55 pages • 1 hour read
Edmund SpenserThe Faerie Queene
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | AdultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Christianity and Virtue Versus Irreligion and Wickedness
The poem’s stated purpose is to represent Aristotle’s virtues through the journeys of knights and women. While Aristotle’s morals don’t fall under one particular religious domination, Spenser links them to Christianity, so virtue and Christianity square off against irreligion and wickedness. Spenser establishes the central theme of the poem with the first knight. As his name implies, Redcrosse is a believer. The speaker uses imagery to describe the “bloudie Crosse” (1.1.2.1) on his chest and shield out of “deare remembrance of his dying Lord” (1.1.2.2). Redcrosse cements his Christian virtues when he repents at Caelia’s house and wants to stay with the holy man.
In Book 2, Guyon bonds Christianity and virtue when he resists Mammon’s ultra-materialistic underworld and destroys the hedonistic Bower of Bliss. Through chastity, Belphoebe and Britomart tie virtue to Christianity—although the male knights must remain chaste and faithful too. Arthegall appropriates King Solomon and, like Guyon and his palmer, has a sidekick, Talus, that reflects Christian judgment—albeit a harsh interpretation of Christian judgment. Calidore’s journey is perhaps the least overtly Christian. In keeping with the formula of the theme, he’s virtuous and saves Pastorella, so he’s on the side of Christianity. Arthur, too, becomes a Christian symbol due to his connection to the Christian knights.
As virtuous knights are Christian, their opponents represent the opposite of virtue and Christianity. The battles between the knights and their foes aren’t only battles between a secular notion of good and evil but represent Christian forces versus anti-Christians, pagans, or people deprived of spirituality. In Book 1, Redcrosse confronts a “faithlesse Sarazin” (1.2.12.6) and the self-appointed queen of hell. Archimago’s deceit precludes virtue and Christian principles, and Duessa’s witchy ways and lack of chastity turn her into a prime enemy. The knights continually face off against foes that represent the antithesis of virtue and Christianity: The pleasure-seeking Acrasia in Book 2, the cruel Busirane in Book 3, the cannibal rapist in Book 4, the cultish giant in Book 5, and the Blatant Beast that Calidore finally captures in Book 6. The epic’s central theme, the reason why the knights stick with their journeys, centers on the battle between virtue/Christianity and wickedness/irreligion.
Women Versus Men
In her study of Spenser’s epic, Wanton Eyes and Chaste Desires (Indiana UP, 1994), Professor Sheila T. Cavanagh labels gender as “the most salient distinguishing quality in the epic” (p. i), and the prominence of gender creates ongoing tension and conflict regardless of religion and virtue. Redcrosse serves Gloriana, the Queene of Faerie Land, and they are both ostensibly on the same side, but there’s an underlying conflict. Redcrosse puts himself in danger because of her. She can tell him what to do. He serves her. There’s a power imbalance inherent in the binary presentation of gender. Often, the women rely on good Christian men to protect them against the bad anti-Christians, and the men seem to have no choice but to defend their honor. Even if the violation is false, like when Duessa pretends to be a victim of sexual assault in Book 2, Canto 1, the man—in this case, Guyon—remains bound to avenge it. The masculine chivalry and the feminine helplessness sow discord and propel the poem forward. Invariably, there’s a woman in peril that requires rescue.
Yet men have to be recused too. Una helps Redcrosse defeat the monster Errours when she tells him to strangle Errours. She also helps Redcrosse recuperate by bringing him to Caelia’s house. Amavia temporarily rescues Sir Mordant, and neither Britomart nor Belphoebe require men to save them from distress. Britomart’s love for Arthegall puts her life in danger, as she has to battle Radigund to liberate him. Britomart reverses Radigund’s laws and puts men back in charge—suggesting that equality isn’t possible: There must be a power imbalance or tension between the poem’s two genders. Yet it’s arguable that women maintain the upper hand. Without women, men lack a purpose. They have no one to serve, protect, love, leave, or reunite with. The purity of the various female protagonists zaps the men’s agency. In most cases, the women’s behavior determines the men’s actions.
The Adversity of Quests and Journeys
The Faerie Queene relies on journeys and adversity. As Spenser ties virtue to Christianity, the journeys are Christian, and the conflicts center on the Christian knights versus pagan, monstrous, and morally bankrupt forces. The knights prove their virtue and spirit by undertaking quests, and they possess the courage and faith to endure and resist as they complete them. Guyon doesn’t fall for Phaedria while Cymochles does, nor does Guyon yield to the riches offered by Mammon. As with the other knights, Guyon’s journey requires adversity—without it, there’d be no proof of his will and devotion.
The journeys and nearly endless adversities allow the knights to show the world their moral traits. Redcrosse can marry Una, but he can’t settle down with her, as his honor and faith propel him to continue his quest and meet greater challenges. Arthegall can’t stay with Britomart, and Timias can’t live happily ever after with Belphoebe. They have to go on quests—the quests define them. In the poem, the theme of journeys and adversity provides the characters with an honorable identity and a higher purpose. The speaker reminds the reader that adversity is laudable when he tells the reader that Radigund’s enslavement of Arthegall doesn’t “blot his honour” (5.6.2.9) but reinforces it. The ordeal allows him to broadcast his faith and his tolerance for suffering.
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By Edmund Spenser
