Francesca In Dante's Inferno

Inferno by Dante Alighieri is about his experience visiting sinners, and descending through Hell. Even though the sinners are in Hell for a reason, they tend to believe that they are not deserving of their sins. They blame others for their logical punishments. Lust is in the incontinence section of Hell. Francesca, the main sinner of Canto V, convinces Dante that she isn’t entirely deserving of the punishment, but she also reveals her true character through her diction and allusions. Dante spoke to Francesca and she began to explain why she was in Hell. While Dante and Francesca were talking she reveals why she was sent to the lust ring, “Love led us straight to sudden death together. Caïna awaits the one who quenched our lives” (Canto 5, 106-107). Virgil asked Dante what he was thinking about. Francesca’s manipulation of her words affected Dante and made him sympathetic opposed to annoyed towards her remarks like he later in circle of gluttony. When Dante answers Virgil he is clearly sorrowful and doesn’t understand why Francesca is in Hell, “Alas, all those sweet thoughts, and oh, how much desiring brought these two down into this agony” (Canto 5, 112-114). Francesca however doesn’t mention that the sweet thought and much desiring wasn’t for …show more content…
They’re intentions seemed innocent at first when they were reading together. However, the story Francesca and Paolo were reading was about the story of Lancelot and Guinevere. Lancelot, one of the best knights of King Arthur, had an affair with the queen. Even though this is known as lust, Francesca falsely states that it is love, “One day we read, to pass the time away, of Lancelot, of how he fell in love; we were alone, innocent of suspicion” (Canto 5, 127-129). Dante doesn’t realize that lust is between the couple and that they had lustful intentions. There is no blatant reason why Francesca and Paolo were together, other than the idea of lust conjoining