Week 3-The Faerie Queene

The main point of Cantos iv, v, vi is obviously the Palace of Pride. The Palace itself conveys alot about what Spenser is trying to say about the political nature of England at the time. The description of the Palace reminded me if the Vatican. It is a very elaborate and beautiful place. There are red and purple drapings and many things coated in gold, these colors are often used as part of the Cardinals and Popes robes. There are also many people in the Palace that are just as corrupt as Queen Pride. Spenser also points out that it is very easy to enter the palace of pride but hard to get out, the example of that being the thousands of people in the dungeon that the dwarf finds who were overcome by sin. Another is that on the outside courtliness is seen as righteous and just but underneath all anyone is doing is looking out for their own well being and will commit sins to help themselves.

Then there is Una who while this is happing ends up in the forest taking refuge with nymphs and satyrs. There is a scene in the story when Spenser describes her teaching the creatures about goodness and light and my first thought was this scene made me think of Una as a missionary. Because she is in a "savage" place surrounded by satrys that dont know the Light, or Christianity, yet. But I dont know the extent of how missionary work Protestanism was doing at that time because the religion itself had not been around for very long. But then afterwards I thought that tying Una to being a missionary might not be correct because Spenser already has several political points he is trying to convey in The Faerie Queene and that adding in the importance of missionary work would be too much.