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simply better, it is certainly represented here as being more attractive to women. Thisis significant because, outside of just these texts, women are more heavily involved inreligious activities than men are. 335 Byron was playing to the majority of hisaudience.Franklin takes a strange turn with Francesca in saying that “the shade [of Francesca]articulates the constricting ideology of Christianity which has killed her doppelgänger– the live girl.” 336 Nothing in the text suggests that Francesca suffers any‘constriction’. Nowhere in the poem is the nature, let alone the cause, of Francesca’sdeath explained, and the allegedly “constricting ideology” is the one to which, aspreviously noted, Francesca enthusiastically devotes herself when Lanciotto, later tobecome Alp, leaves Venice for the East. Franklin justifies her assessment byMinotti’s opposition to the love match, despite the fact that, in the text of the poem,Minotti only ever expresses that in terms of his opposition to Francesca beingenslaved to Islam: his earlier reasons for denying Lanciotto’s suit are never revealed.Considering that Lanciotto subsequently betrays his country and becomes a devotee ofbloody massacre, it is difficult to claim that Minotti is wrong in keeping his daughteraway.It is further worth noticing how male-female love relations are described.Interestingly, Hassan identifies the leader of the ambush as “Lost Leila’s love –accursed Giaour!” (G 619). For a man to admit that his wife loves another is usually agreat blow to his pride, unless he does not care for her feelings at all, a suggestionwhich coincides with her evident replaceability, and thus apparent redundancy. Theclosest to an Islamic valuation of romantic love is the story of Selim and Zuleika’sromance, the story of The Bride of Abydos. Selim is a Muslim, but is rather liberal,and half Greek; when Zuleika expresses her love for him, she is moving towards theOther. One of Byron’s notes connects them with Romeo and Juliet (McGann3.436:72). There is also Gulnare’s forceful declaration to Conrad, including her claimthat her love is greater than Medora’s because she is more passionate and more daring335 This is general human norm. See, e.g., Justin L. Barrett, Why Would Anyone Believe in God?(California: Altamira Press, 2004), pp.42-3.336 Franklin, p.70.214