Purgation In Dante Alighieri's Purgatorio

In Dante Alighieri’s “Purgatorio” from his epic poem The Divine Comedy, sinners on the terrace of lust walk through a wall of fire to purge their sin. Dante’s symbolic use of fire is appropriate to curing their human imperfections as it represents the wild and irrational tempest that they displayed towards others while they were alive. Now, the lustful have the opportunity to feel the bite that they inflicted. Furthermore, Dante’s method of purgation relates to Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and the idea that happiness is achieved through intellectual activity. The lustful have confused their reason for desire and must find the proper way back to the embodiment of humanity. Dante describes one of the sinners who “hid himself in the fire that
One hides when one is fearful. Yet in this instance, Dante implies that concealing oneself is the way to reveal oneself. Whereas “hiding” was once cowardly, it has now become courageous. In truth, when they were alive, the lustful demonstrated deceit through their burning desires. Now, as they hope to ascend to heaven, they learn the symbolic benefits of converting their earthly lascivious behavior to one of “refined” intellect, calming the storm of their bodies, which relates to Aristotle’s conception of what it means to be happy. In his Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle states, “Contemplation is the highest form of activity…” For Aristotle, as well as subsequent scholars like Saint Augustine, happiness exists “for its own sake.” Happiness is not an intermediary step towards something else. One does not choose happiness as a means to a more exalted state. Aristotle argues that every human action is directed toward happiness. Dante’s lustful sinners have distorted what it means to be happy by assuming that they will attain it through the pleasures of the flesh. They seek external means, like other deadly sins of excessive love such as gluttony and avarice, for a false sense of