Week 3-The Faerie Queene

I have to admit the Faerie Queene is a difficult text to get through. One thing that drove me nuts about the story was the way that Spenser presents his characters. He draws out these long descriptions of them and waits for quite a few stanzas or even Cantos to tell us what their names are or who they really are. For example, he describes Sans foy’s lady within Canto 2.13, but does not tell us she is Fidessa until Canto 2.26. I felt like it made the text so much more difficult on which he was talking about when he wasn’t giving us a name. This may tie into the fact that most of the story starts off with a lot of deceitful and false people. The long introductions might be used to further emphasize the confusion on what is real and what is false.

            Spenser also spends a great deal on the women within the story. We talked a lot in class about how most of the women were shown as villains such as the dragon and Duessa, but Una is shown as such a weak and helpless person within the story. He portrays her as innocent and alone, looking for her knight. I feel as though Una has some power within the story. She is the one pushing Redcrosse on during his fight with Error and even after Redcrosse leaves she still tries to pursue and find him. If Spenser really didn’t want her to have any power, he could have left her to stay with the hermit. This could possible tie into Spenser’s political allegory to the story. Queen Elizabeth was innocent and powerful at the same time, being able to rule England. He then contrasts this possibility by throwing the lion into the story. To me the lion would symbolize a king like figure that is helping out Una and it seems like Spenser is trying to say that Elizabeth needs a king in order to run England.

            I do also feel like Redcrosse is a little stupid. Spenser describes him as both an experienced knight but an inexperienced one at the same time. He is suppose to be protecting Una, but leads her right into the Den of Errors after the dwarf tries to tell him that he shouldn’t go in. Then he stops the advances made by Una realizing that they may not be true and then right after believes that she is with someone else at the hermit’s house. He leaves in fury and immediately takes Duessa not even thinking that she may be too good to be true. When he meets the tree that was tricked by Duessa, he doesn’t even think that maybe Fidessa could be Duessa even after she faints. This ties back into when we said in class that Spenser writes in a 12-year-old boy manner. I feel like Redcrosse is the 12-year-old boy falling for all of the tricks.