There are times when a happy ending isn’t appropriate. There are times when happy endings only serve to protect our own innocence, however misguided that might seem, even if it doesn’t make sense in the end. We change certain aspects of our characters and hope that our readers don’t catch on. We wish for a clean-cut ending where we can move on to our next project, even if our instincts tell us that that will never be the case. There are books like that, of course, and they don’t particularly end well. There are other books, however, where a happy ending, or at least a hopeful ending, is more than welcome. This was the case in Dante’s Paradiso.

Paradiso is the final part of Dante’s work. It describes Dante’s experiences as he journeys through Heaven. Along the way, Dante is guided by his beloved Beatrice. The story starts in the Garden of Eden. There are nine spheres of Heaven. The first sphere, the moon, whose phases symbolize inconsistency, and have held promises in high esteem. The second sphere, Mercury, represents ambition, and how human glory pales in comparison to God’s. The third sphere, Venus, represents lovers, and that love needs to have boundaries in order to produce its yields. The fourth sphere, the sun, denotes wisdom. When Dante arrives in this sphere, he meets some of humanity’s wisest scholars, such as Thomas Aquinas and Richard of Saint-Victor. The fifth sphere, Mars, is home to warriors who gave up their lives to honor God. According to Dante, people residing in the fifth sphere form a shape similar to the Milky Way. The sixth sphere, Jupiter, is known to virtuous rulers, and in this sphere, Dante meets a variety of those rulers such as Constantine and King David himself. The seventh sphere, Saturn, symbolizes temperance and an increasing realization of the truth. The eighth sphere, which consists of only stars, is where the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, and St. James live. Here, Dante converses with the saints before moving on to the ninth circle, home to the angels. In this sphere, Dante also sees God surrounded by angels with Beatrice by his side. As Dante continues, he notes how Beatrice has become even more beautiful than before. Towards the end of Paradiso, Dante finally realizes God’s love.

It’s true that Dante’s Divine Comedy has been regarded as one of literature’s greatest works. However, it’s Paradiso that incorporates the celestial wonders of the world. Paradiso has many figures in Christian history that Dante praises as well. What’s the most telling about Dante’s work is Dante’s own guide, Beatrice. Beatrice represents what should be divine love, and shows that the higher they ascend, the more beautiful this becomes. This reflects Dante’s own feelings for his real-life Beatrice and that despite the odd, one-sided relationship between the two, it shows how much understanding Dante has for the world around him. The works reveal not just his fascination with Beatrice, but his interest in history and religion.

Dante’s Paradiso represents the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s the realization that, despite all the darkness that the world has, from Hell to Purgatory, there is a Heaven waiting for them. It’s something that, no matter what we tell ourselves, we all want. And this, sometimes, sometimes not, culminates in our own happy endings. Even so, with Dante’s works, that happy ending is well deserved.