Divine Comedy: Paradiso Lesson Plan

What is the relationship between the Dante depicted in Paradiso and the Dante who is narrating the action?

Students will most likely recall from reading other works of poetry that the "speaker" of the poem is not necessarily the same thing as its "author." Dante (the author) visibly plays with this distinction in Paradiso, where it is explicitly stated that Dante is telling the story of his journey after having completed it. As the story's author, Dante narrates the action in the past tense, while at times breaking from narration to address the reader directly (most often to issue criticism or express his ineptitude as a poet).

What is Dante’s relationship with...