There’s a special place in Hell for those who Fall in Love// Ezra Kennedy
Through the few circles in the first seven Cantos, the imagery is pleasant (through the perspective of a writer, but probably also aesthetically). The 1st ring is limbo reserved for the unsaved, not baptised, and the virtuous non-christians.In the 3rd ring are the Gluttonous who now lie on the ground awaiting judgement day in dreaded agony (like everyone else down there) as a torrent, muddy storm pours down on them and the starving Cerberus resides among them eating to his delight. Little side note but I love this description:
“Huge hail, dirty water, and tainted snow,
Fell in torrents through the murky air;
Grinding the pungent earth where ever it landed.”
In the second though, are those who now move by command of the wind in a similarly poetic way that they moved according to the will of their passions, and the burning thrawls of their hearts. The prisoners of the 3rd ring are those who died in the name of love, so to speak. But why Hell?? Sure some of their acts were not the most morally pure, but they’re human they can’t have the purest of love like Jesus does. The main example in Canto 5 is Francesca and Paolo. After reading the canto I’d decided to google and learn more about this Hellbound love, honestly because the story of how they actually fell in love made my heart do the weird things, but I digress. Francesca Da Rimini, the woman telling the story was politically arranged to marry the brave but crippled Giovanni Malatesta (also called “Giovanni the lame” and I’d have to agree judging by the end of the tale). Longer story cut short, Francesca’s father was at war with the family of Giovanni and sold his daughter to appease his enemies and call some sort of truce. Obviously, there was no true love to begin with so there shouldn’t have been any surprise when Francesca unexpantly fell in love with Giovanni’s younger, cuter brother over their shared interest for sir Lancelot and his love story. It’s actually quite funny because they bonded over lancelots love story, which was an affair with Authur’s betrothed Guinevere, whilst they were in an affair themselves. But the thing with both examples is that it isn’t just lust, it was a mutually acclaimed love (which ironically sounds like a dressed up version of lust). Even though it was wrong for a married woman to be with a person who wasn’t her lawfully wed husband, her heart was never with Giovanni, her love was left unfulfilled.
It wasn’t just lust that brought them together. In both examples— Lancelot & Guinevere and Francesca & Paolo— it was a deep love that they couldn’t fight. It was a love that made their hearts flutter and their heads spin. They were drawn to one another in ways Giovanni couldn’t achieve with her. In the end Giovanni found out and killed them both, sending them to their special place in Hell.
PS. I commented on Gray’s and Anna Kate’s
I will now close this post with the beautiful story Francesca tells leave now if you don’t care;
“Love, that will swiftly seize a gentle heart,
Seized this man when he beheld my beauty, which has
Since been taken from me, the manner still offends me.
Love, that exempts no one from being loved,
Seized me with the pleasure of this man so
That, as you see, it has not left me;
Love has brought us to one death;
But the lowest part of hell, waits for the man who killed us”
“One day we were reading for our own pleasure
Of Lancelot, and how Love enthralled him.
We were alone and without any fear of being seen.
So many times our eyes drew together during
That reading, and it made us blush and look away;
But only once did it overcome us.
When as we read of the much-longed-for smile
And being kissed by such a noble lover,
This one, who is now always at my side,
Kissed me full on the mouth, and trembled as he did.
The book, and the writer, brought us to that moment.
But on that day, no farther did we read.”
“Huge hail, dirty water, and tainted snow,
Fell in torrents through the murky air;
Grinding the pungent earth where ever it landed.”
In the second though, are those who now move by command of the wind in a similarly poetic way that they moved according to the will of their passions, and the burning thrawls of their hearts. The prisoners of the 3rd ring are those who died in the name of love, so to speak. But why Hell?? Sure some of their acts were not the most morally pure, but they’re human they can’t have the purest of love like Jesus does. The main example in Canto 5 is Francesca and Paolo. After reading the canto I’d decided to google and learn more about this Hellbound love, honestly because the story of how they actually fell in love made my heart do the weird things, but I digress. Francesca Da Rimini, the woman telling the story was politically arranged to marry the brave but crippled Giovanni Malatesta (also called “Giovanni the lame” and I’d have to agree judging by the end of the tale). Longer story cut short, Francesca’s father was at war with the family of Giovanni and sold his daughter to appease his enemies and call some sort of truce. Obviously, there was no true love to begin with so there shouldn’t have been any surprise when Francesca unexpantly fell in love with Giovanni’s younger, cuter brother over their shared interest for sir Lancelot and his love story. It’s actually quite funny because they bonded over lancelots love story, which was an affair with Authur’s betrothed Guinevere, whilst they were in an affair themselves. But the thing with both examples is that it isn’t just lust, it was a mutually acclaimed love (which ironically sounds like a dressed up version of lust). Even though it was wrong for a married woman to be with a person who wasn’t her lawfully wed husband, her heart was never with Giovanni, her love was left unfulfilled.
It wasn’t just lust that brought them together. In both examples— Lancelot & Guinevere and Francesca & Paolo— it was a deep love that they couldn’t fight. It was a love that made their hearts flutter and their heads spin. They were drawn to one another in ways Giovanni couldn’t achieve with her. In the end Giovanni found out and killed them both, sending them to their special place in Hell.
PS. I commented on Gray’s and Anna Kate’s
I will now close this post with the beautiful story Francesca tells leave now if you don’t care;
“Love, that will swiftly seize a gentle heart,
Seized this man when he beheld my beauty, which has
Since been taken from me, the manner still offends me.
Love, that exempts no one from being loved,
Seized me with the pleasure of this man so
That, as you see, it has not left me;
Love has brought us to one death;
But the lowest part of hell, waits for the man who killed us”
“One day we were reading for our own pleasure
Of Lancelot, and how Love enthralled him.
We were alone and without any fear of being seen.
So many times our eyes drew together during
That reading, and it made us blush and look away;
But only once did it overcome us.
When as we read of the much-longed-for smile
And being kissed by such a noble lover,
This one, who is now always at my side,
Kissed me full on the mouth, and trembled as he did.
The book, and the writer, brought us to that moment.
But on that day, no farther did we read.”
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