Francesca Revisited

Canto V of 'Inferno', in which Dante meets the souls of Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Rimini, has long been a source of inspiration for poets, writers, and musicians. It also has been a source of much debate and critical entrepreneurship. Unhappily, Dantes characterization of Francesca, even until recently, has engendered a number of critical expositions that safeguard what can only be described as a fallacious dichotomy, whereby the figure of Francesca has been subjected to rigid stereotyping, resulting in extemporaneous fictions that are not borne out by the text. This article examines the figure of Francesa da Rimini in Dante's 'Comedy'