After Beatrice, Mary is probably the most important female character in Dante's Comedy. Mary's symbolism in relation to the souls in purgatory appears relatively simple at first glance: her examples of virtue both rebuke penitent sinners for their sins and encourage them in their purgation. However, Mary's exact nature is more complex as she is presented as both divine and human, and the juxtaposition of her two natures gives her a multifaceted relationship with souls and with Dante. She is both the example of human perfection and feminine perfection, the divine mother of Christ and the spouse of the Holy Spirit. , and finally a bodily mother not only for Christ but for all of us. As Marianne Shapiro points out in Earthly and Divine Woman in Dante's Comedy, Mary is presented above all as the incarnation of a good mother who satisfies everyone's needs. her child, including her spiritual appetites. As a good mother, Mary leads a pilgrim, who is her “spiritual child”, towards good, towards the father of the child, towards God (Shapiro 119). Say no to plagiarism. wrote an essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get original essay Referenced throughout Purgatory, the Virgin Mary is a much more palpable presence in the second realm of the afterlife than in the first. In Inferno, Mary is only mentioned once when Virgil tells Dante that it was Mary who originally took pity on Dante and willed his journey through the three kingdoms: "To heaven, there is a gentle lady - one/who cries because of the distress to which I send you" (Inf. II, 94-5). Thus, the importance of Mary in Dante's journey is thereby underlined that she is the one who initiated it However, her name is never explicitly spoken in Hell, just as Christ's name is never spoken either, as the mention of their holy names would be inappropriate in Hell. hell However, Mary's name is directly spoken throughout purgatory, often by the souls undergoing their purgation when they offer prayers to her or when they express examples of virtue to her. Hence the mention of the name. of Mary by the souls is appropriate because it helps them in the absolution of their sins, which is the goal of all souls in purgatory. While Mary's seven virtues are cataloged at each stage of purgatory, only two of her virtues—her humility depicted in a statue in canto 10 and her meekness visualized by Dante in a vision in canto 15—are not vocalized in any way. . Additionally, the fact that Mary is often directly cited in the Purgatory scriptures presents her as a more physical being than she was in Inferno, and references to her throughout Purgatory foreshadow her actual appearance in Paradiso. divine status in Dante's Purgatory because Marian worship became increasingly important to Catholic theology and piety in the 12th and 13th centuries. Hilda Graef points out that popular devotion to Mary around the 12th century gave rise to new hymns, such as the "Salve Regina", as well as new prayers, such as the "Hail Mary", around the same time (Graef 229-230). “Salve Regina” expresses man's confidence in Mary's power as advocate with God as she serves as mediator between man and Christ. Furthermore, “Hail Mary” presents Mary as the incarnation of the virtuous woman because she is the mother of Christ: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with them, blessed are you among the women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. , because you have conceived the Redeemer of our souls” (Graef 230). The presentation ofMary in Purgatory by Dante can therefore be linked to these two liturgies. In song 7, the souls of Ante-Purgatory sing “Salve, Regina”, a hymn addressed to the Virgin Mary, asking for her pity. In song 3, Envy also cries: “Mary, pray for us” (50). In canto 5, Buonconte da Montefeltro dies just after having “finished speaking the name of Mary” and is saved (101). Therefore, Steven Botterill states, “Throughout Purgatory, Mary is seen as intimately and actively concerned with the work of salvation in the individual human soul” (Botterill 156). However, Mary is most clearly defined in purgatory by her virtuous nature and human perfection, which are highlighted by seven scenes from her life that illustrate her seven virtues. Mary's virtues are used to rebuke penitent sinners and encourage them in their purgation as well as to provide for their needs. corrective examples of how others on earth should live. The seven virtues of Mary - humility, charity, gentleness, zeal, poverty, temperance and chastity - counteract the seven deadly sins of pride, envy, anger, laziness, avarice, gluttony and lust . and his divinity contrasts with human frailty. Several scholars, including Steven Botterill, suggest that Dante may have borrowed from earlier examples, such as Conrad of Saxon's Speculum Beatae Maria Virginis, in order to present the Virgin Mary as an example of the seven virtues (Botterill 157). As the first presentation of her seven virtues, the Annunciation illustrates Mary's humility through her humble acceptance of becoming the mother of Christ (Purg. 10, 43-5). Then, the wedding at Cana illustrates her generosity through her attention and consideration towards others when she points out to Christ that the guests have no wine (Purg. 13, 28-30). Then, Mary's reaction to finding Christ in a temple illustrates her gentle meekness because she does not choose to scold her son as a reproachful mother would do (Purg. 15, 85-93). Mary's haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth after Gabriel spoke to her further illustrates her zeal (Purg.15, 100). Then, the birth of Christ by Mary in a stable demonstrates her acceptance of poverty (Purg. 20, 19-24). Next, the wedding at Cana is mentioned again to illustrate her temperance because she was only interested in the actual ceremony of the wedding feast, rather than in her own appetite (Purg. 22, 142-4). Finally, the Annunciation is also referenced again to describe Mary's chastity because she conceived Christ while still a virgin. Marianne Shapiro points out that the divine Mary offers a contrast not only with human imperfection but also more specifically with feminine imperfection noting that Mary's imperfect virtues are often followed by contrasting vices of other women (Shapiro 39 ). For example, the example of Mary's humility at the Annunciation is immediately followed by the image of the humility of King David before the ark of God and the arrogance of his wife Michal: "Michal looked like a woman full of contempt and suffering” (Purg. 10, 68-9). ). Therefore, Shapiro states that "the image of Saul's haughty daughter contrasts sharply with that of Mary's humility in accepting God's will" (Shapiro 39). Furthermore, Shapiro also notes that Mary's meekness when she finds Christ in the temple among the doctors is again immediately followed by another portrait of a wife's arrogance when Pisistratus's wife says, " Take revenge on the presumptuous arms that have embraced our daughter, O Pisistratus" (Purg. 15, 100-101). However, Shapiro could have provided other examples of how Mary's virtues contrast with the sins of others women of the same circleof Purgatory, even if they do not follow one another immediately. In canto 13, Mary's generosity at the Wedding at Cana contrasts with the envy of Sapia, the first exemplary soul of Envy that Dante encounters. The image of Mary's temperance at the Wedding at Cana in canto 22 also stands out greatly from the vivid image of Mary of Jerusalem's horrific cannibalism, which follows shortly thereafter in the next canto (Purg. 23, 28). . Finally, the chastity of Mary at the Annunciation in canto 25 is immediately reinforced by the chastity of Diana but contrasted by the lasciviousness of Venus, or “the poison of Venus” (Purg. 25, 132). In fact, Mary's virtues are often the only examples of feminine virtues that are presented in the series of goads on each terrace of purgatory, reinforcing the idea that Mary exists not only as an example of general human perfection but also as an example of feminine perfection. In Songs 10, 13, 15, 18 and 20, Mary's virtues are reinforced only by masculine virtues, which come from saints, biblical figures like David, classical figures like Orestes and powerful ancient leaders like Caesar. Only the last two examples of Mary's virtues, her temperance and her chastity, are reinforced by examples of other women's virtues, perhaps because Dante believed that women embodied these virtues better than men. However, Mary's temperance is reinforced by the general female population of ancient Rome while her chastity is reinforced by the mythological Diana, so that Mary provides the only particular, mortal female example of virtue in the goad system of purgatory . While Dante may have taken particular scenes from The Life of Mary to represent her virtues because he knew and associated with certain scenes from Mary's life better than others, he may also have taken certain scenes from the life of Mary in order to further involve certain theological questions or themes related to Mary or Christ. As Hilda Graef references in Mary: a History of Doctrine and Devotion, the idea of ​​Mary's Immaculate Conception became a deep theological debate in the 12th and 13th centuries, and Thomas Aquinas's rejection of the Immaculate Conception was well known (Graef 250, 279). Thus, Dante may have presented the Annunciation of Mary twice in order to emphasize his own belief and acceptance of the idea of ​​the Immaculate Conception. The wedding at Cana is also referenced twice in Mary's catalog of virtues, so the scene also seems to suggest an important symbolic episode. When Mary tells Jesus that the wedding hostesses have no wine, Christ performs his first miracle when he turns water from a well into wine. Christopher Kleinhenz notes that Christ's miracle of changing water into wine is well suited to Purgatory because the miracle has deeper theological implications: In the exegetical tradition, the miracle of changing water into wine is interpreted as a sign of Jesus' conversion of men from the ways of vice to those of virtue. This essential idea of ​​transformation and renewal has here its precise and immediate correlative in Purgatory: it is a fair and effective description of the process of purgation which occurs on each terrace of the Mountain. Thus, in addition to its primary function – signaling the virtue of charity – the quotation “Vinum non habentâ” serves to introduce the broader context of the biblical passage and its interpretive tradition, which further enriches our understanding of the episode in the poem of Dante (78). However, Christ's miracle at Cana also refers to the Last Supper where Christ transforms the wine into his blood, which is reinforced by the fact that the climb of the Mountain also takes place during the weekendEaster. Thus, Mary's virtues also seem to recall more important episodes from the Bible. While Mary's virtues always provide the first example of the sin-contrary virtue punished at the beginning of each purgatory terrace, scenes from Mary's life are not presented. entirely in a unified or chronological manner. In fact, although she is always referenced, Mary's name is not always provided by Dante. While her name is explicitly stated in songs 10, 18, 20 and 22, Mary's name is not provided in songs 13, 15 and 25. However, Mary is instead mentioned in songs 13, 15 and 25 by the fact that it is cited through passages taken directly from the Bible. Presentations of Mary's virtues also vary in length. For example, canto 13 summarizes Mary's virtue of generosity in a single verse: “Vinum non habent” (29). On the other hand, canto 15 offers a longer presentation of Mary's sweetness: There, it seemed to me, suddenly, to be caught up in an ecstatic vision and to see certain people in a temple; and a woman, just on the threshold, with the gentleness of a mother, said: “O my son, why have you done this to us? You see how sad we looked for you, your father and I. And in that moment, as she stood still, what had appeared at the beginning disappeared. Canto 15 also departs from other presentations of Mary, perhaps because it contextually reinforces her gentleness by the fact that her name is not mentioned as well as by the fact that she speaks in Italian, rather than in Latin as it does in other cantos: canto 10 (“Ecce ancilla Dei”), canto 13 (“Vinum non habent”) and canto 25 (“Virum non cognosco”). all the scenes from Mary's life not only distill the essence of her human perfection but also present her, above all, as a mother. After all, the references to Mary's Annunciation in cantos 10 and 25, to her haste to tell Elizabeth that she is pregnant in canto 18, to her birth of Christ in canto 20, and to her words to Christ in the temple in canto 15 and, later, at the wedding at Cana in cantos 13 and 22, all refer to Mary in relation to Christ. Mary is therefore defined by her status as mother while few women in Hell or Purgatory, on the other hand, seem defined by their motherhood. As a mother, Mary is therefore presented not only as a divine being, but also as a physical and mortal being who possesses a maternal body. In Dante and the Mystical Tradition, Steven Botterill notes: “The Mary of Purgatory is a living being, seen constantly in action, literally an embodiment of the virtues, not simply an ethereal or impossibly idealized perfection” (Botterill 157). Botterill points out that Dante's language frequently uses verbs of physical action and concrete images to present Mary "in terms of physical action or human situation," emphasizing the fact that "Mary is always human" (Botterill 158). Through Dante's physical language, Marie runs ("Corsican"), has a "grembo" and a "bocca" and even (at least in Paradiso) "fatta...pregna" (Botterill, 157). Additionally, Mary is presented as a physical being because she often speaks in purgatory, or at least is quoted directly from the biblical text. However, perhaps the most physical presentation of Mary evokes the image of her childbirth when a shadow cries out in Purgatory 20, “Sweet Mary,” as a woman would in the pains of childbirth. And he continues: In this inn where you placed your holy burden, we can discover how poor you were (20-24). Furthermore, Botterill notes that Mary is often featured in human actions. In canto 10, she “turns the key that had unlocked/the highest love” by becoming the mother of Christ (42-43)., 1975.