Dante's Paradiso

(This is for my Death and the Afterlife in Literature course) There was definitely a departure from the other readings in this poem. And absolutely a departure from the first two sections of the three epic poems by Dante. Paradiso was sort of boring in comparison. Actually it was really boring. It was almost like Dante gave up on his original agenda of criticizing his peers in this poem. It was all glory of god. I like how it's structure, much like inferno was. The rose is really interesting, and how all the planets correlate (including the moon) to different areas of heaven. Heaven mirrors hell in a lot of ways. The placement of those who ascended are ranked just like those condemned. The first planet (the moon) is for those were  forced to break their vows, so it was all women were nuns. I like the idea of a sort of fairness towards those who had been forced to sin or break their "vows" with god. Most of the poem though is like "Beatrice is so beautiful!" "There's so much music!" etc. It wasn't really inspiring, especially to an atheist. Beatrice was also an insignificant guide. Virgil wasn't just a respected and important figure of his time, but his manner and insights were way more interesting. Beatrice is really more a personal thing for Dante, she has no historical significance to the reader. Paradiso was just kind of bland.