Q1. Discuss how the virtue of chastity is defined in Book III, Canto vi of the poem. Do we see different aspects of the banner virtue?
Q2. Discuss the Christian and non-Christian elements of the idyllic garden. Why is it significant that both elements are juxtaposed?
Q3. What is the significance of Adonis's unknown whereabouts in the garden and his purpose?
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Chastity in Spenser's Faerie Queen is does not merely mean virginity. Chastity is achieved through married love. Two babies were born and one was taken by Phoebe, the other by Venus. one represented militant chastity and the other chastity through marraige.
ReplyDeleteJ. Nolan
The garden can easily be seen as a kind of eden. There are beautiful birds and beasts but it has distinctly unchristian aspects too. It is here that Venus keeps Adonis so she can have him as her lover.
ReplyDeleteThe gates again can be seen in both christian and non-christian terms. If the garden is taken to be a kind of heaven then people who died enter through a gate and into paradise in line with christian faith but there is no separating of the wicked from the good. Also, in opposition to the christian theme, the young pass out into the world as the old come in.
J. Nolan