Their journey or their "actions" show their dedication and their love of God. Another critic notes, "At the summit of the mountain lies a kind of justice which is a goal for Dante, the wayfarer" (Bloom 25)
The terraces in Purgatory represent the levels of penance that a person must go through as they purge their souls of each sin. A scholar notes, "Dante's Hell is a meticulously organized torture chamber in which sinners are carefully categorized according to the nature of their sins" (Felfoldi)
God gave people free will. One expert defines the term free will as "the power of agents to be the ultimate creators (or originators) and sustainers of their own ends or purposes" (Kane 4)
"Their relationship as part of an ongoing struggle against repressive gender and identity norms. It notes how the awareness of their shared struggle gave them more strength to continue resisting," (Bertucci)
Book learning is a universal human constant. "A system originally developed for the education of boys works equally well to educate women," (Hutcheon)