Alessandro Chiarmontesi

Alessandro is one of two young men courting the same Florentine lady, and he is the one reckless enough to accept her grotesque test: climb into the fresh grave of Scannadio, strip the body, and lie in its place until she sends for him. His long interior debate on the way to the tomb — fear of ambush, of mutilation, of being made a fool — reveals a lover whose courage is mostly the product of argument with himself. His willingness to be buried alive for desire makes him the story's comic measure of how far love will push a man.