Story of Paolo and Francesca Not a Marie de France Love Story
Marie de France and Dante have different styles of writing. While Marie is into focusing on mysticism, justice, and loyalty, Dante does not concentrate on these aspects. In Marie de France’s stories, she concludes each tale with happy endings, while in Dante’s work there is no happy ending. Although love is evident in both works, the story of Paolo and Francesca could not possibly be one of Marie de France’s love stories because it lacks elements that are characteristic of Marie’s writing. One way in which the story of Paolo and Francesca would not fit in the Laís of Marie is because Marie focuses on loyalty. In “Lanval”, Lanval keeps his promise to not tell anyone about his beautiful princess who says, “I command and beg you, do not let any man know about this. I shall tell you why: you would lose me for good if this love were known; you would never see me again or possess my body” (Lanval, 144-50). Lanval decides to obey her because he is in love with her and he would do anything she asked him to do. ... You have fine looking boys with whom you enjoy yourself” (Lanval, 101), he still does not tell about his princess. Although his ego is attacked, he remains loyal to his love. In contrast to Marie de France, Dante does not emphasize this virtue of loyalty in Inferno, Canto 5. In fact the reason Francesca and Paolo are in hell is because “…this one (who shall never leave my side) then kissed my mouth, and trembled as he did. ... The two kissed and fell in love with each other, even though Francesca was married. So, Francesca was not loyal to her husband and Lunduski 2 Paolo was not loyal to his older brother, who was indeed her husband (Inferno Footnotes, 74).