Francesca led a lustful relationship with Paolo, and thereby allowed her soul’s will to be subverted and resulted to passion. Through Francesca’s response, it is clear why Dante the poet damned the lovers to Hell through his lack of pity or sympathy for them. However, although she has been damned to Hell and punished for her sin, Francesca cannot comprehend her punishment, and refers to it as "mal perverso (Bugliani-Knox 230).” Human love overcomes their flesh and brings them closer to divinity, or God. However, those who have submitted to a lustful love, rather than a platonic love, live for their whole life in sin, known as the divine contrappasso. Paolo and Francesca’s corrupt earthly love is the first punished sin in the Inferno. Dante