Fantasy Elements In Book One Of Spenser’s Faerie Queene

Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene was an influential epic in the Renaissance period. Its profundity has always been attractive to literary critics of the western classical works. This paper is to focus on the first book of The Faerie Queene which tells a fantastic story of how Redcrosse Knight becomes St. George of England from an innocent young knight. As one of the major themes of the epic, fantasy is apparent throughout the work, accompanying our knight on his key adventures in "Errours’ wandering wood","the house of Pride","the den of Despaire","the house of Holiness", and "the state which was occupied by the evil Dragon". My intention is to study the fantasy features within Book One of The Faerie Queene from the question of "what are the fantasy elements in the first book?" to "how does fantasy help to shape the epic?". Although fantasy elements abound in the first book, they can roughly be classified into three groups: magic, idealism, and monstrosity, which then become the main body of this thesis.This thesis opens with the general features of fantasy, the notions of the word "fantasy" itself, the representation of fantasy features in Book One of The Faerie Queene, my own definition of fantasy, and a brief summary of the main body of this thesis. It also includes a summary of the existing studies of fantasy features in The Faerie Queene from foreign countries and China.Chapter One expounds magic as a fantasy element in three sections. The first section centers on dream illusions by means of magic. The great enchanter Archimago uses black magic to manipulate people’s mind by creating a false scene in the dream. Redcrosse Knight who takes fantasy as reality and runs away in the middle of the night, abandoning Una. The second section discusses how Archimago and Duessa use magic to help them hide their identities for the fulfillment of their wicked goals. Duessa’s hidden identity by means of magic becomes the fantasy of temptation which leads to the self-destruction of Redcrosse Knight. The third section centers around the contrast of the treatment of the endangered:Duessa uses black magic to save Sans foy, while Redcrosse Knight is rescued by incarnations of the core spirit of Christian ethics in the house of Holiness.Chapter Two views idealism as another fantasy element regarding the Faery Queene Gloriana’s Faery land as an ideal realm in a broad sense and Una parents’ kingdom as the other ideal state in a narrow sense. And to be more specific, this chapter takes the idea of harmony and perfection as its focus. First of all, it ponders the harmonious relationship between human beings and nature by taking the relationship between Una and the creatures in the wood as an example. Then it discusses the harmony between mankind and their inner souls, a relationship that, to some extent, could be considered as their pursuit of perfection. In this light, Redcrosse Knight’s self-perfection or self-cultivation in the course of his spiritual pilgrimage is carefully analyzed. At last, the desire of returning to the Garden of Eden is taken as another way to express the harmony between mankind and God. This helps to bring into light at least two manifestations of the Garden of Eden. One is represented by Faery Queene Gloriana’s Faerie land in the primary world of fantasy, and the other is the recovered Una parents’kingdom in the secondary world of fantasy.Chapter Three takes monstrosity as a fantasy element whose representations in Book One of The Faerie Queene are the monster Errour in the wandering wood, the giant Orgoglio, and the evil dragon. Errour is considered as a touchstone of faith in this book because the struggle against it in the wandering wood could be understood as a kind of warning signal for Redcrosse Knight. Orgoglio is treated as a mirror which clearly reflects Redcrosse Knight’s inner desire and fear. The evil dragon is analyzed from the viewpoint of an evil intruder into the kingdom of Una’s parents. Its invasion is a symbol of Redcrosse Knight’s returning to the Garden of Eden, thereby, the consummation of his pilgrimage to Holiness becomes possible. In a word, the depiction of monsters in this epic helps to make the fantasy atmosphere of this book become vivid and attractive.