The Faerie Queen In The Faerie Queene, Spenser creates an allegory: The characters of his far-off, fanciful "Faerie Land" are meant to have a symbolic meaning in the real world. In Books I and III, the poet follows the journeys of two knights, Redcrosse and Britomart, and in doing so he examines the two virtues he considers most important to Christian life--Holiness and Chastity. Redcrosse, the knight of Holiness, is much like the Apostle Peter: …
showed first 75 words of 1918 total

showed last 75 words of 1918 total
…with reason can you aye reprove, / To love the semblant pleasing most your mind, / And yield your heart, whence ye cannot remove (III.ii.40)." That is, love is in accord with reason, is not tainted by lust, and is fated anyway, so why resist it? Britomart resists because she cannot admit that any feeling so strong can still this negative view of the virtue is what she must change in the course of the Book.