Dante is both the author and the protagonist of the Paradiso. The poem completes the story narrated throughout The Divine Comedy, telling of Dante’s personal spiritual odyssey: his recovery from a life of sin and error, and ultimate attainment of beatitude symbolized by his final vision of God.

Dante the pilgrim is aware of his intellectual limitations and tendency to pride. He yearns for higher knowledge, symbolized by Beatrice. He is in the thrall of Beatrice’s beauty and virtue, yet also aware that both of them are in search of a higher goal. Dante is curious and inquisitive, thirsting for knowledge, especially about topics of divine and earthly justice, salvation, and free will. Dante’s curiosity about the nature of the Trinity lasts to the very end of the poem, when a final revelation allows him to understand the mystery and places him completely in harmony with God’s will.

Alongside Dante’s spiritual quest in Paradiso is a more personal, earth-bound one. While Dante is visiting the heavenly realm, he is not doing so as a soul, as he is still a living man. He frequently reveals his earthly concerns, past and present, throughout Paradiso, as when he meets people he knew personally during his life or has conversations about the current woes plaguing both Italy and Catholic Christendom more generally.