A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NUMERICAL SYMBOLISM IN "THE DIVINE COMEDY" AND "PEARL"

This article examines numerical symbolism in “Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri and the Middle English poem Pearl. It argues that symbolic numbers function as key structural and thematic elements in both works. While “The Divine Comedy” is organized around the numbers three, nine, and ten, “Pearl” is structured through the recurring numbers three, four, and twelve, largely derived from the vision of the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation. These numerical patterns influence the poems’ narrative organization, stanza structure, and symbolic imagery. The study demonstrates that numerical symbolism serves as a fundamental organizing principle reflecting the medieval belief in a divinely ordered universe.