17. Dantes New Guide

The last five cantos of the Purgatory are the subject of this final lecture on purgatory. These cantos bring together the personal and the political, the particular and the universal, and the personal and the theological in a way that speaks to the nature of the entire Commedia. We see the coming of Beatrice, Dantes new guide, and the disappearance of Virgil, who has been with him for all of the poem up till now. Dante admired Beatrice when she was a young woman, and he writes many of his important early love poems in her honor, collected in the Vita Nuova. But when she appears at this point in the Commedia, it is as a stern judge. Indeed, at this point in the poem, we see Dante, under her guidance, repent of his sins. Immediately after this moment of conversion, Beatrice and Dante witness two pageants that present the church in both its universal and political dimensions.