Redemption Dante's Inferno

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The theme of redemption in Dante's Divine Comedy is universal and is visible throughout history and different cultures. The journey is a human one. It is the passage from innocence to moral corruption, then to finding pure love through redemption. In order to understand personal redemption, Dante must first experience what happens without its attainment. The journey of eternal progression beings in Hell with the sins of lust and carnal love, then proceeds to Purgatory to identify the sins of loving self before God, and ends in Paradise after gaining an understanding that the redemption of man comes from the pure love of God. The design of the Divine Comedy is the pathway towards redemption through moral and spiritual progress in order to enter…show more content…
The second part of their journey starts as Virgil physically and symbolically washes away the sin and filth of Hell from Dante’s eyes. “And so he brought my native hue once more To light, washed clean of hell’s disfiguring smears (76; Vol. 2).” Dante distinguishes that purgatory is the place where the saved go after death to purge themselves of residual sin and prepare for Heaven. It is a place meant for temporary suffering and cleansing. As Dante moves through Purgatory he encounters souls on the fifth terrace lying face-down on the ground. This prostrate position seems a fitting punishment for their neglect of spiritual matters and excessive attachment to worldly goods during their life. “For as our eyes would never seek the height, Being bent on earthly matters, earthward thus Justice here bends them in their own despite (219, Vol. 3).” The souls work to remove their sin with weeping and praying; they cry out the instances of greed (love of self) and its opposing virtue generosity (loving others before self). As Dante proceeds, he notices that many souls condemned by their own sins of excess. He gains an understanding that all sin is a distorted attempt at love. We either love too little, we love the wrong things, or we love lesser things too much. Purgatory affords the sinner the opportunity to realign, purify, and redirect their
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