Religion and Politics in The Fairie Queen
As Una and Red Crosse are travelling along they come upon a fork in the road and they had the choice of the broad highway or the straight and narrow. The broad highway was representative of sin while the straight and narrow was representative of a good Christian. They took the broad highway and came upon a man to stand back and watch. Upon enterig the cave he came upona phallic symbol for his penis because women were seen as dangerous and extremely sexually promiscuous. She was the conventional representation of female demon. She continous to sin because she gives birth to monstrous creatures out of the womb and then they crawl back into her mouth only to be born again which also deals with our appetite for sin. Once Red Crosse has killed the monster, all of her spawn start to feed on her for her death will be thier life. Una reminds Red Crosse of how it was his faith that carried it through it.
Another example of religion is when Red Crosse and Una meet Archimago. Red Crosse is the epitomy of Prostestantism because he is always in the midst of the world doing things. Archimago is claimed to be like the Catholic church because he is a hermit in the middle of nowhere praying by himself, not doing the world any good at all. Archimago tries to do evil by separating Red Crosse and Una by sexual misconduct. When he comes to Red Crosse in his dreams he is successful in separating them because he tricks Red Crosse by sexual means making Uma look like a cheating temptress. Spencer makes it obvious in his poem that he is biased against the Catholic church while making the Protestant church look perfect and faithful.