Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Book I opens with the account of the Red Cross Knight’s journeying with Una (religious Truth) to rescue her father’s kingdom from the Dragon (Sin). The Knight does not possess his virtue of Holiness sincerely from the first, but has to discover it through his own failures. The sequence traces the gradual deterioration of the Knight. The first episode points to the spiritual dangers awaiting him. The winding paths and the dark wood lead him to the monster Error. Although the fight with Error is victorious, the Knight next encounters Archimago, the Enchanter, who represents Roman Catholicism and is also in touch with the underworld. He separates the Knight from Una, and brings the Knight in contact with Duessa (the Roman Catholic Church). The Knight’s fight with Sansfoy, followed by another with Sansjoy reflects the loss of faith and of joy that accompanies his association with Duessa who leads him to places designed for his destruction. In the House of Pride vice is presented through personification of the seven deadly sins. The Knight still preserves enough independent judgment to leave them. But, rejoined by Duessa and accepting the pleasures she offers, he has no strength to resist the giant Orgoglio (a cruder form of Pride). He has reached a further stage of corruption, having abandoned his armour and drunk of a magic fountain (a cause of his weakness). Orgoglio sweeps him into a dungeon, and takes the willing Duessa for his mate. Prince Arthur, whose goodness matches Una’s, together rescue the imprisoned Knight and reveal the physical repulsiveness of Duessa. But the Knight must go through the last temptation of Despair and accept the discipline of the House of Holiness to counterbalance the lures of the House of Pride. The episode of Despair offers the ultimate blasphemy, total loss of faith to the Knight, hampered as he is by his own guilty recollections of sin. Only Una can cut straight through the fallaciousness of Despair’s persuasive arguments and state simply the doctrine of God’s justice and mercy. This is followed by the long-awaited battle with the dragon. The symbols by which the Knight is saved after his apparent defeat, the water and the leaves of the tree of life, express the religious theme. Spenser’s realism comes to life as the crowds gather to inspect the slain dragon. The Red Cross Knight is thus a developing character. The story depicts the probationary temptations, trials, defeats, despair and ultimate regeneration which alone can confirm him in the virtue of Holiness that he represents and ensure him success in his quest. Source: www.isnare.com
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