In the remaining seven circles of hell, Dante and Virgil observe punishments that are so grisly that sinners are reduced to grotesque conditions. They are joined for eternity, inverting the biblical prescription in Matthew that “what God has joined together, let man not separate.” Murdered by Francesca’s husband and Paolo’s brother, Giovanni Malatesta, these two souls drift aimlessly, their bodies fused together as punishment for adultery. There, he encounters the souls of the lustful, including the legendary Tristan and Isolde and the historical Francesca da Rimini and her lover Paolo. In the second circle, Dante is distraught by the cruelty of the punishment he observes.
Francesca and Paolo, adulterers, Gustave Dore, circa 1860.
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