I first wanted to point out that this assigned reading has been my favorite so far. It was a fast read, easy to understand, and interesting. It reminds me of Beowulf quite a bit. I know the latter wasn't allegorical, but the general hero story with graphic slaughter scenes was very similar. With the help of the foot notes I was able to catch on to the allagory quite well. There seemed to be obvious contrasts to the "evils" of the Catholic Church and "the truth" which was the Protestant Religion. Our heroic knight's name is indeed "Of Holiness" which easily represents that of a Christian wandering through life searching for more closeness to God. Una, who's name literally is truth, is necessary is Red Crosse's journey. Ultimately in an alligorical way, they need to be together in life because of their representations of Holiness and Truth. The antagonists in this poem are very deceitful and make it their agenda to seperate Holiness and Truth in any way possible.
The first trouble that Red Crosse comes across is with the creature Errour, who represents the Catholic Church itself. In lines 177-78 Spenser writes "Her vomit full of bookes and papers was,/ With loathy frogs and toades, which eyes did lacke". As the footnote, this is a refrence to the Catholic propaganda of books and pamphlets. Knowing this, I've tried to analyze Red Crosse's adventure with Errour even deeper. The creature is first seen in her cave feeding her "thousand yong ones" (131). These young probably represent the followers of the Catholic Church who simply fed on whatever they were given without question. This idea is also supported by the fact that after Red Crosse chops off Errour's head, the offspring drink their mother's blood until they themselves explode. Spenser says that they are "Making her death their life, and eke hurt their good" (225). I found this a very interesting line. With the death of the Catholic church, the followers quickly feed off of whatever is left of their leader in fear of having nothing more to base their religious lives off of. They make a negative thing good for them because they have the freedom to injest as much of the Catholic Church's word as they feel. But of course, they greedily soak up too much and their own lives are destroyed. It's a very interesting allagorical view of Spenser's beliefs and I will probably even go on to finish the rest of the story to find out more.
The first trouble that Red Crosse comes across is with the creature Errour, who represents the Catholic Church itself. In lines 177-78 Spenser writes "Her vomit full of bookes and papers was,/ With loathy frogs and toades, which eyes did lacke". As the footnote, this is a refrence to the Catholic propaganda of books and pamphlets. Knowing this, I've tried to analyze Red Crosse's adventure with Errour even deeper. The creature is first seen in her cave feeding her "thousand yong ones" (131). These young probably represent the followers of the Catholic Church who simply fed on whatever they were given without question. This idea is also supported by the fact that after Red Crosse chops off Errour's head, the offspring drink their mother's blood until they themselves explode. Spenser says that they are "Making her death their life, and eke hurt their good" (225). I found this a very interesting line. With the death of the Catholic church, the followers quickly feed off of whatever is left of their leader in fear of having nothing more to base their religious lives off of. They make a negative thing good for them because they have the freedom to injest as much of the Catholic Church's word as they feel. But of course, they greedily soak up too much and their own lives are destroyed. It's a very interesting allagorical view of Spenser's beliefs and I will probably even go on to finish the rest of the story to find out more.
posted by Melissa | 9:56 PM
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