Dealing with the loss of Virgil

[Poetry Princess]

I am ashamed to admit that this is actually my first time to read all the way through the comedy. I spent the past evening reading about the earthly paradise. Like Dante, I seem to spend my entire life turning around to look at Virgil and i do not understand why he has to leave or why Beatrice scolds Dante for grieving for him. Is there any chance Virgil didn't return to hell? This is the most moving piece of literature I have ever read and I'm not sure that I'm ready to follow Dante into the stars of the Paradizo just yet.

[JCamilo]

No there is no chance. That would be breaking the rules of God. So, Dante must lose Virgil, you must feel the exactly feeling you have and Beatrice must take Dante and move him foward from the past, understand the order, the God's planning. Dante must be different from Virgil, must walk the right path.

[Charles Darnay]

No there is no chance. That would be breaking the rules of God. So, Dante must lose Virgil, you must feel the exactly feeling you have and Beatrice must take Dante and move him foward from the past, understand the order, the God's planning. Dante must be different from Virgil, must walk the right path.

That is is basic reasoning yes - that Virgil can never attain Haven. Yet despite his love (Dante the poet's) love for Beatrice, Dante (the pilgrim) cares so much more for Virgil than Beatrice and seem to put forth the idea that it is much better to remain in Limbo with Virgil than Paradise without him. But I suppose that this is the trap that Dante (the poet) proposes: that there is a danger in attaching yourself to someone who is/was merely human.

[Poetry Princess]

"It is better to be in limbo with Virgil than in paradise without him." What a beautiful, and at the same time frightening reading!

[JCamilo]

But there is no reason to believe it so. Those are two different things: Dante has a poem about reaching Beatrice, not losing.

Virgil is a friend, a master-disciple relationship. Dante loses a friend. Beatrice was already out of his reach, unless, he do what he propoposes with the Comedia, which was the foundation of a new tradition. The role idea is moving away from Virgil to deserve Beatrice.

In this case, the classical knowledge Virgil represents guides Dante, but it is not enough to reach heaven, or the true knowledge that Beatrice represents. He Dante must move from it, because the classical masters are unable - unlike him - to reach Beatrice. Virgil has nothing to teach Dante anymore. He feel a loss, Virgil is an equal and he is not ready for heaven it, but Dante wants it and desires it. He would not need to walk to be in the Limbo, that he had as granted.