Then in Lunar Caustic (Purgatory):
Chap 1 & 2– Bill is outside the hospital drinking, and sees many ambiguous figures (e.g., the old woman mailing a letter). This is dante arriving on the shores of purgatory (ante-purgatory). He doesn’t remember stumbling in the hospital, much as Dante falls asleep and is transported to purgatory in his sleep.
Chap 3 –8 – this is the stages of purgatory. It’s hard to connect the specifics, but there are some parts such as the occupational therapy = burden of pride; Battle the magical negro running around = zeal as an opposite of sloth; the puppet show = avarice or gluttony – they are tied down from temptation and can’t do anything, and the puppet show is their only outlet; when they fight for piano = envy;
Chap 9 – Bill talks with the doctor, and finally confronts all his faults. This is Dante walking through the wall of flame, and finally being cleansed of sin
Chap 10 – The thunderstorm. In Purgatorio, the whole island shakes when a penitent soul is completely purged and can ascend. This is when Bill learns he will really be free (and he first acknowledges the closeness and distance between Garry and the old guy). One key difference is there a passage that talks about “his hope was a false hope”.
Chap 11 – Bill is outside again, but he takes up drinking again. However, the ending, he ends up in a graffitied bar, and reminded of all the “indecency, cruelty, hideousness” of the world, he throws his bottle at the wall. This is like Dante drinking of the river Lethe – for Bill however, drinking only temporarily allows forgetting the horrors of the world. One key thing is that at the end, he is “curled up like an embryo”, which goes back to the Lethe making people innocent again.
