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Canto 3
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
From this first terrace of Purgatory, Dante and Virgil follow the excommunicated souls and climb up a steep, narrow passage. After scrambling on hands and knees, they sit on the second terrace to rest and overlook the path they’ve traveled. Virgil explains to Dante that because they’re in the Southern Hemisphere, they see the sun in the North. On the other side of a rock, they discover a group of penitents sprawled lazily. Among them Dante recognizes an old friend, Belacqua. Belacqua explains that, before he’s allowed to ascend the mountain higher, he must remain here for the length of his earthly life—he’d delayed repentance until his deathbed.
Belacqua was a friend of Dante’s from Florence, known both for his wit and his laziness. On this second terrace of Purgatory, Dante finds those, like Belacqua, who remained within the Church’s fold but who nevertheless delayed repentance for their sins until the last possible moment of life—in this case, out of sheer laziness and procrastination. They’re now forced to remain idle for the length of time they initially delayed.
Themes
