Post date: Apr 27, 2014 2:28:41 AM
Dante and God’s generous acceptance of mortal sinners into Purgatory frustrates me. Previously I have read Goethe’s Faust, in which the character Faust makes a deal with the devil, making the devil at Faust’s command during his life, and ensuring Faust to serve the devil in death. At the very end, after willingly committing several sins, Faust is saved on his deathbed for asking for forgiveness. This story is directly connected with Dante’s Ante-Purgatory where, like many of the other murderers and people in Ante-Purgatory, those who deal directly with the devil and sin can be saved. Why should one be ensured salvation just by, at the last moment, changing their mind? Are the motivations of those who ask for repentance in death as virtuous and accountable as those who repent in life?
It seems as though those who repent at death do so more out of fear than out of a genuine desire for forgiveness. At first glance, the extent of God’s forgiveness is unfathomable. However, when you consider the thorough cleansing of Purgatory, God’s forgiveness appears to be more reasonable. Had God simply accepted all of those who repent directly into Heaven, then Heaven would surely be stained by the lack of justice and virtue in those accepted. Either way, God allowing the late repenters an ensured place in Heaven is overly generous. Dante uses his portrayal of the vast generosity and love of God to his advantage here. Surely Dante uses this in addition with his selection of terrible sinners accepted into Purgatory to maximize the shock and drama of his play. By choosing well known sinners in Italy, Dante is not only stunning the readers, but uniting them with their common knowledge of horrifying news.
Dante also makes it very clear which sins are taken the most seriously. Since the Inferno he has made it very explicit that each sinner will pay penance for their sins in the eyes of God, not the eyes of his fellow people. Dante knows this all too well, for as he has sinned in the eyes of God, Dante has also been excommunicated and reprimanded by the church and Government. While writing the Divine Comedy, Dante is in exile and excommunicated, never able to return again to his home in Florence. While Dante is being punished by his fellow Italians, Dante is not being punished by God, rather, Dante is being saved. When looking at the Ante-Purgatory, despite the inner conflict Dante must have had when writing, one will see that all of those there simply must be there. Besides, waiting outside the gates, knowing that eventually your day will come, is a small price to pay for Heaven.