The Cost Of Love In Dante's Divine Comedy

The Cost of Love In the Divine Comedy, Dante illustrates the consequences of living a life of lust and love. Those who live their lives in an excess of lust will be put in the inferno to live for eternity in Hell. If these people or those of a lesser degree of lust repent before their death, then they chose to go to Purgatory with the knowledge that one day when they are purged of their sins, they will go to heaven. Finally, Those who did not live in total temperance, but still remained loyal to the faith and to God will be put onto Venus in paradise. Desire is a costly commodity in one’s mortal life that can cause eternal stress and potentially damnation. Dante the pilgrim descends into the second circle of Hell in canto V of the Inferno.

He is so moved by the souls weeping, “the other wept, in such a way that pity blurred my senses; I swooned as those to die,/ and fell to Hell’s floor as a body, dead, falls” (5:139-142). This is one of Dante the Pilgrim's first encounters with the nature of sin. He is easily drawn and persuaded to feel pity for the souls trapped in Hell. He does understand, at this point in his journey, that lust is sin and needs to be treated as such. This means that he should not pity those in Hell because it was their choice to be there--this is a point Virgil makes several times. Dante is charmed by Francesca’s speech; his reason is blinded by his compassion which leaves him without the ability to reason stuck on the floor of

The lovers reside on Venus, whose name is taken from the Roman goddess of love, and the souls move, “accordingly to how clearly it sees God” (8:19-21). Those found on Venus were deficient in temperance in the mortal life, but they never turned from their faith in God; they merely lived their lives with “immoderate passion” (99). They never truly sinned with lust like those in the inferno and purgatory, but are also not on the highest tier in heaven. Their lives were not live completely incorrect in accordance to the will of God, but they could have been more consistent in life. Unlike the other two cantos, heaven’s geography is abstract. Dante is not aware that he and Beatrice have entered the third sphere of heaven, “I was not conscious of ascending there,/ but that I was within the sphere, I knew,/ for now my lady was more beautiful” (8:13-15). Dante focus on more than his once earthly lover, he is blinded by her beauty; a beauty that increases as they ascend further in heaven. Like those who were overtaken by lust, Dante is overcome with Beatrice’s beauty when he should be focused on viewing the paradise that is around him. Paradise is not a concrete place; it is ethereal. Dante cannot fully understand the geography of heaven which is why it is presented in the form of planets. It is beyond a mortal’s understanding because they are not fully enlightened. Love is seen by the spirits who “are so