The Divine Comedy, (original name La Commedia), is an epic poem written by celebrated Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Divided into three main sections- Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso-the basic structural unit of The Divine Comedy is the canto. Dante uses this fictional journey as an effective device to grapple with the larger questions of existence-morality, sin, redemption, the fall of mankind-as well as to wrestle with his personal demons and Italys political dilemmas.