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This lecture deals with Dante’s representation of the Earthly Paradise at the summit of Mount Purgatory. The quest for freedom begun under the aegis of Cato in Purgatory I reaches its denouement at the threshold of Eden, where Virgil proclaims the freedom of the pilgrim’s will (Purgatorio 27). Left with pleasure as his guide, the pilgrim nevertheless falls short of a second Adam in his encounter with Matelda. His lingering susceptibility to earthly delights is underscored at the arrival of Beatrice (Purgatorio 30) whose harsh treatment of the pilgrim is read as a retrospective gloss on the dream of the Siren in Purgatorio 19. By dramatizing his character’s failings within the Earthly Paradise, Dante replaces the paradigm of conversion as a once-for-all event with that of an ongoing process to be continued in Paradise under the guidance of Beatrice.