Introduction
Dante’s Purgatorio symbolizes people’s need to face their inner inconsistencies, flaws, and fears to make personal growth possible. In other words, Dante’s Purgatorio is the emblem showing how imperfect humans strive to control their sinful desires and passions to overcome them and ascend to the place where soul and mind are free and unified. Purgatorio is thus the place of renewal and spiritual development. The following paper aims at making an analysis of Dante’s Purgatorio by relating how various elements in the cantos that comprise the Terrace of a Sin function singularly or in combination to erase the “P” marked on the Pilgrim Dante.
The Problem Inherent in the Sin
According to Dante, the problem inherent in sin refers to an individual’s will or desire to commit what is bad, even under the risk of losing God’s approval. The sin is thus seen by Dante as the person’s overall orientation away from God. In Purgatory 2.121, the audience may read the following lines supporting this point of view:
What negligence and what delay is this?
Race to the mountain and strip off the slough
Which won’t let God be manifest in you!
Virtue, on the opposite, is an act that demonstrates an individual’s desire to please God. Therefore, the conclusion can be made that the problem inherent in the sin is the person’s decision to please him- or herself, even if it leads to opposing God. Remediation then will need to involve deep changes in the individual’s inner world, helping one shift from the egoistic pursuits to the commitment to God’s will.
The Corrective
As the readers may notice proceeding through the cantos close-reading, the corrective that sinners have is the lessons that life teaches them by placing them into situations where they face their fears and experience pain and restrictions. To resist the temptation to commit a transgression, the sinners have to redirect their desire by shifting to other thoughts (Purgatory 16.2). As the pilgrim proceeds through Purgatorio and passes different tests and conquers the sinful thoughts in his mind and wrong desires in his heart, removal of the letter “P” from his brow is getting closer.
Requirements for Penance in the Cantos
The cantos fulfill the three requirements for penance, including recognition, confession, and satisfaction, by stating that a sinner needs to change one’s way of thinking by developing the love for what is right. In contrast, if a person loves the wrong, the manifestations of such love are anger, envy, and pride. The cantos demonstrate that penance requires that an individual recognizes the perfection of God’s justice by changing one’s idea of what is good and bad according to the divine vision, which can be seen from Purgatory 24.151-154:
“Blessed are they whom grace
Enlightens so, the love of taste enkindles
No overindulgent longings in their breasts,
“Hungering always only after justice!”
Correctives for Florence
The cantos critique corruption and turmoil in Florence of XIV century, providing allusions to the sins of its political leaders and noble people. Investigation of Dante’s biography suggests that he created his Divine Comedy under the influence of his indignation with the large-scale trespasses committed by the city’s political chiefs against God and Dante himself. From Dante’s life history, it becomes known that the poet was exiled from Florence by a group of political leaders opposing him.
The man of literature art expressed his anger by placing the political sinners into his masterpiece and interpreting what is God’s will for such sinners according to the beliefs of prominent philosophers such as Aristotle, whose theoretic framework lies at the foundation of Purgatory.
Showing God’s punishment for sinners, the poet critiques and corrects the lustful practices existing in the fourteenth century Florence. For example, Dante places one of the prominent political leaders, the king Manfred of Sicily, into Purgatory. The readers may notice that despite having good changes in his soul in later years of life, the person still spent 30 years of his life pleasing himself rather than God. Dante shows that such a person needs the refinement with the punishment of being not allowed to enter Purgatory for 30 years.
Historical Figures Serving in the Cantos as Models of Remediation
The historical figures in the cantos serving as models of remediation are Pope Adrian V, Charles II of Naples, Philip IV of France, Bonagiunta Orbicciani, Manfred of Sicily, Philip the Bold, Rudolph, Henry III, Ottokar, Currado Malaspina, Omberto Aldobrandeschi, Oderisi of Gubbio, and Provenzano Salvani. All these historical figures are guilty of committing serious sins against God. Dante places their souls into different terraces of Sin, where they keep on having revenge in accordance to the degree and complexity of the sins they have done. Remediation, therefore, takes place through particular rites and rituals corresponding to their earthly deeds meaning that to undergo positive changes, the sinner’s soul should go through cleansing and refining.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be pointed out that Dante’s Purgatorio is the symbol depicting human struggle with the sin and the process of one’s mind and soul cleansing and refining through tests and trails. The cantos contribute to understanding how this process occurs by explaining in detail the requirements for penance including recognition, confession, and satisfaction. Dante uses the real historical figures to reveal the essence of remediation. Purgatorio is thus the thought-provoking piece of literature art with the implications to the real life events that took place in the fourteenth century Florence.
Works Cited
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy, New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 2001. Print.