Dante and Forgiveness in Purgatorio

Is forgiveness, for Dante, the most radical form of freedom and the fullest expression of love? I believe that it is, although not precisely as some readers of Dante sometimes argue.  I have in mind in particular the overstatement of forgiveness in terms of the existentialist reading that I perceive permeates some contemporary readings of the Commedia.

One instance will be representative.  Forgiveness, writes Jo Ann Moran Cruz of Georgetown University, is “not an action of pardon done by one person toward another, but rather a transformation of the meaning of the relationship between them which at the same time transforms the identity of both. Forgiveness is a transformation of the way in which ‘all are responsible for all’.”  My disagreement is not with the “transformation of the meaning of the relationship…” aspect.  My disagreement is with what the statement denies, namely, that forgiveness does not involve “an action of pardon done by one person towards another.”  I would have said that it is both an act of pardon and one that then results in “a transformation of the meaning of the relationship.”

The same sort of extracting pardon from forgiveness is seen in psychological discussions of the subject such as that published by the Greater Good Science Center affiliated with the University of California (Berkeley).  None of the nine steps to forgiveness identified by Fred Lufkin mentions pardon, but we do find an emphasis on the self-centered nature of forgiveness, for instance, in step 2: "Make a commitment to yourself to feel better. Forgiveness is for you and no one else."  And where is the pardon in step 3?

Forgiveness does not necessarily mean reconciling with the person who upset you or condoning the action. In forgiveness you seek the peace and understanding that come from blaming people less after they offend you and taking those offenses less personally. ("Fred Luskin Explains How to Forgive," 8/24/2010)

Strictly speaking, step 3 is correct in what it says about not necessarily reconciling (if this means returning to the exact former relational state) with the person who upset you, and it does not mean that you condone the action, but the sought-for peace comes through some form of interpersonal reconciliation.  Forgiveness bridges in some measure the relational breach. You might not be best buddies (again) with the offender, but you will only gain peace through blaming less -- or, what is more ambitious and loving, blaming no longer! -- by pardoning the offender.  In that way, your relationship to the person is transformed.

How do we see this dual aspect of forgiveness -- both personal pardon and relational transformation -- appear in Dante?  Consider the Purgatorio. It is only because God, through Beatrice who represents Christ in the poem, forgives Dante for his sins that their relationship is transformed.

Beatrice and the penitent Dante

It is only, in other words, because Dante is eventually in a position to receive pardon by coming to greater realization about love (see canti 17-18), and about his lack of love and responsibility to others including Beatrice, that he will eventually repent of his failure to fulfill his promise to her, among other things, and resolve to change.  Their relationship changes only as Dante climbs the mountain, as the letters of sins/vices on his forehead are removed, for it is then that he finds himself free to alter his relationship to Beatrice and the meaning of their relationship.  The weight of his sin, which needs to be removed through forgiveness, blinds him to the better way.  And so only through confrontation and forgiveness with Beatrice is their relationship transformed.

To deny the act and necessity of pardon in forgiveness is to vitiate the heart of what for Dante, if not always for his existentialist interpretive heirs, is the good news, the gospel, of God’s grace in Christ.  Personal and relational transformation happens in the Purgatorio only once someone realizes his need for pardon and receives that gracious act from another who, because wronged, is not obligated to grant it.  Dante has reached that point of recognized need:

I lowered my eyes to the clear water.
But when I saw myself reflected, I drew them back
toward the grass, such shame weighed on my brow.
   (Purg., 30.76-79; Hollander trans.)

What else but personal and relational transformation is unfolding in Purgatorio 30 just after Dante encounters Beatrice, who narrates their history to this point?

124  'Once I had reached the threshold of my second age,
          when I changed lives, he took himself from me
          and gave himself to others.
127  'When I had risen to spirit from my flesh,
          as beauty and virtue in me became more rich,
          to him I was less dear and less than pleasing.
130   'He set his steps upon an untrue way,
          pursuing those false images of good
          that bring no promise to fulfillment--
133   'useless the inspiration I sought and won for him,
          as both with dreams and other means
          I called him back, so little did he heed them.
136   'He sank so low that every instrument
          for his salvation now fell short
          except to make him see souls in perdition.
139   'And so I visited the threshold of the dead
          and, weeping, offered up my prayers
          to the one who has conducted him this far.
142   'Broken would be the high decree of God
          should Lethe be crossed and its sustenance
          be tasted without payment of some fee:
145   his penitence that shows itself in tears.'
         (Purg., 30.124-145; Hollander trans.)

But that "high decree of God" is not broken because Dante, as Beatrice notes, has shown "in tears" his penitence for his personal transgression of their relationship, his promises to her, and pursuit of "false images of good / that bring no promise to fulfillment." Moreover, Beatrice, though hurt by Dante's wanderings, intercedes for him. She demonstrates her constancy and her hope for a better future.

The River Lethe (i.e., River of Forgetfulness) is one of the two rivers that penitents must cross in Purgatorio. Crossing it is to lose recollection of the past waywardness, which is, roughly speaking, a sort of covering over the wrong. It is, however, incomplete. It is not itself positive movement toward the right. Still, it is part of proper penitence, which Beatrice says is necessary for Dante, tearfully, to undergo.

Consider the transformative power of the River Lethe: 

To that I answered: 'As far as I remember
I have not ever estranged myself from You,
nor does my conscience prick me for it.'

'But if you cannot remember that,'
she answered, smiling, 'only recollect
how you have drunk today of Lethe,

'and if from seeing smoke we argue there is fire
then this forgetfulness would clearly prove
your faulty will had been directed elsewhere.
   (Purg., 33.91-96; Hollander trans.)

Beatrice guiding Dante through the River Lethe

That Dante is permitted to pass through the River Lethe indicates that he has, as we saw above, is demonstrating repentance, which is bivalent, just like the two rivers:  a turning from and a turning to.  To turn from (the forgetfulness) implies that his will has already begun to turn to those things that confirm, rather than prick, conscience.  Personal estrangement has given way to personal reconciliation through pardon.

That transformative power, the freedom from fear and shame that comes in 33.31-33, the reception of a new mind from the River Eunoe (33.127) -- which is to say one’s being remade (33.142ff.) -- all point to the ridding of sin through pardon and the reception of the fullness of life in pursuit of righteousness in right relationship with others as a result.

That there are two rivers, Lethe and Eunoe, signals to all of us, in whatever situation we may be, that we do carry fear and shame and guilt, which need removal. The personal dialogue between Beatrice and Dante reflects the personal offense that requires personal mending, precisely an act of pardon by one person to another. Once Dante feels conviction for his wrongdoing, his mind is overcome by his neglect of the good even as he wishes in the future to do the good. Beatrice provides what Dante needs. Pardon and passing through Lethe help to remove from his mind the painful offenses committed and prepare for positive pursuits -- his embracing a new mind, a “good mind” (Eunoe), as a consequence. This, Dante suggests, is true for all of us, every one. Personal transformation through forgiveness comes because forgiveness, despite contemporary contentions to the contrary, involves the act of pardon.