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In this lecture, we learn about three cantos that are at the exact structural center of the Commedia and that deal with one of its most important issues, the nature of free will. In the terrace of the wrathful, Dante encounters Marco Lombardo and they begin the discussion. Marco disparages Dante’s suggestion that the causes of our actions can be found in the stars and launches into a discussion about the nature of free will, which leads to a discussion of the nature of love. The discussion is continued over the next several cantos, with Virgil actively taking part as well. The discussion reveals how an absence of love, or misdirected love, leads to sin: In these cantos is a direct discussion of the nature of the seven deadly sins. Because love is the goal of the entire poem, a poem that ends with Dante’s encounter with the “love that moves the sun and the other stars,” these cantos are in every way central to Dante’s vision.
