Allegory in The Faerie Queene Essay

THE ALLEGORY BEHIND THE STORY

The Faerie Queene poem by Spenser is an adventure story, but its an allegorical work on several levels. Spenser tries to portray aspects of the real life through fictional characters and events. He lived at the time when England was breaking away from Catholicism and turning to Protestantism after Queen Elizabeth I came into power. However, there was still much anti-Elizabeth propaganda from the Catholics circulating on the streets, so we can see why Spenser wrote this poem to honor who he deeply admired and his religion in general, as well as to criticize Catholicism. In the poem, all of the characters names have an allegorical meaning. The good characters can be seen as the good and true Protestants, and the bad characters, as the fake and evil Catholics.

Looking at the character of the Faerie Queen, we can see how Spencer felt about Queen Elizabeth. The name of the queen in the poem was Gloriana, which means glorious, That greatest Gloriana to him gave, That greatest Glorious Queene of Faerie lond (721). Spencer expresses how much he looked up to Queen Elizabeth by using this name for her in the poem, and what he thought of her ruling, how she protects the weak, honors the strong, and rules benevolently and fairy his land England.

The Red Crosse Knight and Una, represent the Protestant individual and his faith, which go hand in hand. The knight can be seen as a Christian in the search of holiness who is protected by God; in this case the shield with the bloody Cross represents God. Una is portrayed as pure and innocent, which is what true faith is all about. In the first three Cantos, we see how a protestant can be separated from his true faith by evil doers or false religions and beliefs and become more vulnerable. The knight got separated from his Una because of Archimago and Duessas (the bad guys) actions and then everything went wrong for both of them, which imply that in order to become a good and strong Christian, one must only love, honor, accept and never doubt true faith.

The evil doers that Spenser writes about, all represent the same thing, Roman Catholic Church which Spenser seemed as the false religion. In canto I we see the dragons vomit, Her vomit full of bookes and papers was (724), as Catholic propaganda against Queen Elizabeth and Protestantism, however these obvious errors can be easily defeated or ignored by a good Christian. But there are some that cant, which we see with the appearance of Archimago, which by using this name, Spenser criticized the Catholics and their use and their idolization of many images. In canto II, we see how Una and the Knight are separated, and a Christian without his true faith can easier fall into temptations. He falls into an evil witchs hands, falsely believing she was a pretty, innocent, young woman named Duessa. She also represents Roman Catholic Church because she is a faux and also after he describes her clothing A goodly Lady clad in scarlot red, Purfled with gold and pearle of rich assay (735), he implies that Catholics are greedy and arrogant, and all they really care about is wealth and not faith.

We see throughout the poem the knights biggest sin, which is pride and how besides evil doers, pride got in his way of being happy with his companion Una. First when he refuses to listen to Una to prevent him from going into the cave, he wanted to show Una how brave and awesome he was, but he got in trouble with the dragon; then when he sees the false Una with another man, he madly leaves, leaving the real one alone and unprotected; also when he fights, Sans Joy, this battle did neither of them any good, however, the Knight let his pride drive him into the battle and killed the other knight. Red Crosse is blinded by his own pride which prevents him from seeing the true way and from finding Una. A Christian cannot be blinded by his pride and should be more humble so he can find his true faith and become a good Christian.

Christianity and Gods law work together with natural law. When Una encounters the lion, he does not hurt her; on the other hand he helps her, because nature works with true faith and true religion, in this case Protestantism. The two women and the church robber Una finds on her way also portray how Spenser believed Catholics were greedy and they would steal from the poor.

Using names and characters to describe what was happening in England during this time was a clever way that Spenser used in his poem. He lived in a time of post-reformation England, where they had just replaced Catholicism for Protestantism as their national religion. There were still many Catholics and religious protests in his country taken place and much anti-protestant and anti-Elizabeth propaganda that he felt strongly offended by. Through this allegorical work, Spenser shows how he felt towards Catholics. Spencer believed that the real religion was Protestantism; he strongly believed Catholics were fake and corrupt, he thought that Catholicism was the wrong and anti-religion of the world and should be completely taken out of England.