不幸な方へと進んでいる - why are there two particles after 方？


My question comes from this sentence:

> 四十年前までは確かにあった幸せを放棄して、不幸な方、不幸な方へと進んでいる気がする。

My attempted translation was:

> The happiness we definitely had up until 40 years ago we discarded; and on a
> path of unhappiness, we progress further and further, I feel.

However, I don't understand why both particles へ and と follow. I would have
expected just へ, so I don't get what the function of と is. Can someone
possibly explain this?




The particles へ and に in modern Japanese, when marking a destination, both
mean "to", with the implication that the subject actually reaches the
destination in question, so they are largely interchangeable in this usage. In
pre-modern/Classical Japanese に implied that the subject reached the goal, but
へ did not necessarily do so: in other words, へ could mean simply "towards",
"in the direction of". That role has been taken on by the combination へと in
Modern Japanese, so your sentence means "I feel that we have
renounced/abandoned the happiness that we certainly had until forty years ago
and are progressing in the direction of unhappiness, in the direction of
unhappiness". It may be helpful to think of と as indicating the manner in
which something is done, so へと would mean "as though to X". The repetition of
不幸な方へ suggests that the process is ineluctable, so I might go with "moving
inevitably towards unhappiness", "advancing all the time towards unhappiness"
or "moving ever closer towards unhappiness [although we haven't quite got
there yet]". How to translate 放棄 also needs some thought. It suggests
deliberately or consciously giving something up - for example, it's the word
used in the Constitution for the renunciation of the use of military force.

