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Canto 14
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Paradiso, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Earthly and Heavenly Justice
Creation and God’s Providence
God’s Character and Will
Vision, Knowledge, and the Pursuit of God
Language and the Ineffable
Summary
Analysis
In the heavenly sphere of Mars, the singing falls silent, and a light, resembling a shooting star, flashes across the sky to the foot of the cross-shaped collection of lights. The light-figure warmly greets Dante and explains why his happiness surpasses that of the other souls—he is Dante’s great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida.
Dante’s reunion with his ancestor is one of the most emotional moments in the Divine Comedy. It links Dante not only with his own forefather, but also with the tangible history of his beloved Florence. Cacciaguida will guide Dante in a discussion of divine and earthly justice, one of Paradiso’s key themes.
Themes
Cacciaguida speaks nostalgically of the Florence of his own day. It was, he says, a place of “modesty, chasteness and peace.” It wasn’t a particularly magnificent city—people lived in unassuming houses, and they were content with ordinary occupations, inconspicuous clothing, and warm-hearted family life. Cacciaguida himself left Florence, he explains, to go on crusade, where he was killed and detached forever from earthly vanities.
Cacciaguida idealizes 12th-century Florence as a happy place because of its simplicity, moderation, and absence of wickedness. In these ways it's meant to contrast sharply with the decadent Florence of Dante’s era. Cacciaguida is known to have served as a knight in the Second Crusade, dying about the middle of the 12th century. Though he values the simple joys of earthly life, they pale next to the heavenly glories to which his martyr’s death granted him entrance.
Themes
