Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Omberto

 In Dante's Purgatorio, purification from the sin of pride is shown in Canto XI. The poet/pilgrim sees a man carrying a great weight

...a living person would be able to climb and if I were not hindered by the stone
    that overpowers my neck for its pride

....

I am Omberto, and pride has brought injury 

not only to me but my whole family 

dragging them with it into calamity. And here I must bear this because of that 

until God is satisfied. What I would not 

do among the living I do here among the dead.

 What I would not do among the living I do here among the dead. The image is so much like Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol that I have to think Dickens is deliberately echoing it. Pay now or pay later.

The scriptures refer to sin as a weight or a burden, more often even than the image of stain.

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