This essay will be a critical assessment of The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser. It is a direct response to the text itself and will examine the concerns, idioms as well as styles of early modern writing. The poem is the first epic poem in English, written around sixty years before Paradise Lost. Evidently, the epic is a focus on the theological virtues of Christian faith, yet Spenser could not resist including classical mythology and legends in the books. Moreover, the poem is said to be a religious, moral along with political allegory. It would be accurate to say that Spenser intended The Faerie Queene to be read mainly by young men, desiring to cultivate virtues in their lives. Spencer chose a nine-line verse stanza, modernly known as the
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To be specific, she is Queen Gloriana as the poem is a praise to Queen Elizabeth, designed to win her favor. She underlines and dominates the poem, though she never physically appears in the poems. Nonetheless, The Faerie Queen is not a flattery. In a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, Spenser calls The Faerie Queen ‘a continued Allegory or darke conceit.’ Therefore, the book examines how allegorical ideologies are used to shape a specific kind of knight along with a reader that can detect the truth and learn how to avoid deceit. What is more, Spenser was a Renaissance man, a humanist and thus, the book consists of moral lessons on love and life. These harmonious stanzas, combined with Spenser’s rich, sensual imagery and the purposeful use of primitive language is reminiscent of the medieval past such as ‘her fawning loue with foule disdainefull spight.’ Serving to relieve the high moral lessons of the book, but it also creates a complex panorama of love as well as …show more content…
However, the ones most applicable to the stanzas 52-55 are without, doubt, Chivalry, Virtue, or to be precise, instructions in Virtue and Religion, which is more focused on the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism and Society’s social classes. Additionally, Christian humanism, closely tied to chivalry, is also an important theme within the book. Humanity in conjunction with Christian faith is portrayed through Redcrosse’s desire to aid Una to save her parents. Redcrosse thinks of her as a ‘gentle Dame so light’ , suggesting that he sees her as holy despite not having seen her unveiled. Una’s name can be interpreted as ‘oneness’, deceptively simple as Truth itself. You could argue that truth is not deceptive as it sets you free. Nonetheless, many will use truth to be deceptive, an example is Archimago’s fake dream of Una. The name itself splits into two qualities that Una herself seems to embody; the unity of the truth and the one true church. Therefore, Una would be sure of her love for him, just as sure as she is of her morals, her dedication to her family and her Christian faith. Thus, it is very doubtful that Una, in stanza 52 ‘your owne….she stopt with tears’ would compare him to the Dragon. An action contradictory to Una, readers would know it is not her due to her love for him being pure; Una would not compare him to the Dragon Error. The footnote indicates more details and calls Duessa’s actions as ‘a
To be specific, she is Queen Gloriana as the poem is a praise to Queen Elizabeth, designed to win her favor. She underlines and dominates the poem, though she never physically appears in the poems. Nonetheless, The Faerie Queen is not a flattery. In a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, Spenser calls The Faerie Queen ‘a continued Allegory or darke conceit.’ Therefore, the book examines how allegorical ideologies are used to shape a specific kind of knight along with a reader that can detect the truth and learn how to avoid deceit. What is more, Spenser was a Renaissance man, a humanist and thus, the book consists of moral lessons on love and life. These harmonious stanzas, combined with Spenser’s rich, sensual imagery and the purposeful use of primitive language is reminiscent of the medieval past such as ‘her fawning loue with foule disdainefull spight.’ Serving to relieve the high moral lessons of the book, but it also creates a complex panorama of love as well as …show more content…
However, the ones most applicable to the stanzas 52-55 are without, doubt, Chivalry, Virtue, or to be precise, instructions in Virtue and Religion, which is more focused on the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism and Society’s social classes. Additionally, Christian humanism, closely tied to chivalry, is also an important theme within the book. Humanity in conjunction with Christian faith is portrayed through Redcrosse’s desire to aid Una to save her parents. Redcrosse thinks of her as a ‘gentle Dame so light’ , suggesting that he sees her as holy despite not having seen her unveiled. Una’s name can be interpreted as ‘oneness’, deceptively simple as Truth itself. You could argue that truth is not deceptive as it sets you free. Nonetheless, many will use truth to be deceptive, an example is Archimago’s fake dream of Una. The name itself splits into two qualities that Una herself seems to embody; the unity of the truth and the one true church. Therefore, Una would be sure of her love for him, just as sure as she is of her morals, her dedication to her family and her Christian faith. Thus, it is very doubtful that Una, in stanza 52 ‘your owne….she stopt with tears’ would compare him to the Dragon. An action contradictory to Una, readers would know it is not her due to her love for him being pure; Una would not compare him to the Dragon Error. The footnote indicates more details and calls Duessa’s actions as ‘a