Images of inactivity in The Faerie Queene

Certainly at the heart of the devotion any reader has for The Faerie Queene is an appreciation for Edmund Spenser's mastery of the adventure story and for his portrayal of action and characters in action. Throughout the poem we encounter knights engaged in combat against the multiple manifestations of evil in the universe, their heroic endeavors constituting the poem's basic narrative action. Portraying these knights, Spenser emphasizes the necessity of action on the part of the knight who must persist in his quest as long as evil exists. For the knights continually confronted with the need for action in the never-ending battle against evil, the greatest temptation is, of course, the desire to rest, to be free of the physically and emotionally draining demands of the quest. However, as long as there is the possibility that evil lurks in the next forest, the knight must not falter, not, at least, while he has the physical stamina to continue; any escape into passivity courts disaster. Confronted with rival claims upon their souls, these knights must choose between the call of duty and the desire for rest and withdrawal from worldly cares. For the most part Gloriana's knights do not falter; they fulfill their chivalric obligations, constantly acting and reacting at every turn. But what of the knight who falters, turns aside from his quest, and fails to act? In a work filled with examples of the active battle of good against evil, the knight who fails to act seems a strangely inactive figure who contrasts noticeably with the moving, active figures of Spenser's Faery Land.

Although the appearance of one motionless figure would not be momentous, when this figure appears repeatedly, the alert reader cannot fail to notice. Indeed, the alert reader of The Faerie Queene will notice that one of Spenser's most characteristic techniques is the repetition of similar episodes or images that develops into a recognizable pattern of imagery. The use of these patterns is one way in which Spenser reveals to his readers the moral of his poem. Therefore, the message of The Faerie Queene emerges not only through characters whose actions direct us to the moral of the poem, but also through images that serve as "moral signposts," part of the poem's "system of warning devices" that colors and refines our understanding of Spenser's moral vision. Certainly one image pattern that constitutes part of the poem's system of warning devices is that of the inactive figure.

Chapter II of this study is a general discussion of inactivity and the quest and of Spenser's method of employing image patterns and a system of warning devices to shape the moral message of his poem and an examination of the knight and his quest against evil as the cornerstone of Spenser's moral universe. This chapter covers the quests of Britomart, Cymochles, and the Red Crosse Knight and constitutes an examination of the quest as a moral struggle against evil.

Chapters III and IV take a more particular approach to inactivity and the quest. Devoted to the quests of Guyon and the Red Crosse Knight, these chapters constitute an examination of the quest as a spiritual struggle against sin and of inactivity as a symbol of surrender to sin.

Chapter V focuses on inactivity and the quest as they relate to Spenser's darkening moral vision, occasioned by the poet's growing realization of the disparity between his dream of an Edenic moral universe and the reality of a fallen world. This darkening vision gave birth to the disillusionment of Books V and VI of The Faerie Queene, reflected in the failures of Artegall and the withdrawal of Calidore.

Finally, Chapter VI concerns the Mutability Cantos and Spenser's vision of the divine plan of God that maintains a moral universe and of the end of time, when God, having defeated sin, will create a new world where man, his earthly battles over, will be admitted to the peace and rest of eternity.

Such an examination of Spenser's images of inactivity and his system of warning devices will lead us to a clearer understanding of the poet's purpose in creating The Faerie Queene. Certainly we will discover that images of inactivity in the work reveal to us as clearly as do the triumphs of Gloriana's knights Spenser's vision of the moral universe that is The Faerie Queene.