The Divine Comedy

Uncle Jerry discusses Dante's exile from Florence as one of the foundational literary examples of the exile theme, connecting it directly to the song's central conceit. He notes that Dante wrote the Divine Comedy in part about exile, and that Florence was Dante's homeland in the same way the speaker's relationship is their homeland. The parallel is drawn repeatedly: the exile from Florence maps onto the exile from a relationship, with the outsider perspective enabling identity reconstruction.

“I didn't choose this town, I dream of getting out”

Uncle Jerry connects Taylor's use of 'I dream of getting out' to the tradition of dream narratives in literature, citing Dante's Divine Comedy as a canonical example: Dante falls into a slumber and has a dreamlike journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven. He wonders whether Taylor's use of 'dream' connects to this literary tradition and how often she uses the dream motif across her catalogue.

“Hell was the journey, but it brought me heaven”

Uncle Jerry reads the line 'Hell was the journey, but it brought me heaven' as carrying the structural echo of Dante's Divine Comedy, where the pilgrim starts in hell, journeys through purgatorio, and finally arrives at paradiso. The movement from suffering through endurance to bliss maps onto the song's arc from past heartbreak to present love. Angela & Uncle Jerry also note the pilgrimage quality of the song's narrative, with Uncle Jerry comparing it to 'a pilgrimage not unlike Dante's or Christian Pilgrim's.'