Okay, so I was a bit premature in my posting.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d not quite finished the last chapter.\u00c2\u00a0 I was literally four pages away from the following:<\/p>\n
How wicked it would be, if we could, to call the dead back!\u00c2\u00a0 She said not to me but to the chaplain, ‘I am at peace with God.’ She smiled, but not at me. Poi si torno all’ eterna fontanta<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It is not clear to me that those are her words, but at a minimum they are C.S. Lewis’ words.\u00c2\u00a0 The quote means, roughly:<\/p>\n
Then she turned back to the eternal fountain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It is, of course, a quote from Canto 31 of Dante’s Paradiso<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 In context, Dante is asking Beatrice to use whatever means she may employ to ensure that the soul she has helped to save (his) will not be lost somehow after this visit.\u00c2\u00a0 Beatrice’s response, in full:<\/p>\n
So did I pray.\u00c2\u00a0 And she, however far away she seemed, smiled, and looked at me.\u00c2\u00a0 Then she turned back to the eternal fountain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If it is not clear, the “eternal fountain” is, of course, God.\u00c2\u00a0 Throughout Paradiso<\/em>, Dante continues to look upon Beatrice while she continues to gaze upon God.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a great deal of imagery surrounding “vision” and “looking upward” and light in Paradiso<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 In any event, Beatrice’s momentary gaze with a smile upon Dante is essentially all she could do.\u00c2\u00a0 The beauty that is God does not allow one to look away when faced with it in purest form (when you are transformed into that purest of forms).\u00c2\u00a0 The only reason, presumably, that she can look away at all is the purity of his request to her and its relation to God.\u00c2\u00a0 Her looking away is such a small thing but, simultaneously, such an amazing demonstration of her love because it requires that she look away from the Perfect Love for even a moment.<\/p>\n
Anyway, C.S. Lewis is obviously and intentionally calling upon the imagery of Dante and Beatrice in his work A Grief Observed<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 In context, it is really quite a wonderful image.\u00c2\u00a0 I am happy to have noticed it before being slapped in the face with it several pages later.<\/p>\n
C.S. Lewis is also concerned about another potential problem that he notes in A Grief Observed. <\/em>He points out that it is a distinct possibility that he may deify or simplify his lost wife in his mind.\u00c2\u00a0 Somehow, this will make the process of getting over her easier, but in some way to violence to her actuality.\u00c2\u00a0 He uses the phrase, we always have another card in our deck (or something like that) to describe the ability of any person, even those most dear and known to you to surprise you at any moment.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a repeated concern for C.S. Lewis in his book.\u00c2\u00a0 C.S. wishes to avoid making the memory of his wife into anything.\u00c2\u00a0 In reality, he simply misses her, all of her, actuality.<\/p>\n
Dante on the other hand goes out of his way to deify and simplify his affection for Beatrice.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, that is in part his goal or at least his vision for his work.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether or not he really had the feelings he describes in himself regarding Beatrice, he uses it as an artifice to build her up as this divine being.\u00c2\u00a0 So far as I recall, not having read through to that point yet, Beatrice’s home is in the same Heavenly sphere as Mary the mother of Christ.\u00c2\u00a0 That is quite a claim!<\/p>\n
In actuality, Beatrice was apparently quite a bit older than Dante and died when he was 25 or so (from what I read).\u00c2\u00a0 In any event, they never had a real relationship in any sense of the word.\u00c2\u00a0 To history’s knowledge they may<\/em> have met a grand total of two times.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m sure we don’t know this, exactly, and he may have seen her numerous times on the street or whatever the 15th century version of stalking was, it may have taken place.<\/p>\n
I think it all the more interesting that in the grieving process, C.S. Lewis clings to reality (which is precisely what I do) and shuns any fictional characterization (more likely mischaracterization) of those lost.\u00c2\u00a0 Dante’s work, in contrast, required just this.\u00c2\u00a0 It would have been terribly boring if he hadn’t made her so worthy of his adoration.\u00c2\u00a0 And, for purposes of his imagery of directing his “eyes” to God, both in the real world (apparently, she was the motivation for his interest in matters of faith) and in the next, Beatrice served as an excellent metaphor.<\/p>\n
Both works are beautiful, one for being so “raw” and “real” and painful, the other for being so lofty and full of lovely imagery.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m glad for the happenstance of reading them so near in proximity to one another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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