In The Faerie Queene, Spenser creates an allegory:
The characters of his far-off, fanciful "Faerie Land" are
meant to have a symbolic meaning in the real world. In
Books I and III, the poet follows the journeys of two
knights, Redcrosse and Britomart, and in doing so he
examines the two virtues he
considers most important to Christian life--Holiness and
Chastity. Redcrosse, the knight of Holiness, is much like
the Apostle Peter: In his eagerness to serve his Lord, he
gets himself into unforeseen trouble that he is not
yet virtuous enough to handle. His quest is to be united
with Una, who signifies Truth--Holiness cannot be
attained without knowledge of Christian truth. In his
immature state, he mistakes falsehood for truth by
following the deceitful witch Duessa. He pays for this
mistake with suffering, but in the end, this suffering makes
way for his recovery in the House of Holiness, aided by
Faith, Hope, and Charity. With newfound strength and the
grace of God, he is able to conquer the dragon that
represents all the evil in the world.
In a different manner, Britomart also progresses in her
virtue of chastity. She already has the strength to resist
lust, but she is not ready to accept love, the
love she feels when she sees a vision of her future husband
in a magic mirror. She learns to incorporate chaste
resistance with active love, which is what Spenser sees as
true Christian love: moderation. Whereas Redcrosse made
his own mistakes (to show to us the consequences of an
unholy life), it is not Britomart but the other characters
in Book III who show the destructive power of an unchaste
life. Spenser says in his Preface to the poem that his
goal is to show how a virtuous man should live. The themes
of Book I and Book III come together in the idea that our
native virtue must be augmented or transformed if it is to
become true Christian virtue. Spenser has a high regard
for the natural qualities of creatures; he shows that the
satyrs, the lion, and many human characters have an inborn
inclination toward the good. And yet, he consistently
shows their failure when faced with the worst evils. These
evils can only be defeated by the Christian good.
High on Spenser's list of evils is the Catholic Church, and
this enmity lends a political overtone to the poem, since
the religious conflicts of the time were inextricably tied
to politics. The poet is unashamed in his promotion of his
beloved monarch, Queen Elizabeth; he takes considerable
historical license in connecting her line with King Arthur.
Spenser took a great pride in his country and in his
Protestant faith. He took aim at very real corruption
within the Catholic Church; such attacks were by no means
unusual in his day, but his use of them in an epic poem
raised his criticism above the level of the propagandists.
As a purely poetic work, The Faerie Queene was
neither original nor always remarkable; Spenser depends
heavily on his Italian romantic sources (Ariosto & Tasso),
as well as medieval and classical works like The Romance
of the Rose and The Aeneid. It is Spenser's
blending of such diverse sources with a high-minded
allegory that makes the poem unique and remarkable. He is
able to take images from superficial romances, courtly love
stories, and tragic epics alike, and give them real
importance in the context of the poem. No image is let
fall from Spenser's pen that does not have grave
significance, and this gives The Faerie Queene the
richness that has kept it high among the ranks of the
greatest poetry in the English language.
