The Faerie Queen

Faerie Queene Essay

Have you ever through that someone was the complete opposite of you? Well a foil is a contrasting character that helps illuminate the protagonist. In the first book of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, acts as a foil to Una. Duessa is a foil to Una because Duessa leads Redcross to destruction, while Una lead him to life. Also because Duessa resembles false religion while Una was divine truth, and finally Duessa betrays him while Una is always faithful to him. These are the three ways more explained.

One way that you can tell that Una is a foil character of Duessa is because Una’s name symbolizes divine truth while Duessa symbolizes false religion. Una speaks the truth and helps out Redcross in a time of need, while Duessa lies all the time, even about her own name. When we first meet Duessa we see that she calls herself Fidessa, which means faithfulness, which she is not at all (Spenser 2.26n). Throughout the whole book, we see Una helping out Redcross, even when he leaves her side, she still wants to figure out where he went, and find him. Una’s divine truth is also shown through her true, hidden beauty while Duessa has an outward beauty, but is truly ugly. This is the first reason that Duessa is a foil to Una.

Another way that they are foil characters to each other is because Duessa leads Redcross to destruction, while Una tries to save him and give him eternal life. Duessa took Redcross to the Palace of Pride, which is where the seven sins and Satan are represented (Spenser 4.26n). The Palace of Pride is made to look amazing, but in reality, it is just meant to be a place where people sin more, and if they don’t sin they could be killed. Duessa lead him to the Palace of Pride so he would meet someone he came across traveling and killed his brother, so he wants to get back at him. This leads Redcross to having to battle a man he barely knew. Una, however, lead Redcross to the House of Holiness where Redcross learns how to read the Bible, and the right path of love, which leads him to being saved (Spenser 10). Una wants Redcross to succeed while Duessa wants him to fail.

Finally, Duessa betrays Redcross while Una is always faithful to him. Duessa tells monsters such as Orgoglio and Sansjoy where Redcross is going to be and they come and take him to their dungeon or to fight somewhere. For example, Redcross was locked in Orgoglio’s dungeon for three months because Duessa lead him to Orgoglio (Spenser 8.38n). Una would always search for Redcross and never give up on him. She found a knight one time, Arthur, that helped h her try and find Redcross and help him fight while he was trying to regain strength from the three moths he was locked in the dungeon (Spencer 9.27n). Duessa is a foil character of Una because of all these reasons.