The Role of Reason and Love in Dante’s Divine Comedy

The way of reason must yield to the way of the heart. In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Latin poet Vergil metaphorically represents reason, which leads Dante through Hell. However, reason can take us only on the threshold of redemption, at the border of Purgatory. To reach the final destination of our life, only Love, metaphorically represented by Beatrice, can lead us to the vision of Transcendence. There our troubled heart will find rest. In fact, “Inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te Domine” (Augustine, Confessions,1.1.1)