Justified or not, Francesca and Paolo become lovers, and are both slain by the jealous husband and brother. .
The central message found in the Lais, is the ability to love. It is the most frequently used character virtue, appearing in all of the twelve lays. The ability to love properly, is paramount in Marie's ideal knight. This is shown most clearly in Guigemar. The reader sees the title character attain the status of the ideal knight, by overcoming his inability to love. .
Dante and Marie both condemn adulterous liaisons between a man and a woman, though their latitude as to what constitutes this type of relationship is very different. Dante often references mythical or ancient stories of tragic lovers, as if to reinforce the message that they who don't remember the past, are condemned to repeat it. .
She is Semiramis of whom we read that she succeeded Ninus and was his spouse: .
she held the land which now the Sultan rules. .
The other is she who, loving, slew herself .
and broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus. .
Next is lustful Cleopatra. .
See Helen, for whom so much wicked .
time was spent, and see the great Achilles .
who at the end fought with love. .
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Francesca and Paolo are shown reading the tale of Lancelot and Guinevere. As Galahalt was the go-between for the two ill-fated lovers, with Paolo and Francesca, Dante gives this function to the book and its author. Some feel that the poet implies inherent dangers in reading "inflammatory"(romantic) literature, as such a love story was considered to be. Francesca is often likened to Guinevere, as a shallow user of courtly love. Dante uses the reading about Guinevere and Lancelot, to bring Francesca and Paolo to a self prophecy fulfillment of sorts. They read of the demise of these two ill-fated lovers, yet continued with their own adulterous affair, to ultimately meet a similar fate.