Francesca’s husband quickly discovered their transgression and had the young lovers killed. According to the professors, one of the themes of the poem is the power of literature. Francesca is a fragile lady, guilty only of letting her overpowering love for Paolo become her sole desire. The story of Lancelot and Guinevere, which Francesca identifies as the catalyst for her affair with Paolo (Inf. Love, love, love — so begins the three tercets describing her love for Paolo. He used the story for an episode in … A romantic aura envelops Dante’s encounter as Francesca tells the story of how she fell in love with her brother-in-law Paolo Malatesta (the two lovers are the “due cognati” — two in-laws — of Inferno 6.2) and was killed by her husband Gianciotto Malatesta. 5.127-38), was a French romance popular both in poetry (by Chrétien de Troyes) and in a prose version known as Lancelot of the Lake. The story of Paolo and Francesca is more than just a legend; their tragic love story still fascinates many people and has been the subject of many compositions by poets, musicians and writers; even Dante puts them in his “Divine Comedy”. The second circle of hell, where Francesca and Paolo reside, is a dark place where people are punished by being buffeted ceaselessly around by howling winds. The lust between Francesca and Paolo is incomparable to the sin of lust displayed by other figures listed, as can be implied by Dante’s strong sense of pity for them, to the point where he faints. When they came to a particularly romantic moment in the story, they could not resist kissing. According to the original 13th Century story, Francesca and Paolo fell for one another as they sat reading tales of courtly love. Now Paolo and Francesca are doomed to spend eternity in the Second Circle of Hell. Summary: Canto VI This is compounded by her nudity: in Dante’s Inferno, both Paolo and timeline of events in Decameron V.8: Dante, for example, encounters Paolo Francesca are naked, as are all nearly of the shades that the pilgrim encoun- and Francesca … Overcome with pity, Dante faints again. Paolo and Francesca were illicit lovers in 13th century Italy and they have left us a love story that, like all good love stories, ends in tragedy.Paolo Malatestawas the third son of the lord of Rimini, Malatesta da Verrucchio and accounts of his personality vary. Boccaccio’s parody of the redemptive journey is apparent in the fate. So what has this to do with the love story? "He loved me and I loved him!" Well, Dante lived at the same period as Francesca and her sweetheart (Francesca 1255 – 1285, Paolo 1246 – 1285). Paolo was a handsome, pleasing, very courteous man, and Francesca fell in love the moment she saw him. The deceptive marriage contract was made, and Francesca went to Rimini. And knew about their long-time affair. In the elliptical and stylized language of this canto, neither brother is named. In her second speech, Francesca tells the story of her and Paolo reading about Lancelot and Guinevere and how the kiss in the story inspired their own lust. And that is all. She was not aware of the deception until the morning after the wedding day, when she saw Gianciotto getting up … Her speech has enormous, moving sincerity and beauty to it. And he knew both of them.