paradise. The purpose of Dante's visit to Hell is to learn about

than willing to share his knowledge with Dante in order that

each ring and pouch and section of Hell receive a different

the face and seen for himself the horror, the stupidity, and the

Some common words found in the essay are:
Hell Dante, Below Limbus, Oklahoma City, Medieval Christians, Purgatory Paradise, Divine Comedy, Christian Virgil's, Dante Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, Dante Dante, nature evil, hell dante, divine comedy,
Approximate Word count = 1041
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)