Disease And The Anxiety Of Religious Identity In Spenser’s The Faerie Queene

Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene is a significant national epic,which profoundly reveals the political,cultural and religious conditions in Elizabethan time.Spenser lived in the second half of England Reformation which was full of fierce and complicated religious conflicts.Therefore,the issue of religion has constantly drawn great attention in Spenser study.For a long time,Spenser critics have explored the religious stand of Spenser from the perspective of the historical background,religious ceremony,and the organization of church,and reach the conclusion that Spenser is a devout protestant who resists the Roman Catholic and advocates Queen Elizabeth’s Protestant policies,aiming to promote the establishment of Protestant identity in England.However,little attention has been paid to the anxiety of religious identity behind his promotion in Spenser’s works.This thesis tries to explore the anxiety of religious identity from the perspective of disease in Book 1 and Book 2 of The Faerie Queene.In fact,disease in The Faerie Queene does not merely refer to physiological disease,but more importantly,to the metaphorically treated disease,it is closely related to politics,morality,and religion and so on.The thesis holds that disease is an important carrier for Spenser to express his anxiety of religious identity.Disease can not only reveal the threat and attack from the Catholic and Islamic powers to England Protestant identity,but can also reflect the anxiety of the protestants about their oblivion and loss of religious identity.In front of crisis,Spenser,as a national physician,applies the medical purgation to the recovery of national health,and advocates heavenly virtues for a better consolidation of Protestant identity in England.The introduction mainly focuses on people’s understanding of disease in Elizabethan time.In that time,people’s view of disease is under influence of ancient Greek philosophy,The Holy Bible,the four-humor theory as well as the physiology of Paracelsus.Furthermore,their idea of disease is closely related to politics,society,culture,and religion at that time.This part also summarizes the criticism on disease in The Faerie Queene.Chapter one is about the analysis of the diseased Catholic and Islamic power.The Catholic and Islamic figures in The Faerie Queene are infected with syphilis and plague.The vomit of Serpent indicates his infection of plague.The misshaped and diseased body of Duessa shows her suffer of syphilis,and the Islamic characters,Cymochles and Pyrhochles also suffers from syphilis.The contagious disease puts the holy knights and the pure female figures who are usually treated as the shadow of Queen Elizabeth in danger,which vividly reveals the threat and attack of Catholic and Islamic powers to Protestant identity in England,therefore the anxiety of religious identity is triggered.Chapter two discusses the bodily and spiritual disease the knights suffer from.Disease cannot be merely regarded as invasion or threat from “other”.It can be also treated as the punishment of God for human’s sin.Redcrosse’s abandonment of Una,and Guyon’s department from Palmer are the signs of their betrayal of God.The consequence of their abandonment of God’s grace is their infection of bodily disease.In addition,the two knights also suffer from spiritual disease,extremely reflected in their moral corruption.The cause of their suffering is their betrayal of God,and their oblivion and loss of religious identity,which subsequently arouses the anxiety of religious identity.Chapter three illustrates Spenser’s way of reducing the anxiety of religious identity.Spenser not only presents the anxiety of religious identity with disease in The Faerie Queene,but also cares about the way of reducing this kind of anxiety.Spenser fashions himself as a national physician.The medical purge he suggests refers to dispel disease in human body to recover health.Meanwhile,it also means to control the Catholic and Islamic powers in order for the health of England and the consolidation of Protestant identity.Apart from that,the virtues advocated by Spenser also play a positive role.The advocating of virtues aims to “fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline”,and it also intends to intensify and consolidate the religious identity among Protestant group.The thesis ends with a brief summary of the general ideas in the above chapters and a further discussion about Spenser’s understanding of religious identity.