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... d for their sin by excess of sexual passion; they put reason under lusts command. This sin is the most natural sin; most nearly associated with love and therefore the lightest sin with the least graveness of punishment. Dante uses the association of weight with sin throughout all of his cantos.
Therefore, the punishment related to the weight of this sin is that the lustful souls have to spend the rest of their lives swirling about in a terrible storm. Dante then asks Virgil to identify these souls. Virgil says that the first soul, Was empress over many languages (pg. 89). This represents a legendary Queen of Assyria, Semiramis. She became legendary for her sexual excess and legalized incest to justify her own behavior. This can be concluded from line 55 when Dante writes, So broken was she to the vice of lust that in her laws she made licit whatever pleased, to lift from herself the blame she had incurred (pg. 89).
Here Dante is showing that even though she justified her sin on earth and got away with it by making it legal she still had to pay the price in her afterlife. Therefore Dante is mocking our judicial system today and that our rules and laws really do not mean anything because if the court labels us as guilty or innocent it is our afterlife that makes the decision. Next Virgil points out the soul Dido and says, She who killed herself for love and broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus (pg. 89). Dido, Queen and founder of Carthage, had vowed to remain faithful to her husband, Sichaeus, but she fell in love with Aeneas. (This is a story from Virgil's epic). When Aeneas abandoned her, she committed suicide and killed herself out of love. Even though violence against self is a greater sin than lust and Dido should be placed in the seventh circle of Hell, her story had charmed and alarmed Christian moralists (notes, pg. 95) for years, Dante felt sympathy for her and placed her in the second circle.
This shows evidence of the Christian religion having biased opinions and Dante showing favoritism. Even though the souls should be punished according to their gravest sin, Dante explained that it was her violent death for love that saved her and her legendary chastity. Moving on, Virgil lists some more of the names of the souls as Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, and Tristan. Dante recognized all these people as, Ancient ladies and knights (pg. 91) and feels sympathy for them because they are damned by the irresistibility of love. Dante may have pity for this group of souls because he himself is haunted by his uncontrollable love for Beatrice and knows that he would make the same mistakes that these souls did due to the power of love. This is why Dante portrays lust as the least serious sin, yet he still recognizes it as a sin.
Dante then takes an interest in two certain souls blowing in the wind and wants to talk to them. He treats these souls with sympathy and tenderness, wanting to hear their story. Dante is recognized as a living soul and not a foe, so the souls reveal their story. It is here that we encounter two new characters, Paolo and Francesca. These illicit lovers are condemned to an eternity of exactly what they would hope for-floating on the wind in each others arms. Francesca starts out her story by saying, O gracious and benign living creature (pg. 91).
Through this we are charmed by Francesca and feel sympathy towards her. She is mannerly and sweet and now we will listen to her story. Dante portrays her story as a very heart-felt love tail with romance and passion. Francesca, daughter of Guido de Polenta was married for political reasons to Gianciotto, an old and deformed man.
Francesca ended up falling in love with Gianciotto younger brother, Paolo Malatesta. Inspired by the love story of Lancelot and Guinevere, the two engaged in an adulterous love affair. When Gianciotto discovered them together, he killed them both and they ended up doomed to spend eternity in the second circle of Hell. Francesca says, Love led us to one death (pg. 91). Some readers may take this line to mean that they got to die together and their love still thrives in hell, but I believe that Hell has no goodness about it and so they suffer more. The only thing that Francesca looks forward to is that, China awaits for him (pg. 91).
Since, China is the division of Cocytus, named for Cain (Notes, pg. 97), and Gianciotto performed an act of treachery against his own kin, when he dies he will be sent to suffer in the lowest circle of Hell. Dante is overcome with sadness and pity from her story, he says, Francesca, your sufferings make me sad and piteous to tears (pg. 93). Dante is taken back by Francesca's genuine grace and smooth talk. He listens to her story and is touched by it. Francesca says that, That day we read there no further (pg. 93), and this may imply that Francesca and Paolo never had a chance to repent and they are stuck in Hell for such a bittersweet sin. The beautiful image painted by Dante is that while Francesca is telling the story, the soul of Paolo is weeping by her side.
Dante then says, So that for pity I fainted as if I were dying, and I fell as a dead body falls (pg. 93). I find it extreme that Dante fainted in this scene. Obviously, he was deeply touched by Francesca's story, but there must have been something more to make him faint. Therefore I feel that the description of the two characters falling in love over a chivalric romance testifies to the power of literature, and this combined with Dante being around the same age as the two characters probably appealed to Dante more than the other stories. Therefore, Dante faints under the spell of his overwhelming emotions.
And it is here that Canto V ends and Dante moves on from the second circle of Hell.
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