secifosseluce:

secifosseluce:

forever distraught over how Dante’s guides through hell and heaven, the ones tasked to show him perdition & salvation, are human souls of people he loves. they’re humans. not angels, not saints, not even demons – human beings Dante adored & saw as good, intelligent, admirable enough to place them as the leading figures through the hyper-complex tapestry of the afterlife. 

this is a work of art always tied to religion, and specifically Dante’s shade of medieval catholicism, but the poem itself is deeply preoccupied with the state of people.

Dante hates the political landscape but he’s worried about Florence, and Italy, and the world, so much. and by the end of his journey, he gets to glimpse at the heart of the universe, and it’s literally love. a love that alone makes the entire beautiful cosmos go. you start with a hatred that looks so close to worry because you still love the places that hurt you (love a world that just can’t seem to do the right things for itself), and you turn your back on it because you’re angry and bone-deep tired and want to walk away from the suffering of the world and then – exercise compassion, find faith again, and see that the universe is moved by love. and people, sent by divinity, are the ones to guide you through that. how beautiful is that