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Canto 1
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
Dante warns less spiritually prepared readers not to embark on this heavenward journey. Only those who have been accustomed to feeding on “angel-bread” can safely follow him there.
Dante suggests that those who are not accustomed to studying theology (feeding on “angel-bread”) may find his poem’s “waters” too deep for them to navigate safely. Yet this rhetorical gesture isn’t meant to be taken too seriously; Dante intended that the beauty of his language would draw ordinary readers, not just highly educated ones. He simply signals that his poem will deal with lofty subjects that aren’t meant solely for entertainment, but for his audience’s spiritual betterment as well.
Themes
Beatrice tells Dante that God has led them to the “first star,” the moon. A dense, shining cloud envelops them. Dante asks Beatrice about the dark markings visible on the moon’s surface—on Earth, people refer to these as the marks of Cain. Dante suggests that perhaps the markings are due to variations in density on the moon’s surface.
Beatrice’s and Dante’s journey will take them through nine spheres of heaven. They’ll encounter different types of souls in each sphere, as well as different types of angels and virtues. Dante’s question is an example of his insatiable appetite for knowledge, which is portrayed throughout Paradiso as a noble, God-given human characteristic. Dante’s reference to Cain is to a piece of folklore which held that Cain, the world’s first murderer as portrayed in the Book of Genesis, was banished to the moon.
Themes
Beatrice explains the scientific reason for the varied coloration on the moon’s surface—basically, that each of the heavenly spheres reflects the light of the sun in a different way, and that different parts of the moon reflect that light differently, too. Similarly, the human soul diffuses its energies in various ways, as needed, throughout the human body.
Beatrice’s explanation is’nt accurate in terms of the modern scientific understanding of the moon’s surface. But her scientific discourse nevertheless serves an important function in the story—it anticipates the poem’s emphasis on God’s providence, or God’s purpose and will working itself out in diverse ways throughout creation. In other words, like the heavens and the human body, creation as a whole is made up of varying expressions of God’s unified purpose.
Themes
