English Literature I & II: July 2009

Applying Literature inside the classroom.

“The Faerie Queene”: A Representation of the power of a new Female identity.

The following essay will discuss allegorical points of view in the poem; “Faerie Queene” by Edmund Spencer. By looking into the moral lesson in the poem, we are going to be able to understand the deeper dimensions that this knightly tale shows us. Moreover, through this discussion we are going to recognize how the Faerie Queene represented a construction of cultural aspects of the English society during the Elizabethan period.

Besides, this discussion will allows us to relate how literature and specifically the Faerie Queene contributed to be a representation of the literary ideal, as well as the new female image of the Elizabethan period, and how it created a social change. Furthermore, at the end of the discussion, this essay will guide us to find the reasons for using literature or a poem such as the Faerie Queene in the EFL classroom.

If we want to start to examine Spenser’s Faerie Queene we are going to realize that he used faery mythology to represent and celebrate a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. As an example of it the “Letter to Raleigh” provides the most direct expression of Spenser’s intentions for fairy and tells us how he uses the image of the faery queen and fairyland to present Elizabeth and her kingdom.

As we can see the poet of the Faerie Queene used the allegories to show a representation of a perfect image that people must had about Queen Elizabeth I and her reign, as well as the values of the Elizabethan society in order to cause an effect on readers and to establish some sense of meaning for them.

Throughout the The Faerie Queene, Spenser emphasizes the importance of performing one's duty and accepting responsibility to complete the quest. Several heroic figures emerge during the course of the poem and each is given a question to undertake, a monster or demon to extinguish. Each time, the hero must overcome disadvantage and hurdles to succeed, but the importance of the quest is always the overriding concern.

Having provided a motivation for the characters to fight against everything and overcome different types of situation to reflect values that every men should have, Spencer proceeds to supply a topical identification for the allegoric character of Gloriana, the Faerie Queene representing different aspects of the most excellent and glorious person, as well as the most virtuous and beautiful lady.

Probably, all of these representations that Spencer gave to Elizabeth I may have plenty of theories to explain why the poet wrote in favor of the Queen. But, from my personal point of view I think that all of the characterizations that Spencer gave to the Queen were based on the hypothesis of the phenomenon of female power that women started to have in England.

Regarding to the female power that Spencer demonstrated in the Faery Queene we can see reflected the rule that women had in general as a specific and unique aspect of Elizabeth’s rule that was beginning to dominate through when Spencer was writing. Queen Elizabeth, the virgin Queen, had, by virtue her virginity, the singular opportunity to name her own heir and shape England’s destiny. In Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie Queene, the female characters hold the same power over their male companions.

At this point of the discussion we are able to see how the Faerie Queen figure is part of Elizabeth’s strategy to construct and manipulate her political iconography and idealized her representation as a Queen in order to legitimate her integrity and identity.

As I mentioned before, Elizabeth’s sex required a form of negotiation achieved through the construction of a series of mythological identities. All of the strategies used by Spenser in the construction of the perpetuation of the “cult” of Queen Elizabeth I were part of the creation of an ideal world where men behave with dignity and with truth and valor.

Edmund Spenser’s fairyland represents a world in which personal values were more important than greed or lechery. From my own perspective, I think that when Spencer was creating his utopia, he was also responding to changes in English life, as English society moves from the middle Ages into the Renaissance.

To sum up, on the one hand we can say that The Faerie Queene represents in an allegorical way the image of female dominion over male identity, because through the characterization that Spencer gave to the Queen, we as readers are able to interpret the figure that Elizabeth I wanted to spread over the English Empire. On the other hand, the poem gives us as readers the opportunity to reflect on the values that were important during the Elizabethan period, and through the image of the characters of the poem find in the hidden messages of this knightly tale some cultural aspects of the English society.

Clearly, until this point of the discussion we are ready to figure out how we as teachers of a foreign language can apply this kind of topic to our classroom. One of the main answers is to teach to our students the capacity of understand what they are reading, even though when most of the times they have to read old texts with different contexts or periods of time that they cannot empathize.

Consequently, we can say that it is crucial for teachers to empathize with our students and guide them when they are in the labor of understanding a literature piece. Similarly, we as teachers must teach our students how through reading they can find messages, so their attitude towards what they are reading must be active, instead of passive. In a nutshell, what I’m trying to explain is what we as teacher must do at the moment of bringing the literature into the classroom. As a first step we need to teach to our students how they can feel part of what they are reading in order to think in a critical way and in the same way practice with them the capacity of critical literacy.

Finally, as we may know literature is authentic material. In the case of The Faerie Queen we can see how through the reading and understanding of it, we are exposing our learners to deal with difficult unknown periods of time, indeed, students are also dealing with new language which expands their language awareness, so they can also used them outside the class. In the same way literature encourages interaction, we can bring discussions about a specific topic of a literature piece, such as the one we were discussing, the representation of Queen Elizabeth I in the Faery Queen.

Literature, also gives us the opportunity to share students’ feelings and opinions. In all respects, literature educates the whole person, by examining values in literary texts, such as the way in which Spencer showed his intention to make readers conscious about the attitudes that a person in the Elizabethan period must had. As we know, these values and attitudes relate to the world outside the classroom, and that is exactly the way in which a teacher can collaborate to students’ meaningful learning.