Discussion Questions

Cato refuses Virgil the request in Marcia's name and yields to the name of the lady of heaven. What does the text show, in that exchange, about what can and cannot move the guardian of the mountain?

Cato interrupts Casella's song and sends the souls running to the mountain. What, in what has just happened, does the text give as the reason for his haste, and what does it give as the reason for their delay?

Manfred says that infinite goodness has arms so great that it takes in what turns to it, and soon imposes on whoever dies in contumacy of the Church a wait thirty times longer than the presumption. How does the canto reconcile the two things?

Virgil says that the mountain weighs at the start and eases as one climbs, and Belacqua says that heaven must turn outside as much as his delay lasted in life. What relation do the two lines establish between effort and time?

The three who speak to Dante ask for remembrance or prayer, and none asks for vengeance against whoever killed him. What do the words of each one (Fano, Giovanna, "salsi colui") show about what they still depend on from the living?

Dante accuses the Church, the emperor and Florence in the same invective, and opens it with the embrace of two Mantuans who never saw each other. What does the embrace of Sordello and Virgil show, in the canto, of what Italy lacks?

Virgil says he lost heaven "not by doing, but by not doing," and Sordello points out in Rudolf someone who seemed to have neglected what he should have done. What do the two speeches have in common, and where does the canto distinguish them?

Dante says he did not see how the angels moved, but saw one and the other in motion, and the serpent flees on hearing the air split by their wings. What does the poet choose to show, and what does he choose to confess not having seen, and what effect does that have on the scene?

Dante crosses the last stretch asleep and learns of it only from Virgil's mouth. What, at the arrival at the gate, depends on him and what does not?

The angel says that whoever looks back goes back out, and the gate that has just opened creaks louder than the treasure of Rome when it was broken into. Why does the poem tie the rule to the noise, instead of giving it in silence?

The canto shows humility in three images, that of the Virgin, that of David, and that of Trajan. What does each one ask of the one who looks at it, and what changes when the figure seen is a woman, a king, and an emperor?

The poet tells the reader not to look at the form of the martyrdom, but at what comes after. What relation does the canto set up between seeing the pain and understanding the debt?

Omberto and Oderisi confess the same pride, one through lineage and the other through art. In what way does each confession resemble the other and in what way does it differ, and what does that show about what each has lost?

Provenzano is spared the wait by an act of shame, not by a lasting virtue. What does the poem ask of one who repents, and who decides that the act is enough?

Virgil tells Dante to look at the floor as a remedy and, when the angel arrives, upward. What relation does the canto set up between seeing what pride did to others and being able to climb light?

The envious have their eyes sewn shut, and Dante feels himself an offender for seeing them without being seen. What does the poem mean the reader to understand about envy from this discomfort of the one who looks?

Sapia says she was not wise although called Sapia, and that she was happier with another's harm than with her own fortune. What part of envy does she acknowledge in this confession, and what part does the poem leave unsaid?

Guido del Duca says of himself that his blood burned with envy, and then names, with pain, the lords who were lost in Romagna. What connection does the canto make between envying the good of another and mourning a good that was lost?

Dante keeps his own name silent before Guido and Rinier. What, in the canto, makes this silence an answer, and what does he leave unsaid?

Virgil says that divine good grows the more it is shared, and that envy supposes the opposite. Which scene in canto XIII or XIV shows best what envy thinks of good, and how do the image of the ray and of the mirror refute it?

The three visions of gentleness show a mother who rebukes her son, a lord who refuses to avenge his daughter, and a youth who pardons his killers. How does the scene of the youth differ from the other two, and what does it ask of one who feels wrath?

Marco concedes that heaven begins the movements, but denies that it determines them. What consequence does the canto draw from this distinction for the justice of rewarding good and punishing evil?

Marco places the cause of the lost world in those who govern, not in the corrupted nature of each one. What does this change in Dante's question about human guilt, and what remains in each one's charge?

Virgil answers the question about the offense of that ledge with the definition of a love, not with a sin. What changes in the idea of guilt, and in what is expected of one who purges it, when every vice is love that has gone astray?

Virgil declares that natural love never errs and that the love of the mind can err in three ways. How does the canto relate the possibility of erring to that of deserving?

Dante objects that if love comes from outside and the soul walks only with that foot, there is no merit in walking straight or crooked. How does Virgil's answer distinguish what is received without choice from what can be retained?

Virgil says he answers as far as reason sees and that the rest awaits Beatrice, because it is a work of faith. What does the poem gain by placing this limit in the mouth of the pagan guide?

Dante dreams of a woman whose gaze turns her from monster to siren, and Virgil bids him look at the lure that God turns. What does the poem say of desire in giving the same gaze both the power to adorn and the power to be redirected?

Adrian says that only on reaching the summit of power did he discover the lying life, and that then the love of the other life was kindled in him. What does the canto suggest about the time of conversion and about the penalty that accompanies it?

Hugh Capet speaks as the root of an evil plant and asks for vengeance against his own house. What effect does it have on the reader to hear the denunciation of the avarice of the kings of France from the mouth of their founder?

The earthquake frightens Dante like death and is compared to the trembling of Delos before Latona's birth. What does the canto gain by showing fear before joy, and cause before explanation?

At the beginning of the canto, Dante's thirst is a natural thirst that only one water satisfies, and Statius explains the trembling by the free will of a soul. How does the canto tie one soul's will to the festival of the whole mountain?

Statius says he would accept one more sun of purgation for having lived in Virgil's time, without knowing that he has him beside him. What do Dante's laughter and Virgil's gesture say about what each of them can and cannot keep silent?

Virgil supposes that Statius was avaricious, and Statius explains that he was prodigal and then a secret Christian. What relationship does the canto establish between the two sins that held him on the mountain and what Virgil supposed?

Statius compares Virgil to someone who walks at night with a lantern behind, which does not light himself and lights those who come after. What does this image say about the pagan guide, and about what the poem has already reserved for him, spoken by one who owes him his faith?

Forese says that the pain he suffers is consolation, because the will that leads them to the trees is the one that led Christ to say Eli. How does the canto connect the pain of purgation to the will of the one who suffers it?

Dante recognizes Forese only by his voice, and Forese attributes the speed of his ascent to Nella's weeping. What does the canto suggest about what is recognized in someone once the appearance is lost, and about what a person owes to the one who stayed behind on their behalf?

Bonagiunta murmurs Gentucca's name before speaking plainly and, after hearing Dante, acknowledges the limit of his style and that of his companions. What does the canto suggest about who can name what separates two ways of writing?

The tree the souls see does not answer their pleas and stays in view, and the voice among the boughs shows its origin in the wood that Eve bit. What function does desire kept in view have, in the way the poem treats gluttony?

Dante asks how one grows thin where there is no need of nourishment, and Statius's answer passes through the generation of the body, the coming of the intellect, and the air body of the shade. What does the explanation say about what the soul keeps after death, and why is it Statius who answers and not Virgil?

Statius says that the shade figures itself according to the desires and affections that afflict it. What does the poem gain by showing desire in the form of the body, here in thinness and fire?

The shades that cross cry out, each band, the example of its own sin, and the one who speaks to Dante says that this is done in dishonor of them. What does the cry add to the fire, and what does it say about the relation of the two bands to their own sin?

Guinizelli points to another poet as the better craftsman of the mother tongue and criticizes those who judge by fame. What criterion for judging poetry is at stake, and how does it apply to the encounter between Dante and the poet he calls father?

Dante does not draw near Guinizelli because of the fire, but offers himself for his service. What can Dante give to one who is on the other side of the flames, and what does Guinizelli ask in exchange?

Virgil tries to persuade Dante to enter the fire with three arguments and fails. What are the three, and why does only Beatrice's name move him?

The dream of Leah and Rachel comes right after the wall of fire. What does each sister say she wants, and what connection does the canto suggest with the garden Dante is about to find?

Virgil says that he crowns and mitres Dante over himself, and that his free choice is free, upright and sound. What does he hand over to Dante, and what does he admit he cannot give?

Dante compares the woman on the other side of the river to Proserpina, at the time her mother lost her and she the spring. What does the myth bring to the scene of Eden?

Matelda says that the supreme Good gave this place to man as a pledge of eternal peace, and that man, through his own fault, traded honest laughter for weeping. What relationship does the poem establish, in this explanation, between the fall and the place where Dante stands?

Virgil and Statius hear with laughter the corollary about the ancient poets who dreamed of this place. What does the laughter of the two suggest about what they know and what they do not?

Dante rebukes the boldness of Eve and says that, had she endured the veil, he would have felt these delights earlier and for longer. What relationship does the pilgrim establish between Eve's fault and his own path?

The poet asks the Muses for help on the ground that he has suffered hunger, cold and vigils for them. What does this condition say about how he thinks of the relation between the poet's effort and the help he receives?

Matelda rebukes Dante for looking only at the lights and not seeing what comes behind them. What lesson in reading does the rebuke give to one who faces a set of signs?

Dante turns to tell Virgil that he recognizes the signs of the ancient flame and finds the place empty. What does the poem gain by showing Virgil's loss at the moment Beatrice appears, and not before?

Beatrice calls Dante by name to tell him that he must not yet weep for Virgil, and that there is another sword for which to weep. What does that opening say about what she expects from him?

Beatrice speaks of Dante in the third person to the angels before speaking to him. What effect does the poet obtain by putting the accusation in the form of an account to third parties?

Beatrice demands that Dante confess and says that, in her court, the wheel turns against the thread when the accusation comes from one's own face. Why is confession aloud part of purification?

Beatrice says that the greatest pleasure Dante knew was her body, and that, once it was lost, nothing mortal should attract him. What kind of argument is this, and what does it presuppose about the relation between love and desire?

In Beatrice's eyes the griffin appears now one way, now another, while in itself it stays motionless. What does Dante see, and why does the poet address the reader at this point?

Beatrice promises Dante that he will be a citizen of the Rome of which Christ is Roman, and at once orders him to write what he sees of the chariot. What relationship does the poem establish between the promised citizenship and the task of writing?

The narrator says that he does not know how to describe sleep and leaves to whoever wishes the task of feigning sleep well. What does this excuse show about the limits of what he can tell, and how does it sit with the order to write what he has seen?

The chariot is attacked by an eagle, a fox and a dragon, and ends covered with feathers and transformed into a monster. What changes in the chariot with each attack, and what does the poet let the reader see without naming?

Beatrice tells Dante to let go of fear and shame, to write without hiding what he has seen, and warns that her narration is dark, like those of Themis and the Sphinx. What relationship does the canto establish between obscurity and testimony?

Beatrice argues that, if Dante does not remember having strayed from her, it is because he drank from Lethe, and that forgetting proves the fault. In what sense is the remedy also proof?

The poet ends the canticle because the pages are full and the bridle of art does not let him go further. What role does the formal limit play in the final image of Dante renewed?

An old pagan, whom tradition takes for Cato and for a suicide, guards the mountain (canto I); an excommunicate is saved by a repentance at the last hour (canto III); and a pagan emperor, whom legend says was freed by the prayer of a pope, appears as an example of humility (canto X). Does Purgatory have a criterion that the reader can formulate, or do the cases show that the poem grants itself a freedom it does not explain?

Manfred says that the wait of one who dies excommunicate is thirty times the time of presumption, unless good prayers shorten it (canto III); Belacqua gives the rule for those who postponed repentance (the heaven turns outside as long as life lasted) (canto IV); and Virgil, asked whether prayer bends the decree of heaven, answers that the fire of love fulfills in an instant what satisfaction asked (canto VI). What does the prayer of the living change, and what does it leave in its place?

Virgil teaches that every act is born of love (canto XVII), and Dante objects that, if love comes from outside, there is no merit or fault; the answer is the power to hold back love (canto XVIII). A canto earlier, Marco Lombardo places the cause of evil in free man and in bad government (canto XVI). How much of the fault falls to each one, and how much to the one who governs?

Statius says that only after five hundred years did he feel the free will of a better threshold, and that this makes the mountain tremble (canto XXI); Forese calls consolation the pain that is the will which led Christ to say Eli (canto XXIII). If pain is a willing, in what sense is it still pain?

Bonagiunta recognizes, in Dante's answer, the knot that held him (canto XXIV), and Guinizelli, whom Dante calls father, passes the praise to Arnaut, who answers in Provençal (canto XXVI). What does the poem gain by placing the poets who preceded him in hunger and fire, speaking of their own craft?

Virgil says that he lost heaven "not by doing, but by not doing" (canto VII), gives Dante the "free, upright and sound" will in his last speech (canto XXVII) and, in canto XXX, is no longer there. What does he hand over to Dante, and what does the poem stop giving him?

Matelda explains Eden, the river and the two waters (canto XXVIII), rebukes Dante for looking only at the lights (canto XXIX), plunges him into Lethe (canto XXXI) and only in the last canto receives her name (canto XXXIII). What does the poem let us see of her function without saying who she is?

Beatrice calls Dante by name to tell him not to weep yet for Virgil (canto XXX), makes him confess (canto XXXI) and uses the forgetting of Lethe as proof of guilt (canto XXXIII). Why does purification pass through an accusation spoken aloud, and what does the ice of the heart, which melts only when the angels take pity on it (canto XXX), say about what the accusation can and cannot do?