Who is Blissful Beatrice?I am so confused.

Samuel Beckett's Dante and the Lobster
is a story about a young poet with much heart, but little confidence, who has
to learn how to emerge from his own inconsistent world to find his voice. It alludes in
a good part, and it is inspired by, Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy
not only in the naming of characters, but in adding parts of the
Divine Comedy to the original
plot.

The specific part of the story to which you refer can
be found in the beginning where it reads,

readability="12">

It was morning and Belacqua was stuck in the
first of the canti in the moon. He was so bogged that he could move neither backward nor
forward. Blissful Beatrice was there, Dante also, and she explained the spots on the
moon to him. She shewed him in the first place where he was at fault, then she put up
her own explanation. She had it from God, therefore he could rely on its being accurate
in every particular.

It is
understandable for this fragment of the story to be confusing, as it is taken directly
from the storyline in Dante's Divine Comedy. It refers to the part
of the story where the poet, Belacqua, is enthralled reading the Divine
Comedy. What Beckett is stating in that part of the story is that both Dante
AND the very blissful and beautiful Beatrice from the story were in his thoughts,
specifically during the part of the Divine Comedy where Beatrice
shows Dante the Kingdom of Heaven.

Historically and
literary speaking, the "Blissful" Beatrice refers to Dante's love interest in the
Divine Comedy, who is, in turn, inspired by Dante Alighieri's one
and only true love, Beatrice Portinari (1265-1290). Dante's personal love story
basically states that this lady, Beatrice, was someone whom Dante loved so much (they
never got married) that he opted to name his Divine Comedy heroine
after her. In the Divine Comedy, the character of Beatrice is who
points to Dante to heaven, and who explains the bliss of Paradise and eternity. Her
character represents, love, purity, grace, and beauty. This is why Beckett refers to her
as "blissful".

Therefore, in summary. Beatrice is a
character in the Divine Comedy, inspired by a real woman named
Beatrice whom Dante loved. There is no character in Dante and the
Lobster named "Blissful Beatrice". The word"blissful" is merely used as an
added adjective by Beckett to refer to the original Beatrice's lovely life as an angel
in heaven.