Previous
Canto 21
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
Shocked by the overwhelming cry of lament, Dante turns to Beatrice for comfort, like a little boy turning to his mother. Beatrice reassures him, reminding him of Heaven’s all-pervading holiness and zeal. If he’s so shaken by this cry, she asks, how would Dante have been undone by Beatrice’s smile or by the song of the sphere, if the souls hadn’t remained silent? She encourages Dante to turn and look at Saturn’s souls once more. When he does, a particularly brilliant soul approaches, introducing himself as St. Benedict.
Dante’s alarm at the contemplative souls’ fierce lament suggests that he misunderstood the aim of the contemplative life. In life, these souls didn’t withdraw entirely from the world’s concerns; they were (and still are) deeply distressed by earthly injustices. St. Benedict was the sixth-century founder of Monte Cassino, the first monastery in the Western Church.
Themes
Benedict, like Peter Damian, laments the decline of monasticism, especially his own Benedictine order. Nowadays, his Rule is neglected, alms make brutish men rich, and monks grow fat. Good beginnings, in other words, don’t guarantee holiness in the end. Benedict withdraws to the ladder, and Beatrice gestures that Dante, too, should ascend. He finds he can climb swiftly.
Benedict authored a famous Rule, which commended a life of poverty and humility—things Benedict sees being grossly neglected in Dante’s present day. A good foundation is not sufficient to ensure continued flourishing—continual effort is needed in order to realize spiritual aims. This is a truth that Benedict sees in his own monastic order and that Dante sees playing out in the corrupt Church at large.
Themes
Dante realizes he is in the region of the fixed stars, particularly under the sign of Gemini, his own. He expresses thanks for the talents he’s derived from having been born under this star and asks for strength to continue his journey. Beatrice then exhorts Dante to keep the light within his eye clear, being so close to his goal. Instead of getting too caught up within himself, he should look down at the Earth, now visible beneath them. When he does, Dante is awed by its smallness, and by the vastness of the seven spheres through which he’s now progressed. Then he turns his eyes back to Beatrice.
Dante and Beatrice now enter the heavenly sphere of the fixed stars, the eighth and last of the starry spheres through which they’ll pass. They enter the part of the sphere which contains the astronomical sign under which Dante was born. Now that Dante has passed through the level assigned to contemplatives, Dante’s own vision is transformed so that he can see the world in its proper (small) proportion next to the heavens.
Themes
