Love, Pain, and Loneliness in Book III of The Faerie Queene

Abstract

This dissertation offers an overview on the themes of love, pain, and loneliness in Book III of The Faerie Queene. Each chapter will discuss a specific theme. However, the main focus will be on loneliness, as my research found it to be the least covered out of the three by the existing literature, in spite of its pervasiveness in the Book. The aim of the dissertation, therefore, is to shed light on the theme of loneliness and its role in Book III, especially in relation to love and pain. The research was carried out using primary and secondary sources. The primary source consisted in the Poem itself, with special attention devoted to Book III, dedicated to the virtue of Chastity, in which different types of love and desire are presented. In particular, five soliloquies from Book III will be highlighted in the dissertation, given their relevance and illustrative nature with regard to the topics which will be covered. The secondary sources included academic texts and some of Spenser’s own writings. Through my research, I found numerous examples of characters dealing with loneliness, both as an attempt to avoid pain and as a consequence of love. By analyzing their attitudes towards it, I found that loneliness plays a key role in the relationship between love and pain in The Faerie Queene, as well as in Spenser’s idea of Chastity. Therefore, more attention should be directed to this theme by the literature.