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    How to find happiness with The DIVINE COMEDY - Purgatory
    How to find happiness with The DIVINE COMEDY - Purgatory
    How to find happiness with The DIVINE COMEDY - Purgatory
    Ebook162 pages2 hours

    How to find happiness with The DIVINE COMEDY - Purgatory

    By Luisa Pinnelli

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    The second cantica is born of the belief that man can regain natural perfection, definitively abandoning his old ways and undergoing a process of self reform from a moral, psychological and intellectual point of view. In Purgatory, Dante outlines an educational path of exceptional interest and unprecedented modernity, allowing the reader himself to submit to a process of self-examination and self-improvement through the stories of the characters and the various means of remedy offered by the structure of Purgatory. Through an analysis of the text and a reconstruction of the historical and psychological make up of the individual personalities, the author accompanies the reader on this instructive journey, offering new perspectives and fresh insights into the text that can facilitate a deeper understanding of the second cantica of the Divine Comedy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLuisa Pinnelli
    Release dateJun 7, 2013
    ISBN9788868550240
    How to find happiness with The DIVINE COMEDY - Purgatory

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      Book preview

      How to find happiness with The DIVINE COMEDY - Purgatory - Luisa Pinnelli

      © Luisa Pinnelli

      Translation by Ruth Taylor

      Introduction

      In Epistle XIII, addressed to Cangrande della Scala, Dante declares that the aim of The Divine Comedy is to lift humanity from a state of misery and conduct it to a state of happiness. Inferno in fact helps us to recognise evil in all its manifestations, Purgatory shows how to correct the errors that hinder the way to natural happiness, while Paradise explains precisely what constitutes spiritual happiness. Although written seven hundred years ago, the work still contains many valuable lessons and can be of benefit to readers all over the globe. We must obviously bear in mind the historical and geographical context in which it was conceived and assume that in the twenty-first century we will not necessarily agree with all of its statements and ideological positions and, in some cases, will reject them entirely. Nevertheless, reading cum grano salis, we will be able to extract from the work much that is useful. With these analytical notebooks, the author aims to contribute to a better understanding of the meaning of the work, bringing it closer and making it more accessible to readers worldwide.

      Book Two

      How to rectify error

      Purgatory

      Introduction

      Throughout history, following a long and deep period of crisis, the desire for a moral reconstruction has often emerged, one that restores mankind to the dignity to which he belongs. At times, it seems almost necessary to touch the bottom before coming up again, as happens to Dante and Virgil, who only find the way out towards the new world once they have reached the lowest point in Hell. Of the three cantiche, Purgatory is certainly the one that best corresponds to the demands of our own times, in its pragmatism and concreteness. The decisive message we can extract from it embodies ideas that are extremely modern and is worthy of full consideration. Through Purgatory we can discover the correct mindset on which to establish a fresh basis for our own lives, the modifications we can introduce into our own ways of acting, seeing or thinking. Eventually, we will be able to comprehend what constitutes material happiness and how we can construct it. The characters in Purgatoryneatly mark the steps on the way to achieving this.

      The structure of Purgatory

      Purgatory is also composed of four parts.

      1) The first consists of cantos I-IX and describes the so-called Antepurgatory where the souls atone for their misconduct and for their delay in repenting. The various groups of souls represent fundamental flaws that prevented their behaviour from being correct and efficacious: persistence in error, excessive laziness, exaggerated display of emotion, lack of a sense of responsibility, lack of balanced judgement.

      2) The second consists of cantos X-XVII, in which the sins of Pride, Envy and Wrath are examined. The aim is to correct these sentiments in order to liberate positive will.

      3) The third part, made up of cantos XVIII-XXVI, examines the elaboration of Sloth, Avarice and Prodigality, Gluttony and Lust. The aim is to free the mind from error and to direct it towards true awareness, in order to communicate and propagate it correctly.

      4) The fourth part, comprising cantos XXVII to XXXIII, describes the arrival in Earthly Paradise and considers the natural happiness which is the reward at the end of the hard work in Purgatory. The picture emerges of man finally restored to good health.

      Part One

      The setting of Purgatory (canto I)

      The Mountain of Purgatory emerges from the sea in the Southern Hemisphere; its summit is crowned by the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve once lived in happiness, in harmony with nature and its laws. As soon as he arrives in this new environment, Dante immediately senses its beauty and great vitality: the sapphire-coloured sky, the planet Venus, and lastly the four stars never seen by human beings, with the exception of the original inhabitants of Earthly Paradise.

      Four is the number of nature: the four elements, the four parts of the day, the four seasons, the four ages of man. But in Christian ethics, four is the number of the cardinal virtues, namely Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Justice. These are the fundamental virtues of life and should be acquired as we gradually make our way through it. Unfortunately, they are not often visible, but one man, according to the ancient Latins, had succeeded in achieving absolute perfection in these and in other natural virtues. This was Cato of Utica, and not by chance is he standing at the foot of the mountain as guardian of Antepurgatory, where souls atone for the tardiness of their repentance, prior to commencing the true process of penance.

      Cato and the beginning of a new consideration (canto I)

      Cato of Utica, a contemporary of Cicero and Caesar, was a follower of the Stoic doctrine, which he interpreted in a rigorous way. During a trial, Cicero found himself before him as public prosecutor and attempted to dissuade him, mocking him for his philosophical extremism: Cato was such a disciplinarian that to him there was no difference between killing a man or a chicken! Despite this, Cicero recognised his adversary's absolute morality and his rare capacity to transform philosophy into concrete practice, rather than relegating it simply to a matter for discussion.

      During the civil war, Cato sided against Caesar in an extreme attempt to thwart the end of the Republic, but when Caesar gained the advantage, he decided to take his own life. To the Stoic, suicide constituted the ultimate proof of his incorruptibility and of his own unwavering dissent. This occurred in 46 AD and Cato soon became the symbol of absolute moral perfection, almost as if he were a god on earth. During the reign of Nero, in Bellum civile the poet Lucan represented Cato with dishevelled hair and beard, while against the background of Rome on the edge of the precipice, he took back his estranged wife Marcia, widowed following the death of her second husband Hortensius Hortalus, in a fresh, chaste marriage.

      Marcia’s three marriages (it was customary practice in Rome for noble women to marry several times, strengthening the bonds between powerful families) lent themselves to allegorical interpretation, a hermeneutical practice dear to the Stoics. In all probability Marcia’s first marriage symbolised Zeno’s Stoa, characterised by ethical rigour and the cult of virtue; her second marriage symbolised the Stoa of Panaetius, friend of Scipio Aemilianus, promoter of the idea of Rome as the incarnation of the universal Logos, champion of a moderate and eclectic stoicism; the third marriage represented the third Stoa, inaugurated by Cato to restore the former moral intransigency of Zeno. To Roman historians, Marcia could also symbolise the three phases of Rome: the austere and virtuous ancient Republic, the great power that became ruler of the world, the completely worn-out Republic that wished to refound itself on its original values.

      Reading Lucan, Dante was so struck by the figure of Cato and by Marcia’s three marriages that he presented an initial working of the theme in the fourth treatise ofConvivio, seeing Cato as the symbol of moral perfection in the various stages of life, and Marcia as the symbol of the soul, who at the end of its life cycle wishes to return definitively to God. But it is in Purgatory that an entirely innovative elaboration of Cato occurs. In canto I, he appears to Dante as an old sage, his beard parted in two, his face illuminated by the four stars, as though the sun were shining on him. In probing tones, he asks the new arrivals how they managed to escape from theeternal prison / pregione eterna: who guided them, who lit their way out from that deep night which steeps the vale of Hell in darkness / profonda notte che sempre nera fa la valle inferna? Is it possible for the damned ever to reach Purgatory? Have the rules perhaps changed? Virgil then explains that their journey originated with an event superior in nature: a woman descended from heaven and begged him to help Dante, who was still living, even though through his folly / per la sua follia he was very close to death. There was no way of saving him other than to show him the guilty race / la gente ria in Hell and now those who are purifying themselves in Purgatory. A superior virtue has authorised this.

      Virgil has been extremely thorough, but nevertheless he feels the need to add something personal, something that will tug at Cato’s ancient heartstrings: 1) Dante is seeking the very same freedom that Cato had sought through his suicide; 2) Virgil has come from Limbo, where Marcia his wife is – she still loves him and begs him to consider her still his. But the strategy fails: both the suicide and his beloved Marcia are strings that no longer play, emblems of a stoicism that Cato has outgrown in the name of a new view of the world and life. He therefore rejects Virgil’s flattery, declaring his affiliation to a new jurisdiction, that of the heavenly lady. Christianity has brought into play a fresh hope of redemption, it has opened a glimmer of faith to humanity, which seemed condemned to repeat its mistakes in eternity. Marcia’s severity has been replaced by the new compassion of Mary. On the dividing line between the two civilisations stands Cato, who sees both and is able to glimpse the qualitative leap of the Christian world animated by the optimism of faith, compared to the pagan world characterised by the pessimism of reason.

      Comprehension of Cato’s innovative choice is necessary to enter Purgatory in the right frame of mind. In fact the new learning imparted in this realm becomes possible only by believing that mankind can regain his original perfection. Dantean Cato has accepted this hypothesis and is now a step ahead of Virgil, who, despite foreseeing the anthropological-cultural change that was about to occur in the classical world, remained essentially bound to paganism's deterministic vision. A crucial phase thus commences for Virgil, who, compared to Cato, finds himself slightly wrong-footed, as we shall see in the next canto.

      Casella and the obligation not to waste time

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