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
St. John reassures Dante that his sight will be restored. Meanwhile, he questions Dante regarding his soul’s goal, and Dante replies that it’s Christ, the beginning and end of love. John further questions Dante as to how he aims at this goal. Dante replies that, besides Scripture and philosophy, God’s goodness itself “sets love on fire,” drawing him towards it.
In medieval biblical interpretation and iconography, John was associated with direct vision of God—itself understood to be the highest experience of love. That’s why John is a fitting examiner for Dante’s test on love. Dante’s understanding of love also connects with his emphasis on the function of the intellect throughout—that the more one seeks God, the greater one’s desire for God.
Themes
St. John asks what else draws Dante in his pursuit of God, and Dante elaborates that his own being, the world’s being, Christ’s death, and the common faith of his fellow Christians “all drew me from [...] wrongful love.” In fact, “every leaf […] of our eternal orchardist” draws him closer.
After Dante gives his answer, the souls break out in a hymn. At this, Dante is abruptly healed of his blindness by Beatrice’s shining gaze. Now Dante can see better than ever before. He sees that a fourth soul has joined him, Beatrice, and St. John, and when Beatrice explains that it is the soul of Adam, Dante is full of questions.
The significance of Dante’s temporary blindness at this stage is confusing; it might be that Dante’s understanding of love needed to be further purified before he could be prepared to see yet more clearly, which his examination by John achieves. Adam represents not just the first human being, but the first to be redeemed from his sin—so, for Dante, Adam is an “everyman” figure who stands for every soul that pursues God.
Themes
Adam perceives Dante’s questions—how long he lived in the Garden of Eden, why God was so angry with him, and what language he spoke. Adam explains that he lived in Eden for only six hours, lived on earth for more than 900 years, and spent more than 4,000 years in Hell before Christ freed him to go to Heaven. He also explains that his and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden was due to disobedience, not to simply tasting the forbidden fruit. Finally, the language he spoke in the Garden has long since become extinct.
Since Adam was the first human being, his experiences wholly unique and also establishing conditions for the rest of humanity, Dante’s insatiable curiosity is understandable (and humorously characteristic of Dante). Adam explains that when he and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, it wasn’t because their appetite was sinful in itself, but because they transgressed God’s boundaries. Adam also gestures to the idea that language evolves over time. This point was of special interest to Dante the scholar, who wrote about the importance of vernacular speech (local native languages) in his De vulgari eloquentia.
Themes
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