Beatrice: From Reality to Divine Character
Michael Pindell
There has been much speculation about Beatrice and her inspiration on Dante's Divine Comedy. Some have argued that Beatrice is merely a representation of someone Dante had seen but never known or that Beatrice never existed at all in any form other than the imaginary. Most scholars, however, attest that she was definitely real and that all the accounts of her interaction with Dante are true. Dante used the real-life Beatrice as his model for the character in his literary works.
The Beatrice Portinari that Dante knew in reality was born almost a year after him. When he was nearly nine, he saw Beatrice for the first time and he claims to have fallen in love with her at that moment. The next time he saw her at age eighteen, they passed on the street and she saluted him. When he went home to contemplate this, he had a vision from which he composed his first sonnet. This is his first known composition. Later on, Dante attempted to conceal his love for her and paid attention to another lady. Beatrice then denied him her salutation and he was plunged into deep grief. When he saw her next, they were at a wedding feast (possibly her own) where Dante was so overtaken with emotion upon seeing her that Beatrice and the other ladies began whispering about him. One of Dante's friends had to lead him from the house (Toynbee 43-47).
Dante first writes of Beatrice in his work La Vita Nuova. In this work, the hero asks for nothing more than the lady's salutation. He describes her by calling her "a deity stronger than I" who would one day rule over him. This is a foreshadowing of her role in the Comedy, as someone both human and divine.
In the Comedy Beatrice's character follows the four levels of the medieval allegory: literal, moral, analogical or mystical, and allegorical or historical (Brandeis 116). The literal meaning of Beatrice's presence in Dante's work is the most important. It is what tells us that the character was based on a real person and that there are insights to be found in comparing the two. The moral aspect of her character shows us an example of the individual soul's path to salvation. The mystical side of the allegory goes further by showing the soul's union with God. The last part, the actual historical allegory, is the most glaring.
The historical quarter of the allegory concerns Beatrice's similarity to the figure of Christ. In the first part of the Comedy, Virgil uses thoughts of Beatrice to urge Dante onward to what will lie beyond her and be reached only through her. This mirrors the thought that by seeking Christ we will find the way to Heaven and that Heaven can be reached only through Christ. When Beatrice first appears to Dante, it is in a regal and wondrous introduction, during which Dante alludes to Biblical themes from The Canticles (Song of Songs) and the book of Matthew. Her appearance is like the fulfillment of Christ's promised actions. But Beatrice does not respond to the emotional reaction Dante gives her. She is stern with him because she is able to see with heavenly clarity. Christ may also be loving yet stern when the time comes for Him to meet mankind again. In the story, Dante then proceeds to symbolize the repentant mankind of this meeting as he stands before Beatrice. He confesses his insufficient love since his love for her never went beyond adoration and wonder.
Beatrice explains that when she was a living person, he was allowed to see her as she really was - a perfect human creature - and thus in loving her, he had sufficiently loved the good. He was limited only to his simple wondering because it was a purer love than any normal form of love. On saying these things, Beatrice makes herself a parallel of Christ because He was a perfect being that walked the Earth showing a new kind of love (Brandeis 124-129).
All of the allegories created for Beatrice, however, can be traced back to the simple translation of a real-life Beatrice into a fictional one. Dante himself wrote in the Convivio that the literal comparison must come first and that without it, any other would be irrational or impossible. Dante used the blueprint of a real-life Beatrice Portinari and his affections for her to create a fictional Beatrice that has fascinated readers and researchers for many years.
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