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Canto 8
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 falls asleep and dreams of a golden eagle sweeping him into the sky. Waking, he finds that it’s morning, and that he and Virgil have been carried to the portal of Purgatory proper. A lady named Lucia carried Dante, Virgil explains, while he followed behind. The two approach a gate in Purgatory’s outer wall; before it, an angel sits on the stair, holding a blindingly bright sword. After Virgil explains that Beatrice has sent them on this journey, the angel welcomes them to enter.
On each of the three nights Dante spends in Purgatory, he has a dream. This first dream symbolizes God’s grace in carrying a person toward himself. Lucia refers to St. Lucy, who, in Dante’s Inferno, helped alert Beatrice to Dante’s sinfulness.
Themes
Virgil and Dante climb three steps—the first of marble, the second of rough stone, the third of bright-red gemstones—toward the angel. Beating his breast in a sign of penitence, Dante falls before the angel and asks to be admitted. Before letting Dante in, the angel writes seven “P”s on Dante’s brow with his sword-point. He tells Dante to wash off these scars as he travels through Purgatory. Using a set of gold and silver keys, the angel unlocks the gate. As the gate opens, Dante hears the hymn Te Deum laudamus.
The different steps symbolize three steps of penitence, according to Catholic theology: confession (admitting sin), contrition (genuine sorrow for sin), and satisfaction (the individual’s efforts to make up for sin, as well as Christ’s blood shed for it). The seven “P”s represent the seven deadly, or capital, sins that are purged on the various levels of Purgatory. The hymn has a joyous note of thanksgiving, which is a reminder that purgation is a step toward salvation.
Themes
