The 14th century in Europe, was a lapse of time full of crisis, strong repressions, acts

of rebellion, feudal wars, devastation because of the Black Death and last but not least
the increment in heresy in the population, all of this events were leading Europe to a
new period, the Renaissance. The influence of religion in literature and the growing
heresy of this time are the reasons why I will make a comparative essay of how
religion was portrayed in this century, in the literature.
To achieve this purpose I will be comparing two different forms that writers in Italy,
used in the 14th-century to talk and describe the hell, the first version, by Giovanni
Boccaccio, is contained in his book, The Decameron, we will be using, the tenth tale,
of the third day. On the other hand we have Dante Alighieris, Inferno, which is the
second part of his masterpiece the poem called the Divine Comedy, of this literature
piece we will take for the comparison purposes the third circle, the one dedicated to
the all immoderation and exorbitance in life: The Gluttonous Circle.
I choose these two Italian masterpieces because although they were written at the
same period of time, and they share the hell theme, and this is where the first
difference appears, they do not have the same context of it, they do not even think
about it similarly, meanwhile the Decameron approaches it in a sexual way, it makes it
seem as if Boccaccio was mocking about religion, because he takes some religious
terms to refer to things that were not mentioned in religion like sex. In contrast, the
Inferno talks about with a religious objective, like if its purpose was to make people
reflect about their lives, as a way to show them how their afterlife was going to be, if
they act in certain way.
The second point is that they both have a religious influence. Firstly, the Divine
Comedy is focused in the Christian vision of resurrection and after life, with a
medieval look, in addition, the time lapse in which the actions of the poem are
developed, is between the nights of Good Friday to the Wednesday before the Easter
week. In Inferno, it is described what would be the destiny of people after they died,
for example, the third circle, is for those people who were greedy, which means that
they have lived with excess, they eat and drink too much. The people whose destiny
was to be left here, have to deal with Cerberus (mythological monster) who would bite
and tear them, also they have to hold up to natural torments , like being made to stay
in the mud at the same time they were tortured by pouring rain with snow and hail.
In the Decameron tale, Boccaccio talks about the service to God but he takes it to
another context, in the tenth tale, we are told the story about Alibech, a girl that
wanted to learn how to serve to God, but she ends up being manipulated by an hermit,
Rustico, so he can have sexual relations with her, he achieves his purpose telling her
that they need to put in hell the devil so they can both serve to God, the hell being in
Alibech and the demon being in Rustico, Boccaccio use this two terms as a game of
words, as he refers to parts of the human body. In this tale, Boccaccio makes fun of
the religion as he mixes it with sexuality, he uses words as hell, devil and heaven as
metaphors to talk about what he considers a natural instinct and a human necessity,
the sex. With this mentality, Boccaccio make us know that he didnt believe that God
was the nucleus of the universe, for him is the man, he attacks religion and with this
thought he can consider the Decameron as one of the precursors for the whole
Renaissance movement. Even though Dante writes about a life with excess he does
not approaches, the sex theme, in an explicit way, he mentions it but he doesnt brings
the theme out, while Boccaccio does the opposite, he only focuses on what humans
can do to fill this necessity.

In conclusion although both Italian masterpieces were written in the 14 th century,

therefore sharing a similar historical background and having a same topic: the hell,
Dante and Boccaccio are not thinking in the same hell, neither they are talking about
religion in the same way, Boccaccio uses religious terms as the service to God as a
way humans can fill a necessity, Dante uses his book as a way to make people change
their lifestyle giving to the population a look to the afterlife they would have , with
these two masterpieces we can see the end of an era and the start o f a new one: The
Renaissance