Francesca

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Francesca is the figure who in Canto V of the Inferno responds directly to Dante's appeal by addressing him and introducing the conversation on the "sweet thoughts" and the "painful step." The notes to Canto V describe her as the voice narrating her own tragic love story, in a tale that the notes relate to the "very new stylistic mode" of the second speech. The annotations detect in her speech a character of measure and reserve, defined as "discretion and veil" typical of her manner of expression, compared by the notes to that of other female figures in the Commedia. The notes likewise recall that the violent death of the two lovers is linked to a deception or betrayal, indicated in veiled form by the reference to Caina, the zone destined for betrayers of kin, placed at the bottom of Hell.