Nine Dantesque Essays - Jorge Luis Borges

Summary

"Nine Dantesque Essays" by Jorge Luis Borges is a collection of critical essays that delve into various aspects of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Rather than offering a systematic exegesis, Borges employs his unique blend of erudition, paradox, and profound insight to explore specific cantos, characters, and themes. He often challenges conventional interpretations, highlights overlooked details, and proposes novel perspectives, transforming familiar episodes into opportunities for philosophical and literary reflection. The essays collectively showcase Borges' admiration for Dante's work while simultaneously questioning its assumptions, revealing the timeless complexity and interpretive richness of the epic poem.

Book Sections

Section: The Last Voyage of Ulysses

This essay focuses on Canto XXVI of Dante's Inferno, where Ulysses is condemned to the eighth circle among the fraudulent counselors. Borges meticulously analyzes Dante's original portrayal of Ulysses, which deviates significantly from classical myths. Dante imagines Ulysses embarking on a final, unauthorized voyage beyond the Pillars of Hercules, driven by an insatiable hunger for knowledge and experience ("virtute e canoscenza"), ultimately leading to his shipwreck and damnation. Borges contrasts this Dantesque Ulysses – a figure of heroic hubris and intellectual arrogance – with Homer's more conventional hero, emphasizing Dante's profound re-creation of the character to fit his theological and moral framework.

Character	Characteristics	Motivations
Ulysses	Inquisitive, audacious, eloquent, driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge and experience, a leader.	To explore the unknown, to surpass human limits, to gain wisdom, even at the cost of divine displeasure and his own life.

Section: The False Problem of Ugolino

Borges examines Canto XXXIII of Inferno, which recounts the horrific tale of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, betrayed and left to starve with his sons and grandsons in a tower. The central "false problem" Borges addresses is the centuries-old debate among commentators about whether Ugolino ultimately resorted to cannibalizing his children after they died. Borges argues that this gruesome question, while intriguing, distracts from the far greater and more harrowing psychological and moral horror that Dante masterfully portrays: Ugolino's profound suffering, his betrayal, and the unbearable agony of witnessing his own progeny perish. Borges suggests that the true genius of Dante lies in rendering Ugolino's torment so vividly that the question of cannibalism becomes almost secondary to the emotional impact of the narrative.

Character	Characteristics	Motivations
Ugolino della Gherardesca	Betrayed, vengeful, suffering profound physical and emotional torment, ambiguous regarding a final act of despair.	To survive (initially), to condemn his betrayer (Archbishop Ruggieri), to express his immense suffering and hatred.

Section: The Noli Me Tangere

This essay explores a moment in Canto XXI of Purgatorio where Dante, seeing the Roman poet Statius freed from Purgatory, attempts to embrace him. However, Statius is still an incorporeal spirit, and Dante's gesture passes through him. The phrase "Noli me tangere" (Do not touch me) refers to Christ's words to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection, echoing the theme of spiritual realities being beyond physical grasp. Borges uses this brief episode to delve into the nature of the afterlife and the spiritual body in Dante's vision. He reflects on the irony and pathos of human attempts to interact with the incorporeal, highlighting the limitations of physical perception in the divine realm and the profound sense of otherness that defines the spiritual journey.

Character	Characteristics	Motivations
Statius	A Roman poet, a soul purified in Purgatory, now freed, humble, reverent towards Virgil.	To complete his purification, to ascend to Paradise, to acknowledge his literary and spiritual predecessors.

Section: Beatrice's Aversion

Borges delves into the complex and often surprising portrayal of Beatrice in Purgatorio, particularly her stern and reproachful reception of Dante when he finally reaches the Earthly Paradise. Far from the angelic, idealized figure of his earlier works, Beatrice here acts as a severe critic, forcing Dante to confront his past sins and weaknesses. Borges highlights this unexpected harshness, questioning the conventional view of Beatrice as a purely benign guide. He suggests that this "aversion" serves a crucial pedagogical and theological purpose, compelling Dante to undergo a necessary spiritual purgation before he can ascend further. This essay reveals a more human, albeit divinely empowered, Beatrice, capable of delivering painful truths for Dante's ultimate salvation.

Character	Characteristics	Motivations
Beatrice Portinari	Dante's beloved, divine guide, severe yet loving, embodies theological truth and grace, initially critical of Dante's straying.	To guide Dante to salvation, to ensure his repentance and spiritual purification, to lead him towards ultimate divine understanding.

Section: The Worst Heresiarch

In this essay, Borges puts forth a provocative argument: that Dante himself, through the very act of meticulously describing the afterlife – the precise architecture of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, the detailed torments and joys, the specific encounters with souls – commits a form of heresy. Borges contends that by attempting to give tangible form and specific detail to the ineffable mysteries of God's justice and heaven's glory, Dante implicitly limits the infinite and defines the undefinable. He transforms the sacred into a human construction, thereby presuming to know and articulate what should remain mysterious and boundless. This essay is a prime example of Borges' love for paradox and his intellectual daring.

Character	Characteristics	Motivations
Dante Alighieri	Poet, pilgrim, visionary, meticulous architect of the afterlife, deeply learned in theology and philosophy.	To reveal divine justice, to guide humanity towards salvation, to document his spiritual journey, to immortalize his beloved Beatrice, and paradoxically, in Borges' view, to define the undefinable.

Section: The Comedy

Borges explores the significance of the title Dante originally chose for his masterpiece: "Commedia." He discusses the medieval understanding of "comedy" not as a humorous work in the modern sense, but as a narrative that begins with adversity and ends happily, moving from a low style to a higher one. This contrasts with "tragedy," which begins nobly but ends in ruin. Borges traces how the work later acquired the epithet "Divina," transforming it into "The Divine Comedy." He reflects on how this original, simpler title illuminates Dante's intention, his theological framework, and the ultimate hopeful trajectory of his epic journey, despite its terrifying initial sections in Hell.

Section: The First Antecedent of The Divine Comedy

This essay delves into the potential literary and cultural antecedents that might have influenced Dante's conception of the afterlife journey. Borges moves beyond the typical classical and theological sources to explore more unusual parallels, such as ancient Irish sagas depicting voyages to otherworlds, or Islamic eschatological traditions (like the Mi'raj, the Prophet Muhammad's nocturnal journey to heaven and hell). Borges suggests that while Dante's genius is undeniable, his work also draws from a broader, perhaps unconscious, human tradition of imagining journeys through the realms of the dead, highlighting the shared archetypes across different cultures.

Section: On the Literal Interpretation of The Divine Comedy

In this essay, Borges critiques approaches that excessively prioritize a literal or purely allegorical interpretation of the Divine Comedy. He argues that reducing the poem to a mere coded message or a theological treatise diminishes its immense poetic and imaginative power. Borges champions the idea that the Divine Comedy should be appreciated first and foremost as a work of art, a vibrant and compelling narrative that evokes a profound emotional and aesthetic response. He suggests that the "literal" in Dante is often where the deepest symbolic and psychological truths reside, and that over-analysis can obscure the direct impact of the poem's images and narratives.

Section: Beatrice's Last Smile

This essay circles back to Beatrice, this time focusing on her final, enigmatic smile as she prepares to ascend to the Empyrean in Paradiso. Borges interprets this smile as a moment of transcendent beauty and ultimate understanding, a glimpse of the divine that surpasses human comprehension and expression. It is a smile that contains infinite wisdom and beatitude, signaling the culmination of Dante's spiritual journey and his proximity to God. Borges sees this smile as not just a personal farewell but a symbol of the inexpressible truth that awaits the soul in ultimate union with the divine, underscoring the limits of language and human perception when faced with the absolute. (Beatrice Portinari's characteristics and motivations were detailed in "Beatrice's Aversion," with this section focusing on a specific, sublime moment in her portrayal).

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Literary Genre: Literary Criticism, Essays, Philosophy of Literature.

Author Data:
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet, and translator, and a key figure in Spanish-language literature. His work often explored themes of dreams, labyrinths, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, philosophy, and religion. He was a master of the short story and the essay, known for his erudition, his unique narrative style that blended fantasy with philosophical inquiry, and his profound influence on subsequent generations of writers worldwide. He was widely read in many languages and deeply admired Dante's Divine Comedy, which he considered one of the greatest works of literature.

Moral/Theme:
The overarching "moral" or theme of "Nine Dantesque Essays" is the inexhaustible interpretative richness of great literature, particularly Dante's Divine Comedy. Borges demonstrates that even a work centuries old can yield new meanings, provoke fresh questions, and challenge established readings through a lens of deep scholarship combined with imaginative inquiry. The essays implicitly argue that literature is not merely a historical artifact but a living text, constantly open to re-examination and capable of revealing profound truths about the human condition, morality, and the divine.

Curiosities:

• Borges held Dante's Divine Comedy in extremely high regard, considering it "the greatest book humanity has achieved." He lectured on Dante extensively throughout his life, and these essays are a culmination of his lifelong engagement with the work.
• Despite his profound admiration, Borges frequently uses paradox and a playful intellectual skepticism to approach Dante, often challenging or subverting common interpretations, as seen in "The Worst Heresiarch."
• The essays are not exhaustive analyses of the entire Divine Comedy but rather highly focused, almost microscopic examinations of particular cantos, characters, or even single lines, showcasing Borges' ability to extract universal themes from specific details.
• Borges, despite his vast erudition and command of many languages, often stated that he preferred to read the Divine Comedy in its original Italian, believing that translations, no matter how good, lose some of the poem's inherent musicality and precision.
• The collection showcases Borges' characteristic style: lucid prose, intertextual references, philosophical digressions, and a seamless blend of critical analysis with imaginative speculation.