John S. Ott
UNST 245 – Medieval Studies
Spring 2003
Reading Guide and Study Questions: Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio (Part One)
(Read Cantos 1-18, pp. 1-212 - Don't panic, over half of these pages are endnotes)
[NB: The Musa translation published by Penguin contains excellent chapter endnotes which help to explain much of the imagery and symbolism in the text. I strongly encourage you to use them. There is also a diagrammatic representation of Purgatory on p. xxiv and another on p. 369, as well as a glossary of names and places. As you read, beware of symbolism and the use of allegory, which pervade every element of the poem.]
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), one of the greatest poets of the late Middle Ages (or depending on one's perspective, of the early Italian Renaissance) composed his three-part Divine Comedy over a period of approximately fifteen years, beginning in 1307-1308. Dante was a native of Florence, Italy, a city he deeply loved and in which he was politically active. He was born into an established family and schooled in the arts and classical tradition. The Italian cities of his day were places of political intrigue and factional violence, and among the principal antagonists were the Guelfs and Ghibellines, parties that supported the power of the Papacy and German Emperor, respectively. A Guelf, Dante was banished from Florence in 1302 when the Ghibelline (pro-imperial) party won power, and he spent the next twenty years wandering in exile. Despite his political affiliation, Dante was not blindly papist in his sentiments, and the Divine Comedy expresses some hostility to papal claims for power, as we shall see in Purgatorio. Nor was he anti-imperial, but saw a proper role for both Church and State in the life of man.The Divine Comedy, the first great poem composed in Italian, is divided into three books--Infero, Purgatorio, and Paradiso--which are in turn divided into 33 cantos each. The whole was composed in terza rima (rhyme scheme ABA, BCB, CDC). It is an allegorical, epic poem that traces Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, led first by the famous Latin poet Virgil (d. 19 BCE) and then by his wordly muse, a woman named Beatrice with whom he was enamored. Dante, guided by Virgil, arrives at Purgatory after his descent through Hell. Unlike Hell, Purgatory is a place of hope, of eventual redemption. It is thus shaped as a conical mountain, crowned at the top by the Earthly Paradise, which those consigned there must ascend. Purgatory itself consists of seven terraces, each of which punishes a different sin: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust (running from the worst, the closest to Hell, to the least offensive). Each terrace is populated by historical figures, both recent and long dead, and acquaintances with whom Dante converses. Dante spends three days climbing, symbolizing the three days from Jesus's death to resurrection, before finally reaching the entrance to Paradise. His voyage begins at the base of the mountain, on the island of Purgatory, where he and Virgil are met by Cato of Utica, a famed Roman statesman and writer. Cato orders Virgil to bathe Dante's face and wraps a reed, the pilgrim's symbol, around his waist.
Questions
(1) Is Dante's a journey of spiritual redemption? An intellectual or spiritual journey? Is Dante "heroic"?
(2) How do the spirits of Purgatory react to the living Dante's presence? What is the emotional state of the shades Dante encounters in Purgatory, and what is the tenor of the Purgatorio itself?
(3) What is Dante's attitude toward:
Free will? What is free will's relation to love?
Love? What distinguishes natural from rational love? (Cantos 17 and 18)
Reason v. faith? (Cantos 3, 16-18)