Summary
Dante begins the Paradiso by stating that he is now in heaven, “which receives/more of His light.” But even as he begins on an image of heavenly light, he acknowledges that anyone who returns from heaven will be unable to “know nor tell what he has seen.” To attempt to describe heaven, Dante invokes both Apollo and the muses, hoping, through the poem, to be crowned with Apollo’s laurel.
It is at this point that Dante the poet turns to the narrative of Dante the pilgrim. It is approximately noon, and Beatrice, now Dante’s guide, has turned her eyes towards the sun. Dante looks at her. He almost cannot bear the brightness of the light, but he feels himself changed inside, as if he has gone “beyond the human.” His sight of the heavens, which are “wheeling in desire,” instills in him a strong desire to learn more. Able to read his thoughts, Beatrice explains that he is no longer on earth. Further, she clarifies that he is able to move through “these light bodies” because the human soul, carrying the “imprint” of the divine, naturally moves upwards, even if some unnaturally “swerve” off course. Beatrice ends the canto by stating that “‘It would be as astounding if you, set free/from every hindrance, had remained below/as if on earth a living flame held still’” and looking again towards the sun.
Dante opens the second canto by addressing the reader. Continuing a metaphor from the Purgatorio, Dante depicts himself as a man at sea, navigating dangerous and deep waters. Readers, he suggests, should keep “to the furrow” his ship has made. Dante then writes that he and Beatrice are drawn upwards by their “thirst for God,” into a higher level of heaven. They are now on the moon, “[t]he eternal pearl," and their bodies seem absorbed into its very matter. Dante asks Beatrice about the dark spots on its surface, to which she responds by asking Dante what he thinks causes them. When he suggests it is differences in density, she corrects him by moving through the logical reasons why his suggestion is impossible. Beatrice “shall now reshape [Dante’s] intellect,” and she explains that each sphere of heaven has its own particular qualities, each one “stamp[ed]” by God. It is these different qualities that cause the moon’s dark spots.
As the third canto begins, Dante is about to “confess” himself “corrected” to Beatrice, but a sudden sight distracts him. Faces appear, opalescent, as if seen through water. They seem “eager to speak,” and Dante thinks, for a moment, that they are only reflections. Beatrice corrects him again: they are real, and Dante should speak with them. Dante then asks a face about their “name and lot,” and the face responds that she was a nun in the world. This is Piccarda, who is among the saved. She and the other shades on the moon were placed in this lowest sphere of heaven for having neglected their vows. When asked by Dante, she explains that she has no desire to reach a higher sphere of heaven; “the power of love subdues our will,” she states, suggesting that she is perfectly content and her desires are in concord with God’s. Piccarda further explains that, although she was once a nun, she was kidnapped from the cloister and did not return; next to her is “the great Constance,” who was also once a nun. Both shades then sing Ave Maria and vanish. Dante turns to Beatrice, who burns even brighter than before.
In the fourth canto, Dante describes how he is like a man dying of hunger, unable to choose between two foods, or a lamb between two wolves. His doubts are keeping him silent, but Beatrice reads his face and his thoughts. She states his doubts, which are: first, how one’s reward in heaven could be reduced by “the violence/of another,” and second, whether souls “return to their own stars.” She addresses the second, stating that spirits and angels “all adorn the highest circle” but that they appear on the moon as “a sign” of their lower rank in Heaven itself. She adds that Dante can only understand that which he perceives through his senses, which is why he perceives these spirits outside of the highest circle.
To the first question, Beatrice explains that even if one did not consent to a violence against oneself—as was the case with Piccarda and Constance being taken from their convents—one should have attempted to return to fulfilling one's holy vows. In other words, Piccarda and Constance could have returned, at one point, to being nuns. Beatrice continues to explain that sometimes “the threat of violence so mingles with the will/that these offenses cannot be excused,” meaning that the will consents to the violence, in part, because of fear, even if one’s will does not consent absolutely. Dante then responds, stating that he is immensely thankful for her explanation and that doubt, rather than blocking one from the truth, pushes one upwards, towards it. He ends the canto by asking if one can make up for unfulfilled vows through good works; Beatrice looks at him, her “eyes so full/of the radiance of love” that his sight fails.
Analysis
Two important aspects of the Paradiso are established in this first canto. First, we should note that Dante makes an important change to the invocation of the muse, present in both the Inferno and Purgatorio. Not only does he call on the muses and Apollo, but he also suggests that even with the aid of these two classical figures, his writing will not be able to describe heaven. Thus the limits of language immediately become a theme, and Dante establishes this theme by playing with the tropes of the “epic” invocation. Second, Dante continues the focus on Divine Love established in the Purgatorio, but here we find him focusing on the presence of Divine Love through the imagery of light and vision. Dante’s ascent, moving towards the divine "eternal Light," is also a movement towards "eternal Love;" Dante even looks at this divine light through Beatrice, whom he loves.
In the second canto, Dante establishes Beatrice’s role throughout the Paradiso. Where the Latin poet Virgil was meant to reshape Dante’s defective will in the Inferno and the Purgatorio, Beatrice will be focused on Dante’s intellect. Notably, this intellectual focus is reflected in the poem as a whole, which spends much more time on theological questions, often explored through dialogue, than does the Inferno or the Purgatorio, both of which spend more time on narrative poetry. Yet, simply because the Paradiso is focused on the intellec does not mean it is disembodied; Dante describes “the thirst” for God, and his use of motifs like the sea and navigation keep the reader grounded in concrete imagery.
Dante begins to use a similar structure to that found in the Inferno and the Purgatorio in canto three. But whereas the interactions in those canticles of the Commedia were focused, often, on punishment and penance, here we see Dante largely celebrating those with whom he is speaking. Notably, Dante’s choice to look to Constance as one of the saved would have been controversial; John Hollander notes that he has done much to clean up the narratives surrounding her of any negative connotation, and her presence signals, yet again, Dante’s particular emphasis on Italian and imperial political life, even within heaven.
In the fourth canto, two significant themes are being developed. First, Dante continues to justify his use of metaphors that are often quite deeply sensory. Just as Beatrice suggests he can only understand that which he receives through his senses, we as readers might consider that Dante uses sensory language about the divine to allow his readers to understand heavenly experience, even if the sensory language only approximates the truth. This theme is further brought out by Dante’s sight failing at the very end of the canto; both his senses and his poetry give out, unable to totally grasp the experience of divine love. Another important aspect of the canto is Dante’s positive evaluation of doubt. Though one might consider doubt a negative in a religious context, Dante shows how it can help to nurture belief, and throughout the Paradiso, he will continually use his own doubts to develop his particular theology.
