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Canto 5
Themes
and Colors
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
By promising prayers to various unshriven penitents, Dante manages to extricate himself from the crowd. Dante asks Virgil if the people’s requests are in vain, since he recalls that Virgil’s own writings suggest that prayers for the dead serve no purpose. Virgil replies that in his writing, prayer wasn’t connected to the Christian God and didn’t take into account God’s justice and love. Anyway, Dante will understand all of this after he meets Beatrice above. Hearing this, Dante is encouraged to climb more quickly.
Again, the unshriven refer to people who died without a final confession of sin. Dante refers to a passage in Virgil’s Aeneid, in which Aeneas hears a warning that prayer cannot alter the gods’ decree. It’s important to remember that Virgil predated Jesus and Christianity; he now argues that the prayer of a living Christian, motivated by love, can fulfill the demands of justice for a penitent soul in Purgatory. The brief mention of Beatrice spurs Dante to commit to the journey with greater fervor, which speaks to his deep and enduring love for her. (Beatrice was a real person in Dante’s life; they met in their youth, and Dante loved her and pined for her from afar all his life.)
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As Virgil and Dante continue the climb, they meet another familiar soul, this one silent and haughty. When Virgil asks the soul for directions, the figure questions the two about their origins; learning that Virgil comes from Mantua, the soul embraces him, identifying himself as Sordello. Dante reflects that, despite this warm brotherhood between fellow Italians, Italy is splintered by bitter infighting, and there is no one to take leadership. Justinian’s “reins” are of no avail, since “the saddle’s riderless.” “German Albert” has abandoned Italy.
Sordello was a 13th-century poet. Justinian was a 6th-century Roman emperor who codified Roman law, which Dante accuses contemporary leaders of ignoring (the “riderless” saddle). According to Dante, the recent Holy Roman Emperors have neglected Italy altogether, with Albert—murdered in 1308—being an especially egregious example. Dante hoped for stronger imperial rule to be restored in Italy.
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Dante continues his tirade, naming several rival Italian families, including the Montagues, Capulets, and others, who suffer strife due to Italy’s present disarray. He particularly denounces Florence’s continual shifts of allegiance.
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