Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Beatrice and Transcendental Love
In class, we discussed how Dante and Beatrice's love was transcendental, or essentially supernatural. If Dante hadn't described it this way, would Beatrice have been placed in Circle Two with the Lustful? Her love for Dante was very passionate and strong, so much so that Dante called it transcendental. One could argue that Francesca and Paolo had a strong, passionate love as well. I think that because Dante didn't want to have Beatrice in Hell, he proclaimed their love transcendental so that she could reside in Paradise. Without this specification, Minos could have potentially placed her with the Lustful. It's important that Beatrice be in Heaven, so that she may lead Dante through it when Virgil cannot continue. Perhaps this is why he described their love this way. Or, perhaps their love really was transcendental. Either way, I think it speaks to the point that, potentially, had Dante not classified the love as divine, Beatrice may have not been sent to Paradise.
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2 comments:
I think you missed one HUGE detail here. Beatrice's love for Dante is NOT corporeal but Francesca and Paolo's love is corporeal. Corporeal = Sin (basically) so that's why Beatrice is in heaven.
I think that describing love as transcendental doesn't necessarily mean this was a way for Dante to hide lustful relationship. I definitely agree that Dante and Beatrice had a strong and passionate love, but I don't think that means lustful. To me, a transcendental love means a type of love that is so pure and so near perfect to God's love that it is beyond the idea of wordily love, or a love defined mainly by lust. I think that through Beatrice's and Dante's relationship, Dante is trying to show what he thinks is exemplary love or the love that God would want for those on earth to practice. I think that the transcendental love that Beatrice had for Dante caused her to enter paradise
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