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Canto 29
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Purgatorio, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Purgatory and the Heavenward Journey
Love, Sin, and God
Free Will
Spiritual Power vs. Earthly Power
Time
Summary
Analysis
The procession stops, and the people face the chariot. Above the chariot, 100 angels sing, “Blessed art thou who comest,” as well as a line from Virgil’s Aeneid: “With full hands give lilies.” As flowers drift around the chariot from the angels’ hands, a white-veiled lady in a green robe and red dress appears. Dante, sensing “the ancient power of what love was,” begins to tremble and instinctively turns toward Virgil—but Virgil is not there.
For Dante, Beatrice stands for the specific woman he loved in Florence, as well as for the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist, in which Christ himself is present (hence the phrases “the ancient power of what love was,” and the “blessed art thou” which, in the Bible, heralds Christ). In other words, Dante’s romantic longing for Beatrice is, at the same time, a desire for the fullest divine love. Throughout his journey, Dante has always looked to Virgil for guidance and assurance, but now, he is left alone, overpowered, in Beatrice’s presence.
Themes
A voice reproves Dante for weeping at Virgil’s absence. At the sound of his name, Dante turns and sees Beatrice, still veiled, looking sternly at him. All are happy here, she tells him—what right did Dante have to climb this mountain and weep? Dante looks shamefacedly at the ground and, at the sound of the angels’ pitying song, bursts into fresh tears.
In keeping with Dante’s immersion in the poetic courtly love tradition, Dante occupies a humble, subservient role relative to the object of his romantic longing. This also fits with Dante’s arrival on the threshold of God’s presence—in the face of pure love, he is fully penitent for the first time.
Themes
Beatrice addresses the angels above, explaining that Dante’s grief and guilt for his sin are fully surfacing at last. In her youth, she says, she led Dante along with her on the road to truth, but after she died, Dante lost his way, following “images of failing good” instead. Beatrice prayed for him, to no effect. Seeing that nothing else would suffice to save him, Beatrice begged that God would allow Dante to travel through the afterlife and see what becomes of those who die in sin.
