Both character and author, the Pilgrim is simultaneously Dante's self-portrait and his idealized self. In the Inferno, he is emotional, frequently terrified, and prone to sympathy that his author judges as weakness. In the Purgatorio, he grows more discerning. In the Paradiso, he becomes a vessel for understanding. The gap between Pilgrim and Poet — between the character experiencing and the author who has already experienced — is the poem's most productive tension.