The Attendant Spirit Character Analysis

The Attendant Spirit, who is both male and supernatural, hastens to help the mortal brothers, but his inability to rescue the Lady further enhance the supreme authority of Sabrina. The Attendant Spirit appears to the brothers “habited like a Shepherd,” and immediately inquires after the “Virgin Lady” (Milton 145-146). During this initial discourse, the Attendant Spirit admits to knowing the Lady has been taken by Comus, but for reasons unexplained, he cannot prevent her from going with Comus or being taken by him. The Attendant Spirit acts as an usher who leads the brothers to the Lady and eventually leads them to her savior stating that “we cannot free the Lady that sits here/ In stony fetters fixt, and motionless” (Milton 160). The male characters included in the Attendant Spirit’s “we” are unable to affirm the chastity of the Lady because chasteness and virtue are not qualities by which a male is judged or must …show more content…
Comus may have stolen the Lady’s sexual innocence, but that does not negate the Lady’s virtue or chastity. The Lady needed an affirmation of her innocence in order for her to escape Comus because she lacks confidence in both her virtue and her chastity. Just as her would-be rescuers fail to assert her innocence in a matter that they cannot truly understand, Sabrina emerges to prove that feminine strength can still exist even if a woman’s virtue is compromised as long as she can recognize her own chastity. The Lady needs the approval of a female character that can declare her chastity without condemning any loss of sexual innocence, and for this reason, the brothers and the Attendant Spirit can drive away Comus, but they cannot rescue the Lady from her imprisonment. Sabrina emphasizes that feminine strength stems from chastity and the protection of virtue, but because she is an external, divine force, she can assert feminine strength without slighting