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Canto 3
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
Beatrice perceives that Dante feels torn between two questions, so she seeks to resolve his doubts. Dante’s first question, she says, is how a person’s merit can justly be reduced, if that person was violently forced to do something against their will. Secondly, Dante is surprised that human souls appear to return to their allotted stars, a fact that seems to vindicate Plato rather than Christianity.
In this canto, Beatrice embodies the quest for truth, illuminating Dante’s doubts because of her greater insight (which she possesses because she’s already in union with God). Dante first questions God’s justice, which is a matter of God’s character. He’s also troubled by the apparent harmony between what he sees in Heaven and the teaching of pre-Christian Greek philosopher Plato.
Themes
Beatrice addresses the second question first, because it’s the question that’s more likely to lead Dante astray from his faith. She explains that no soul resides anywhere besides the Empyrean (the highest sphere, where God himself dwells). However, these two souls have appeared in a lower sphere in order to signify their relative level of blessedness, thereby adapting to Dante’s limited understanding. For all souls, regardless of where they dwell, “life is sweet […] in differing ways.”
Here, Beatrice distinguishes between Platonic teaching and Christian teaching. Basically, all souls live in Heaven’s highest sphere, but Piccarda and Constance have appeared to Dante in a lower sphere in order to illustrate the teaching on God’s variously expressed providence. This is key to understanding Dante’s work in general—he does not intend for his account to be taken over-literally (he doesn’t intend his levels of Heaven to be understood as absolute truths), but to accommodate theological ideas to the limitations of space and time.
Themes
Beatrice goes on to explain that Plato’s Timaeus argues something different. Plato taught that souls literally return at death to the stars from which they were formed. Though this is wrong, his teaching may have had truthful implications—namely, that souls are influenced by the stars’ power, for good or ill. However, people took this truth too far and ultimately turned the stars into gods (like Jove, Mars, and Mercury).
Platonic philosophy had a strong influence on the development of Christian theology, and Dante was familiar with Plato’s account of the creation of the world in the dialogue Timaeus. However, Dante models thoughtful critique of classical models by showing where, in his opinion, Plato’s teaching is reconcilable with Christian ideas (like limited belief in the stars’ influence), and where it is incompatible (such as belief in other deities).
Themes
Beatrice turns to Dante’s first and less dangerous question—the seeming injustice of souls’ placement in Heaven. She explains that even under force, a will is still held responsible for yielding, however slightly, to the pressure exerted upon it. Piccarda and Constance, after all, could have chosen to flee when pressed. They could have been as steadfast as Saint Lawrence, who chose to be burned to death rather than betray his faith. But such strength of will is rare.
Beatrice identifies Dante’s question about Plato as more dangerous because it’s more threatening to core Christian teachings, such as God’s creation of each human soul. The question about justice is easier, in her view—it is possible for the human will to remain resolute under the severest pressure, as did the third-century martyr Lawrence.
Themes
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Dante is satisfied with Beatrice’s explanations and voices his gratitude. He also observes that intellect can’t be content until the greatest Truth shines on it. Doubts surface which drive the intellect in its pursuit of truth until it reaches God.
Dante’s response to Beatrice further emphasizes his belief in the intellect as something that spurs an individual in his or her pursuit of God. In this sense, doubts are not an obstacle, because questions prompt a soul to seek God all the more eagerly—an attitude Dante will model throughout.
Themes
