Week Four - The Faerie Queen

What always interests me in reading a work like "The Faerie Queene" is how easily a meaning can be assigned to it. Do we really know that Spencer meant for his work to be taken on a religious or political level? Are the scholars that study works like this just over analyzing the things that were written long ago? Maybe Spencer really just liked the idea of women-dragons and false beautiful witches.

I have to say, overall, if I were to purely read "The Faerie Queene" as a commentary on religion or politics, I would not enjoy it. So I ended up just ignoring that route and decided to just pay attention to the pure plot of the story. The more I get into English studies, I realize that plot isn't as dominant as is analysis and interpretation. Where is the fun in that? Sometimes it's nice to just read an adventure tale, allowing yourself to get caught up in it! That being said, Spencer was a great adventure tale writer. He knew how to keep it interesting with including disguises and bursting baby monsters. I commend him for his vivid imagination.