Good and Evil in Faerie Queen Book 1 - 1976 Words

Psychomachia is a literary concept named for a Latin poem by Prudentius. The poem dealt with the inner conflict within ones soul, between virtue and vice, through allegorical representations. This concept of an inner struggle became key to the developing Christian religion, and was refined dramatically in the medieval morality plays. Works such as Everyman, Piers Plowman, and Faust featured protagonists struggling with temptation, literally personified through the seven deadly sins (gluttony, lust, et. al). A variation of this involved the use of a Good Angel and Evil Angel, one to encourage the tormented soul and the other to push the protagonist further along the path to ruination. Edmund Spensers The Faerie Queene delights in its†¦show more content†¦By conquering these regions, in a sense, colonizing them, he brings himself closer to spiritual fulfillment. Settings that represent good rarely find expression in fairyland. Here, light has only one and true source in heaven. In Canto 10, when the holy man, Contemplation, asks why he has been interrupted during his prayers by Mercie and the knight, Mercie responds: What end (quoth she) should cause us take such paine, But that same end, which every living wight Should make his marke, high heaven to attain? Is not from hence the way, that leadest right To that most glorious house, that glistreth bright With burning starres, and everliuing fire...(442-47). Here, Heaven is symbolically described in terms of light: glistreth bright, burning starres, everliuing fire. Heaven is the only setting in The Faerie Queene given such attributes, contrasting that with fairyland in which dark places exist, thus offering evidence of the presence of evil. The spiritual quest on which the Redcrosse Knight has begun can only end until he himself is shed of all sin. When Contemplation reveals to him the city of Jerusalem, which stands in for Heaven, the knight observes that this bright Angels towre quite dims that [tower Panthea in Cleopolis] (Canto 10, 522). The knights recognition in the contrast between Cleopolis, which is the kingdom in which Gloriana, the Faerie Queene, is sovereign, to Heaven becomes the first step in the completion of hisShow MoreRelated Scandinavian Mythologies Essay1222 Words   |  5 PagesFrom three different sources The Faerie Queene, The Mabinogion and Beowulf two concept, one from each Celtic and Scandinavian Mythologies c an be seen. The first concept is from Scandinavian mythology and is that of the idea of redemption or dying well. The second is from Celtic mythology and is the use of the Other or Otherworld. From the two stories, The Faerie Queene and The Mabinogion, what would give the reader the greatest feeling of hope throughout them both would be the idea of comeuppanceRead MoreThe Faerie Queene1444 Words   |  6 PagesUna, the True Church The Faerie Queene is an important romantic epic that more than being just poetry, represents the protestant imagery in terms of kinds of individual virtue , the forces of temptation and human weaknesses to which the greatest of persons can succumb and, of course, the humanist ideals of its time. His author, Edmund Spenser, makes use of biblical and classic allegories to tell his story, that more than have been a religious writing, the poem’s purpose was to educate, to turnRead MorePowerful Women of The Faerie Queene and Paradise Lost Essay1197 Words   |  5 Pages  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Two very powerful female figures are presented in Error of The Faerie Queene, and Sin of Paradise Lost. 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To begin our investigation, we must consider the definition of ‘sin’ in a sixteenth century context, which would be in the form of the seven deadly sins. These seven sins were called the ‘deadly’ or ‘capital’ sins because they ‘merited damnation and had a fatal effect on an individual’s spiritual health.’[1] Listed, the seven deadly sins are prideRead MoreMorgan Le Fay5287 Words   |  22 Pageswritings of the Vulgate and Malory. She is depicted as an evil and lusty enchantress who tricks her brother, good King Arthur, into an incestuous relationship with her, resulting in the unnatural birth of their son, Mordred. She tricks Arthur’s wizard, Merlin, into divulging his magical secrets to her, then disposes of him inside the trunk of a tree, or a crystal cave. She sows the seeds of discontent with gossip against Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, steals the magical sword, Excalibur with it’s healingRead MoreElizabe than Era11072 Words   |  45 PagesThe Elizabethan Age is the time period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and is often considered to be a golden age in English history. It was an age considered to be the height of the English Renaissance, and saw the full flowering of English literature and English poetry. In Elizabethan theater, William Shakespeare, among others, composed and staged plays in a variety of settings that broke away from Englands past style of plays. It was an age of expansion and exploration