The Divine Comedy and its Influence on Persona 5
Abstract
Throughout history, The Divine Comedy has inspired many people in art, music, and other media, and in this case, a video game called Persona 5. Persona 5 is a JRPG released in 2017, and the game has many influences from Dante’s works.
The first similarity is the portrayal of Mementos and the structure of hell in the divine comedy.
The image on the left is Botticello’s portrayal of Dante’s hell, the nine layers that Dante and Virgil travel through. The image on the right shows Mementos, the collective unconscious portrayed in Persona 5. Similarly to Dante, The main character of Persona 5 must travel down to the depths of Mementos throughout the game as you change more people, connecting to their sins as well.
The second similarity is the portrayal of Lucifer in both media. They are very similar, from the wings, face, and overall portrayal of the two.
The final similarity is the characters used to take the protagonist on a journey. In the divine comedy, we have Virgil until the end of purgatory. In Persona 5 we have Morgana, a type of shadow that follows the protagonist through the story to aid him and help him stop the ruin that hangs over his head throughout the story.
To read more, here is the PDF for the full paper: