That Mountain Couldn't Possibly Have Been Symbolic: Purgatorio

Purgatorio, the middle book of Dante’s Divine Comedy, was not quite as enticing to me as Inferno was. Perhaps it was that many of the ideas in Purgatorio felt like continuations of the more novel ideas of the first book. Most of Purgatory was spent with Dante traveling through the different layers of Purgatory (which, by the way, happen to be described as rings) and encountering different groups of people that committed different sins. Been there, done that. Perhaps, and I believe this is more likely, I had to rush through this section a lot more. Given that this poem is rife with low-key figurative language, having to rush through the Cantos means that I’m missing tons of symbolism. There have most definitely been moments when I’ve thought to myself: “What the hell is going on here?” and then pressing onward because it’s 1:00 AM and I’m pressed for time. As much as I try to read slowly and re-read, as Foster and Nabokov would want me too, it’s impractical at the moment. I try to notice as much as I can, but I know that I’m definitely lacking. 

There are a couple pieces of Purgatorio that interested me a ton. First, given that there were a ton of parallels in structure of the journey between Purgatorio and Inferno, I thought that the biggest difference, the geographical differences between the journeys, had a symbolism that goes far beyond the plot. During Inferno, the pair travel downwards the entire time. Each ring holds successively worse punishments for its residents, leading to the prison of ice described in the 9^th Circle of Hell. Everything is dark. Once Purgatorio begins, the case is opposite. From the get go, Dante seems obsessed with discussion of the sky, both between the night sky in Canto I and then, in Canto II, the sun: “a light along the sea so swiftly coming, its motion by no flight of wing is equaled” (189). There is a notion of night and day spoken of with great detail. The “coldness of the moon” contrasts with the “diurnal heat;” the pair is driven forward by the “new sun at our back” (274, 275). This night/day contrast is new, given that all of Hell was underground. Physically as well, the pair are constantly traveling upwards towards the Paradise/Garden of Eden they reach at the top, getting closer and closer to the sky and heaven. They “turned to the mountain whither reason spurs,” and “mounting will hencefore seem sport to [them]” because of their more difficult journey through Inferno (192, 191). The transitions between layers, which usually involved freefalling and arduous hikes, followed by encounters with monsters in Inferno, are simpler in Purgatorio, consisting of merely “resumed again on our holy path…so I went onward” (283).

The effect of the physical differences lies in the end goals of the respective journeys. Though both journeys involve encountering and understanding sin, Dante is traveling towards the depths of Hell, to Satan himself, throughout Inferno, and therefore his journey is about understanding and realizing the worst sins humanity can make. Purgatorio, on the other hand, involves a journey to Heaven, literally upwards to the heavens. While he also understand sin better, the journey is also symbolic of understanding how humanity can best atone for those sins, as those in Purgatory do, and reach a better afterlife. This difference in focus and symbolic meaning of the journeys is reflected in the physical differences.