Page 21 - GALIET EXILE: Dante IV+

Galiet & Galiet
become holy again through Christ’s sacrifice, which purifies all sins and the descent of the Holy Spirit during Pentecost. Just as Romeo’s voice weeps from within the tree, so does a voice of abstinence cry from the Tree of Gluttony (Pur. 22, 139-154). This voice obliquely refers to exile: “Of this dear food you’ll know the bitter dearth,” in the manner Cacciaguida announces. Not only will Dante taste salty bread in his exile, but he will also, just as Roman women, be ‘content to drink plain water,’ and just as Daniel, ‘gain greatly in true thought.’ (Pur. 22, 130-154), and just as John the Baptist, feed on the bread of “honey and locust.” There is mention of a long fast along thirsting for “nectar:” a metaphor for Dante’s journey from the hunger of exile to the abundance of homecoming.
Dante and de la Vigna differ in how they view their banishments. De la Vigna’s emaciated despair drives him to suicide while Dante shifts his elastic perspective from suicide to life as endurance. Thus, Dante yields to his political banishment. Dante learns that political alliance does not determine the outcome of one’s life and that the opening of one’s soul and elocutions to divine love, salvation and poetry become the way out of one’s worldly misery and exile. Just as expulsed Adam and Eve realize that there exists hope for redemption, so Dante grows in faith, hope and charity as his emancipated journey progresses.
Romeo’s, Virgil’s & Boethieus’s mirror of exile. These banishments cast more of a beneficent light in Dante’s mirror of exile. By this time, Dante begins to see the heroic goodness derived from his displacement. Romeo’s honourable deeds are seen by Justinian, as a flowering, miraculous pearl6 (Par. 6, 127-192) that
6 The pearl alludes to Jesus’ parable which explains the value of the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 13:45-46. Its analogy implies that the Kingdom of Heaven is of such worth that Christ’s apostles should joyfully give up their earthly wealth and comfort to obtain it.
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