In The Divine Comedy specifically the Inferno, Dante and Virgil encounter Francesca and her lover Paolo, they are placed in the circle of the lustful. Because the lovers were swept away by sharing a kiss of passion, it ultimately led them to their death, they are punished in Hell doomed forever, trapped in an eternal whirlwind motion that sweeps them together. Dante wants to speak to the lovers and they willingly do so, Dante stops to speak with Francesca briefly. She gives little insight about her life and her death without giving Dante full-details. Dante already has heard the story and therefore identifies the woman figure by realizing she is Francesca. Dante is curious why Francesca and Paolo are damned souls; Francesca continues her story in which touches Dante with heart-felt emotion which causes him to faint because he feels pity for Francesca and Paolo. Although Francesca cheated on her husband with Paolo whom was her husband’s younger brother, she fell in love with Paolo during reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere. In addition, Francesca was married off to Giovanni as a political tie between her family and the Malatesta’s. Therefore, Francesca never was in love with her husband and through the power of literature, Francesca and Paolo were capable of falling in love with each other. Francesca and Paolo shouldn’t be damned for their punishment because their love for each other is still an on-going desire that stems from both of their intellects.

In canto 5, Francesca says, “Love which pardons no one loved from loving in return, seized me for his beauty so strong that, as you see, it still does not abandon me” (lines 103-105). Therefore, Francesca and Paolo are still committing the sin of lustfulness because they have not abandoned each other – they are stuck with one each other for eternity, so they embrace each other in a wind whirl. Francesca also says, “Love, which is swiftly kindled in the noble heart, sized this one for the lovely person that was taken from me; and the manner still injuries me” (lines 100-102). Francesca admits that she is still hurt by the situation, which is ongoing. She still feels the pain of being murdered, she still remembers the horror of her death as well as the death of Paolo; she also still feels strong overpowering emotions for Paolo. Francesca also mentions the “noble heart” which indicates, the act in which they are still committing is pure and out of love and endearment, not out of spitefulness. According to Poggioli, the author states, Francesca’s “language is not only feminine, but ladylike, revealing delicacy of feeling, as well as refined tact. She behaves as well-born gentlewoman even in Hell, despite the fact that her misery and her love place her on the level with Dante, she still stands on her ceremony; her courtesy remains courtly… her attitude seems to be inspired by the graciousness and generosity of a great lady condescending to honor someone of a lower status or lineage than herself” (Poggioli 326). Therefore, Francesca is someone who is pure, kind cultivated and most of all loving, she and Paolo should be justified for their ‘sin’ because they feel immense passion for one-another, and passion shouldn’t be a sin because it derives from carnal love; its natural. Therefore, this act shouldn’t be seen as sinful because they chose to do it because it was in their human-nature, and human-nature is genuine — their act was not forced from an outside source, unlike the marriage Francesca was forced into — the ‘sin’ they committed happened because they wanted it to happen, and it was a decision on both their parts. Therefore, this ‘sinful’ act that is still-going was due because of the honest and sincere passion Paolo and Francesca feel for one another. This passion is also evident in the painting by George Frederic Watts: Watts depicts the two lovers in a positive light. The light reflects off of Francesca’s face which seems innocent and calm and her eyes to seem to be closed, Paolo holds onto Francesca embracing her in holding her hand, a sweet gesture that seems like he’s never letting her go. They are stuck together as if they are one entity, one body and one soul. It almost seems like they are in an airy, floating cloud, and they are the only thing that exists. The thing that I notice is also their nudity, and the nudity represents the purity and the comfortability they feel for one another. I feel this image represents Paolo and Francesca in a positive view because they are drawn out to be two lovers, who wish to be in an eternal life together; together they are complete because they are the dynamic duo, they are whole because they have one another. Although they committed adultery, the light overpowers the ‘sin’ of adultery, and displays their act of righteousness and immense affection that is still developing.

     However, some may argue that their punishment has led them to be placed in Hell instead of Purgatory or Paradise because their act was sinful. They committed a deed that is unfaithful, so they deserve the punishment they receive. Some may even argue that they don’t love each other and so their punishment is the one they deserve – to be stuck together in eternal misery. Some even argue that the reason Francesca and Paolo are placed in Hell is because “use of such an epithet shows that Dante needs to know everything about Francesca’s fall: and such a need is dictated not by a vicarious or morbid curiosity, but by a deep urge for a psychological and ethical knowledge” (Poggioli 334). Additionally, Dante places Francesca and Paolo in Hell is because he wanted to “evoke the fall pathetically, or more simply, romantically: but this would have involved an attitude of indulgent forgiveness, and so destroyed the stern mortality of the tale” (Poggioli 334). Therefore, the reason reflecting Poggioli’s views is that, Francesca and Paolo are placed in Hell because the romantic tragedy should be viewed as a failure and that they shouldn’t be forgiven because it would demolish the mortality. The scholar also argues that if Paolo and Francesca were forgiven, they would not receive the punishment and perhaps would have maybe escaped death. Therefore, they are in Hell because they shouldn’t be forgiven, and their act wasn’t proper.

However, one scholar argues that Dante could have given us the “circumstances of Francesca’s story, Francesca da Polenta of Ravenna, wife of Giovanni Malatesta, the crippled son of the Lord of Rimini, and mother of a ten-year-old daughter, became the lover of her husband’s younger brother, the dashing cavalry caption Paolo Malatesta, himself a married man with two children. They were betrayed by a servant, and the husband, crazed with the discovery, took them by surprise and stabbed them both to death. But Dante does not give us the story, for its only trace in the poem is the momentary flash…in the phrase ‘Caina awaits for him who quenched our life’” (Berthoud 25). Therefore, the husband should be punished because he killed both Paolo and Francesca and committing a sin of murder is much greater than two lovers falling in love because of the passion they feel and still feel for one another. In addition, Francesca never wanted to marry Giovanni – she was forced too because of the rivalry between her family and the Malatesta family, therefore she never decided who she wanted to marry, it was taken away from her. She was just used as a token for a peace treaty, so never had an option or an input when it came to her marriage. In a modern society of today’s culture, this would be frowned upon because Francesca has no voice and her option of whom she wanted to marry was taken away from her, therefore she had to marry a man of her families choosing and Francesca wasn’t content and therefore when she fell in love with Paolo; she committed adultery but with someone she actually felt immense desire for and still has on going desires for. So, although she committed a ‘sin’ she committed the sin because she fell in love with someone whom she has feelings for and is still in love with someone she wants to be with, forever, so she made the choice because it came from her intellect which stemmed from her feelings, which came from her decision and no one else’s. Because Paolo and Francesca shared a kiss, while reading a romance novel calledLancelot and Guinevere, it inspired them to kiss because their story was also a romantic tragedy. In addition, one author states, “In the erotic embrace of death love has been made eternal, true…here the two lovers become helpless victims of love. So strong is their passion.so foreordained is their fate. Paolo is enrapt by passion and cannot tear himself away from Francesca. Like innocents the two are led against their will to kiss for the time by the description of Lancelot’s kiss in the book. Even the conventional demon of the tale, Francesca’s husband Giovanni, is guided by forces that he cannot control. “Unwillingly they loved…unwilling I slew them.” Once he has killed the lovers, once, so to speak, he has fulfilled his role as the executor of a remorseless decree of Fate…” (Bugliani-Knox 227).Because Francesca and Paolo were reading a novel that stirred the monumental kiss, it was the intellect that influenced them and because Dante is a writer himself, he feels pity for Paolo and Francesca because literature has the capability of capturing one’s emotions. Dante understands Paolo and Francesca’s cause and sympathizes with them. The kiss shared between Paolo and Francesca has led them to a never-ending eternity, their love for each other is eternal as well this is evident in the painting by Gustave Doré.

Similarly, to the other painting, there seems to be a light portraying onto the two souls. Even when the painting is dark, there is still light that radiates from the two lovers — the light that signifies purity, goodness, honesty, virtue. Unlike the other painting, Francesca is completely nude to the viewers. Her nudity represents her sexual attraction but still symbolizes her innocence and chastity, modesty and delicacy of sentiment… Like the other painting, Paolo is still always looking down at Francesca, they are embracing each other, tightly and intensely. Francesca also has a cut in the middle of her breast which seems like it’s bleeding because the blood is dripping downward, which signifies pain. The blood is the haunting memory of the murder of she and Paolo. Francesca is still hurt from her death, the pain is still an ongoing matter, she looks at Paolo like she wants to be rescued because he is her savior, but also attentively and deeply stares into his eyes. They look like two angels floating together, no matter how much darkness surrounds them, they are brought into positive light. Therefore, I think Paolo and Francesca shouldn’t be blamed for their ‘sinful’ act because even in the dark, they reflect light – they represent faith even though they are surrounded of the storms of darkness and sin – their ongoing love affair represents the “light of the world” even though they are in Hell; light finds their way to them similar to a divine light, even though they are surrounded by the gloomed.

In conclusion, although, Dante places Francesca and Paolo in Hell in the Divine Comedy of Inferno, in the circle of the lustful they deserve to be placed in Purgatory because their sins can be overlooked and forgiven. Passion was the main cause of their death and they still receive recurring punishment because of it. Although Dante feels pity and faints for Francesca and Paolo, he still places them in the Inferno. Francesca whom cheated on her husband with Paolo, truly fell in love with Paolo because of her intellect and because she faithfully still wants to be Paolo and chose to love him. Paolo also couldn’t resist Francesca because he felt immense and still feels immense passion for her as well, they still desire each other which is an endless connection that brings them together. Essentially, Francesca and Paolo shouldn’t be damned for their punishment because their love for each other is still an on-going desire that stems from both of their intellects.

Works Cited

Berthoud, J. A. “The Vision of Eternity: an Introduction to Dante’s ‘Inferno.’” no. 25, 1965, pp. 17–32. JSTOR, www.jstor.org.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/stable/41801520. Accessed 30 Apr. 2019.

Bugliani-Knox, Francesca. “Galeotto Fu Il Libro e Chi Lo Scrisse: Nineteenth–Century English Translations, Interpretations and Reworkings of Dante’s Paolo and Francesca.” no. 115, 1997, pp. 221–250. JSTOR,

Poggioli, Renato. “Tragedy or Romance? A Reading of the Paolo and Francesca Episode in Dante’s Inferno.” Vol. 72, no. 3, 1957, pp. 313–358. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/460460.

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