Previous
Canto 4
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
Dante and Virgil continue their climb up the Second Terrace. They come across a group of souls chanting the Miserere, but, noticing Dante’s shadow, the curious penitents are distracted from their prayers. They flock to him, calling out questions. They are all, the souls explain, victims of violent deaths, who died repentant but without the benefit of a final confession. These include a man named Jacopo del Cassero, another named Buonconte de Montefeltro, and a lady named La Pia. Each of them describes the circumstances of his or her death and their last-minute turning to God, and they ask for prayers to speed their time in Purgatory.
The Miserere, Psalm 51, is perhaps the best known penitential psalm (“Have mercy upon me, O God”) and is particularly assigned to the unshriven, or those who died without a final confession of sin. Interestingly, Jacopo del Cassero and Dante, both Guelphs, fought together in a military campaign in which Montefeltro, a Ghibelline, died. La Pia was a wife of a minor nobleman and was murdered by him a few years before Dante wrote the poem.
Themes
