Dragon Slaying and Such

I found the Red Cross Knight's duel with the dragon to be quite interesting and figuratively abundant. The significance of the three days of the fight parallel with Christ's three day journey after his crucifixion. Christ had to travel into Hell and he rose on the third day (as did the hero of Book I). Red Cross also goes through baptismal cleansing at the end of the first two days of the battle. The first day, he is thrown into a renewing fountain of life that affords him power and replenishes his strength. At the end of the second day he falls under a tree that is a reflection of the Tree of Life, an additional biblical allusion. Red Cross conquers the dragon on the third day, "and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures..." (1 Corinthians 15:4). Red Cross is not meant to be the actual Christ, but a Christ figure. Red Cross kills the dragon by thrusting his sword into the dragon's mouth and down his throat. The dragon's mouth figuratively represents the fiery mouth of Hell. Red Cross conquered his flesh oriented flaws and severed his ties with Hell and sin.

The Lion and the Lamb

I thought of connection between the lion who protected Una and her figurative representation. In the beginning of Book I, Una is described as a virtuous woman in white leading a lamb behind her. Lambs are a symbol of purity, innocence, and sacrifice in the Christian faith. Una is the epitome of purity and wholeness (her name means "one"). I was reminded of a bible verse from Isaiah when reading of Una's journey with the lion, "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together..." -Isaiah 11:6 I think that Una figuratively represents a lamb when considering her relationship with the lion who protects her until death. The mighty lion is her constant companion until the end of his life, their relationship echoes that of the frightening beasts and frail small animals in the Bible.

The House of Pride

As the Red Cross Knight split away from Una and began his separate journey, he began to stray from his original purpose and succumb to sinful pride (an alluring sin that all humans must battle and will most likely fall to at some point in their lives). Duessa leads the knight to the "sinfull house of Pride", a place where nothing is as it seems and humans fall victims to the sin and illusion. The scene is described with hundreds of people lining up to enter the house of Pride, a suggestion that pride is an accessible and desirable sin. The palace is described as a structure "without morter laid, whose wals were high, but nothing strong, nor thick" This image conveys the idea that the house is grand and large but has no true foundation or fortitude. I thought of a house of cards that could be destroyed with the slightest brush of air or flesh. The house is also described to be covered with "golden foile" which is a thin layer of gold. Gold is a symbol of grandeur and wealth, however, this gold is simply a foil that provides an illusion of splendor. Everything about the house of Pride is a contradiction -- its appearance is deceiving and misleading... this connects to the sin of pride. Pride is a sin that allows one to be boastful and conceited, like the house, these negative tendencies have no merit and are easily crushed.

Errour

I was particularly interested in the scene of the knight as he encountered the monster Error. Her description of grotesque: "Halfe like a serpant horribly displaide, but th' other halfe did womans shape retaine, most lothsom, filthie, foule, and full of vile disdaine." The description goes on to describe her ill- favored young who, like parasites were "sucking upon her poisonous dugs..." This disgusting creature echoes classical and biblical monsters according to the text. The author explains that she hates the light which is a direct contradiction to the knight because he represents good, truth, and innocence. He fights his foe but is overcome by her strangling grip, when it seems like the knight will lose, his lady companion calls out to him to kill the monster (an example of Una being a voice of reason). The knight then grasps Error's neck and slays her. The end of this scene depicts her parasitic children sucking up her spilled blood and exploding from their gluttony... gross. I wondered if there was any deep significance to Error, the fact that she was half woman, half snake, and her name was error made me wonder if Spenser was addressing some stereotype about women. Or possibly he just thought the idea was an interesting one, who knows?

The Faerie Queene

After reading the first Canto of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed and understood it. We discussed in class how the Red Cross Knight was wearing armor that was not his, "Yet armes till that time did he never wielde..." I found this interesting when I began reading. The knight is young and untested, his innocence is possibly a weakness that will afflict him later in Book I. The description of the knight goes on further to explain that he is fearless and on a quest given to him by the Faerie Queen to slay a terrible dragon. I also found it interesting that the knight had a fair lady companion with him (Una). She rode on a white donkey with a white lamb. The passage explained that she was "so pure an innocent, as that same lamb..." I think that through this journey, Una will serve as a guiding, moral light for the knight. She may be the voice of reason that he needs to make it through his journey unscathed by the foes they encounter along the way.

Satan's New Plan

Near the end of Book I Satan voices his plan for his future endeavors of evil which I found to be particularly interesting. Satan;s words offer foreshadowing of the events to pass later towards the end of the epic. He speaks of a rumor in Heaven of the creation of a new generation, "There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long intended to create, and therein plant a generation, whom his choice regard should favor equal to the sons of Heaven: thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps our first eruption, thither or elsewhere: for this infernal pit shall never hold Celestial Spirits in bondage..." Satan is talking about the creation of man -- essentially Adam his and Eve who he will corrupt thus leading to the fall of mankind. Satan is making his plans for the future in which he will reek havoc upon the earth and God's precious human kind.

The Fortunate Fall

I was intrigued during the class discussion today by the mentioning of the idea of "the fortunate fall" and its connection to the text. As many know, the idea of the fortunate fall pertains to the idea that the fall of man was a positive occurrence: if Satan had not gone against God then Eve would have never been tempted to eat the apple from the Tree of Life, man would not have fallen, the world would never have known Jesus, and therefore the world would never know the extent of God's love. It's all a bit of a catch-22 when you think about it. I also found it interesting that Milton suggests that the only reason Satan is allowed to rule in Hell is because God willed it to be so, "And high permission of all-ruling Heaven left him at large to his own dark designs..." This proves that God is much greater and more powerful and shrinks Satan's character substantially. It is for this reason and others that I disagree with the theory that Milton was "in league with the devil" while dictating his great epic.