Allegory

The Faerie Queene as an Allegorical
Poem
An allegory is a narrative in verse or prose with
double meaning: a primary or surface meaning;
and secondary or underlying meaning. In other
words, it conveys one plain or literal meaning and
suggests another hidden or deeper meaning. It is
a device in which characters or events represent
symbolic
ideas and concepts.
⮚Allegory has been used widely through the
history of art and in all forms of artwork.
⮚An allegory has the immense power of
illustrating complex ideas and concepts
concretely.
⮚In allegory, a message is communicated by
means of symbolic figures, actions, or symbolic
representation.
⮚An allegory is a mingling of fable and truth.
Edmund Spenser is not merely a poet turned
reformer, besides he is regarded more for his art
than the teaching of morality. The incredible
allegorical masterpiece of the Elizabethan period
is certainly, The Faerie Queene created by
Edmund Spenser. He uses allegory in his epic with
the wonderful pictures of beauty and with the
essence of divine love and wisdom.
In The Faerie Queene, there is a fusion of three
kinds of allegories:
∙ A moral or spiritual allegory deals with the
action and interaction of virtue and vice. ∙ A
religious allegory deals with the important
religious events of the age.
∙ A personal and historical allegory.
In the book l of The Faerie Queene, Spenser has
shown the fight between vices and virtues and
finally that triumph of virtue. Each of the virtues
appears as Knight, fighting his opposing vice, and
the poem tells the story of the conflicts. It is
therefore purely allegorical, not only in its
personified virtues but also in its representation of
life as a struggle between good and evil.
Spenser completed only six books, celebrating
Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship,
Justice and Courtesy. From the introductory letter
we learn that the hero visits the Queen’s court in
Fairyland, while she is holding a twelve-day
festival. On each day some distressed person
appears unexpectedly, tells a woeful story of
dragons, enchantresses, or of distressed beauty or
virtue, and asks for a champion to right the wrong.
Each wrong represents a voice, and each Knight
represents one of the chief or cardinal virtues. The
adventures of each Knight were to fill one book,
and the whole poem was to have consisted of
twelve books.
The Red Cross Knight stands for Holiness and
Lady Una for Truth and Goodness. Her parents
symbolize the Human race and the Dragon who
has imprisoned those stands for Evil. The mission
of Holiness is to help Truth to fight Evil and thus
regain its rightful place in the human heart. Thus,
the Red Cross Knight, encouraged by Lady Una,
kills the monster and marches ahead on his way.
This is the first moral truth taught by the story and
deals with the action and interaction of virtues and
vices.
Archimago, the magician, who symbolizes
Hypocrisy is an evil in disguise. His mission is to
work out sinister designs and intrigues against the
Red Cross Knight and the lady Una so that they
may be separated from each other.
The moral and spiritual allegory blends with the
religious allegory of the book. The Reformation was
the most important religious movement of the time
and in his epic Spenser has exhibited it
allegorically. Being a strong supporter of the
reformed Church of England which is the only
dignified Church for him, he discards the Papacy
and the Catholic Church. Here, Red Cross Knight
stands for the reformed Church of England.
The parents of Lady Una represent humanity and
the foul dragon who has imprisoned them is the
Pope of Rome. The Monster error allegorically
stands for error on mistakes which human beings
make in the course of their lives. The fight of the
Red Cross Knight with the Monster Error,
symbolizes the conflict between Protestantism and
Catholicism. The books and papers vomited by
Error allude to the scurrilous pamphlets directed
against Queen Elizabeth by the Roman Catholics.
The moral and the religious allegory are
assimilated with the political allegory in The Faerie
Queene. According to the political allegory The
Red Cross Knight is Saint George of England and
Lord Leicester is Prince Arthur. Lady Una stands
for Truth which is represented by the national
Church of England.
Una’s parents are the people of England who are
subjugated by Roman Catholicism and represented
by the Dragon (Antichrist). The Monster is one of
the powerful but evil forces of Roman Catholicism.
Archimago stands for Philip II of Spain who was a
Roman Catholic by faith. Archimago,the instrument
of the separation between the Red Cross Knight
(Holiness) and Lady Una (Truth), may also be
identified with the Roman Catholic Pope.
In conclusion, it is quite relevant to quote
Grierson’s remarks which reveal the main
tendency. “The Faerie Queene is a poem inspired
in its inception by the spirit of Christian Humanism;
the Philosophy of Christ by the desire to illustrate
the beauty of the Christian virtues- a Christian
Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship,
Justice and Courtesy. It is ethical rather than
doctrinal grounds that Rome, symbolically
personified in Archimago, Duessa and Orgoglio, is
condemned......... From faith and Repentance he
proceeds to the fruits thereof, deeds of Charity and
finally Spiritual Contemplation”.

Allegory

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The Faerie Queene as an Allegorical

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