Gerusalemme liberata (protagonists)

Although an epic poem on the clash between two armies and also between opposing sides in the afterlife, the Liberata focuses on a group of characters, their actions and the reasons underlying them. Goffredo’s faith and election by divine will establish his role as leader, a hero who rallies an army shaken and weakened by errors and temptations. The errors committed are those of the young Rinaldo, modelled on Homer’s Achilles, first led astray by an absolute ambition for glory, and then by his love for Armida. Only after his release, through Carlo and Ubaldo, and purification will Rinaldo (linked to the epic’s encomiastic component, since he is presented as the founder of the Este family) be able to attend to his duty, which is decisive for the liberation of Jerusalem. Temptations and errors also lie in wait for Tancredi, a valiant knight but weakened by his love for the beautiful Clorinda, the Pagan warrior woman, and loved by Erminia. This triangle of unrequited love, which covers a substantial lyrical component within the epic, is dissolved in canto XII when Tancredi unwittingly attacks Clorinda, baptising her just before she dies. The agonies of love continue until Tancredi defeats the indomitable Pagan hero Argante in a duel to the death, and Erminia attends to Tancredi’s wounds. On the opposite side is Solimano, the noble hero figure that is counterpart to Goffredo, and the last to surrender to the Christians, after Clorinda and Argante: it is he that Tasso endows with a magnificently tragic view of the battlefield. On another level there is Pietro, the Hermit who solemnly inspires the Crusade, and the Wise Man of Ascalona with his natural magic, whose counterpart is the evil magician Ismeno.