According to the captions below, it appears that Francesca is the one who committed the crime by sleeping with Paolo, who was already married and fathered two daughters. In addition, Dante creates a Hell where the punishment is suitable for each crime. Therefore, because Francesca committed the crime, she is forced to explain her sin and Paolo is weeping because he appears to be ashamed of the adulterous action.

Francesca's tone seems acknowledging of her sin. She realizes that love had consumed her mind and created her to desire Paolo and Paolo aswell to Francesca. Yet, she seems to mourn that she is trapped in Hell for only being driven by what she loved. It appears that due to Francesca's punishment, "love does [not] give you right". Love appears to have more than one definition in Dante's world. Love that is self-giving and love that is self-interested. It appears that because Francesca's love was not self-giving and only for herself, she was condemned to Hell.

The dramatic Irony that is apparent in Francesca's discourse is that the audience knows her love was self-interested, yet she sees that love was her only crime and does not seem to acknowledge what her ulterior motives were.

The reason that the sinners in hell are in couples is to punish each other. The significance of Francesca doing all of the talking is that she's doomed to recount the tale of her digressions for all eternity, listening to her lover weep at the suffering their actions have caused. Paolo, on the other hand, is doomed to listen to his crimes being explained over and over again while all he can do is weep.

Francesca's tone in the passage is rather flippant, especially towards God. She seems not to regret her actions, only that they have landed her in hell. Her tones seems to suggest that if she were released from hell she would go right back to sinning the way she had been before. I don't think she's justified at all, particularly because I don't believe that what she had with Paolo was really love. She blames the beginning of their relationship, not on love, but on feelings of lust caused by a book. Also, Francesca never really takes responsibility for her actions and seems to resent God for placing her in hell. If her love was really as pure as she wants to make it out (though it doesn't bode well that the relationship was adulterous from the beginning) she should be happy that she gets to spend all eternity with her lover.

The dramatic irony lies in that Francesca is acting as though she's a martyr for love, suffering because of her passionate feelings for Paolo. She desperately maintains the facade even in hell, when the reader knows perfectly well that she was only vain and lustful and there was nothing pure about her love from the start.

That Francesca was the one talking could be another representation of the classical view that women were inferior to men. Just as Francesca was the cause of discord between Paolo and brother in life, she was the cause of Paolo's unhappiness in hell. In other words, she was oblivious to the severity of the troubles she has caused.

Francesca's tone seems conceited and dismissive toward her situation and God. She is eager to tell the story of her love, vehemently referring to it in extremes and absolutes. Instead of loving Paolo as a person, she seems to regard their relationship as a prize she has won. Francesca has not learned to regret her shallow love and the deaths that resulted from it. Toward God, Francesca is very flippant, saying that "were the King of Time our friend" they would pray to him. She does not realize that God has placed her with Paolo in hell as a punishment for wrongdoings on her part. This blindness to anything beyond herself is no justification for her actions or mindset. Francesca's refusal to try looking beyond her visceral wants is what brought her to hell and her inability to perceive this is what is keeping her there. Moreover, love of this caliber is no excuse for one's actions. Paolo and Francesca's love, sparked by a kiss while reading an "old story" was not one that could be characterized as caritas.

Whereas Francesca speaks of her love as if it were of the deeply felt, true sort, the reader knows that she is being punished in hell for mistaking lust for love. Because Francesca does not realize this discrepancy that is so obvious to others, this scene is an example of dramatic irony.