In Purgatorio" Dante having described his journey into Hell narrates his ascent of Mount Purgatory with Virgil as he encounters penitents who toil through physical agonies starvation & flames to assuage their earthly vices. Only by learning from them can he achieve his final enlightened transition to the lost Earthly Paradise at the mountain's summit where he meets his dead love Beatrice & prepares to ascend to Heaven. Depicting a realm of intense sensation & physical experience Dante's poem transformed the traditional Christian idea of Purgatory by showing how the free will of the aspiring soul could change wordly perversions into perfection. It is a brilliantly nuanced & moving allegory of human possibility hope & redemption."