314 Davies, Robertson
can advance their connection with God through
religious growth. Dante also constantly uses nature
in a descriptive way to show the physical splendor
of those who are close to God on the spiritual level.
In The Inferno, Dante begins his discovery of the
afterlife by saying, “Midway in our life’s journey, I
went astray / from the straight road and woke to find
myself / alone in a dark wood” (1.1–3). His remark
is the first use of nature as a symbol for the soul of
humanity. The “dark wood” is a place away from
the love of God. Dante’s soul is lost in the trap of
worldly desires, and so, in order to find his way out
of the woods and into the light, he must begin his
quest. Just as there are good and bad people, nature,
too, represents both aspects. Though the woods
represent the world and its evils, the sun is almost
always representative of God, holiness, and divine
revelation.
The setting of The Divine Comedy grows steadily
more stunning as Dante rises toward heaven, as can
be seen by following one canto through each of
the three books. For example, in canto 3 of Inferno,
Dante is in the vestibule of hell with the opportun-
ists. It is a place filled with screams, chaos, filthy
air, and “a swarm of wasps and hornets” (3.62). In
canto 3 of Purgatorio Dante finds himself at the
base of what seems to be an ever-rising cliff. As
the “red blaze” of sun begins to rise behind him,
the land is not as treacherous as hell, but it has an
ominous feeling about it (3.16). Finally, canto 3 of
the Paradiso finds Dante on the shiny and incredibly
beautiful moon “as dense and smoothly polished as
a diamond” (2.32).
Nature is also a symbol for God himself, and
sinning against God is equivalent to sinning against
nature. In canto 11 of Inferno, Dante meets the
circle of the heretics, and Virgil proves that almost
every sin can be linked back to a sin against nature,
even usury: “Near the beginning of Genesis, you
will see / that in the will of Providence, man was
meant / to labor and to prosper. But usurers, / by
seeking their increase in other ways, / scorn Nature
in herself and her followers” (11.107–111). It is the
job of the descendants of Adam to replenish the
earth and to be imitations of God. People who find
pleasure in reaping money alone, and not soil, are
sinning by producing nothing. They are not produc-
ing art, which is the child of nature, nor are they
aiding nature, which is the child of God because, as
Virgil states, “All of Nature,—her laws, her fruits,
her seasons,—/ springs from the Ultimate Intellect
and Its Art” (11.99–100). Man was born to take care
of nature, and if he does not do that to some extent,
like “any seed / out of its proper climate... he will
not flourish” (Paradiso 8.139–141). In fact, man is
meant to “heed the plan / of nature’s firm founda-
tion” (Paradiso, 8.142–143). This does not mean that
every man is meant to be a farmer by occupation, but
that every man’s soul has a calling as given to him by
God, and he should follow it in order to be content.
Just as he uses them to represent God, Dante
uses nature metaphors to render images of the
magnificent members of heaven. For example, the
Angelic Host appear to him “like living flame their
faces seemed to glow. / Their wings were gold....
more dazzling white than any earthly snow” (Para-
diso 31.13–15). This idea is best exemplified in
Beatrice, whom Dante actually describes as being
something even more beautiful than nature: “If
nature or art ever contrived a lure / to catch the eye
and thus possess the mind... all charms united
could not move a pace / toward the divine delight
with which I glowed / when I looked once more
on her smiling face” (Purgatorio, 27.91–96). Dante
uses nature imagery almost exclusively in heaven,
proving that he believed there is no other aspect of
life on earth that can better represent the spiritual
life than nature.
Sara TomediDAVIES, ROBERTSON Fifth Business
(1970)
Fifth Business is a 1970 novel by the Canadian
novelist Robertson Davies (1913–95) and the first
installment of the Deptford trilogy, which traces
the lives of three characters from the small town
of Deptford, Ontario, who are bound to each other
inextricably by a tragic event in their childhood.
“Fifth business” is a term for an opera character
who is essential to the plot and yet is neither hero
nor villain. It applies to Dunstan Ramsay, the nar-
rator, who dedicates his life to caring for the victims
of the pivotal snowball incident that opens the book,