Good and Evil in Faerie Queen Book 1

Psychomachia is a literary concept named for a Latin poem by Prudentius. The poem dealt with the inner conflict within one's soul, between virtue and vice, through allegorical representations. This concept of an inner struggle became key to the developing Christian religion, and was refined dramatically in the medieval morality plays. Works such as Everyman, Piers Plowman, and Faust featured protagonists struggling with temptation, literally personified through the seven deadly sins (gluttony, lust, et. al). A variation of this involved the use of a "Good Angel" and "Evil Angel," one to encourage the tormented soul and the other to push the protagonist further along the path to ruination.

Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene delights in its use of symbolism to reveal the moral struggle of his characters and the journey toward enlightenment they must seek to fulfill their destinies. Theme and character are two important tools in which Spenser delivers his message of spiritual enlightenment and religious beliefs. Spenser uses the motifs of light and darkness through setting and character to symbolize the spiritual journey undertaken by the poem's main character, the Redcrosse Knight.
In all forms of literature, setting is extremely important in recreating a universe in which characters are able to enact their physical or spiritual journeys. Symbolically they can define character, time, or the obstacles that both inhibit and challenge characters to complete their journeys. In the Faerie Queene, Spenser creates a universe that challenges and serves Redcrosse Knight's spiritual journey toward enlightenment. Settings that symbolize spiritual enlightenment or degradation form the dual aspects of fairyland, the dreamlike universe that composes the world stage in which many of the poem's adventures take place.

Dark settings often symbolize places in which evil exists. Errours' Den, the dark cave the heroes first encounter on their adventures, provides a place in which the