Faerie Queen Edmund Spenser opens, prefaces, and introduces The Faerie Queen with a letter addressed to Sir Walter Raleigh. In this letter, Spenser outlines his intention behind writing the epic poem, "Which For That It Giveth Great Light to The Reader." Spenser writes, "The generall end therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline." To accomplish this goal, The Faerie Queen features "the historye of King Arthure, as most fitte for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many mens former workes, and also furthest from the daunger of envy, and suspition of present time." Spenser thus explains why The Faerie Queen alludes to the Arthurian legends; the hearkening to the past is no small accident. The author hopes to engender in the reader a sense of lofty ambition, hope, and courage that the Arthurian legend represents. In so doing, Spenser also creates the central tone, theme, and motif of The Faerie Queen. The Faerie Queen also alludes to ancient Greek philosophy and literature, Spenser states in the opening letter to Sir Walter Raleigh. Spenser draws a connection between King Arthur and the Aristotelian virtues, creating a portrait of the ideal man. He writes, "I labour to pourtraict in Arthure, before he was king, the image of a brave knight, perfected in the twelve private morall vertues, as Aristotle hath devised, the which is the purpose of these first twelve books." Spenser achieves his goal of fashioning a "gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline" through tone, characterization, and symbolism. In so doing, Spenser presents his ideal social norms.

In the letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, Spenser writes about "the deedes of Arthure applyable to that vertue which I write of in that booke." Arthur's deeds, his acts, and his reactions to life are what reveal the King to be the emblem of all that is good, noble, and in vertuous and gentle discipline," For this reason, Spenser uses Arthur to instruct his readers how to become the ideal human being....

However, it is not only Arthur that exhibits the virtues of a human being. Different knights embody different virtues, or idealized characteristics. The characters in The Faerie Queen are highly symbolic. They are archetypes. "The first of the Knight of the Redcrosse, in whome I expresse holynes: The seconde of Sir Guyon, in whome I sette forth temperaunce. The third of Britomartis, a lady knight, in whome I picture chastity." The Faerie Queen represents glory, and her position of power is to bestow upon the Knights the tools of their salvation and their personal power.
The first book of The Faerie Queen brings up the topic of Christianity, and how it is important for the ultimate virtue. The Redcrosse knight approaches the Faerie Queen and asks for an adventure. It just so happens that a lady walks into the room "riding on a white asse, with a dwarfe behind her leading a warlike steed, that bore the armes of a knight, and his speare in the dwarfes hand." This lady's parents have been locked up in a castle by a dragon and she wants them to be rescued. The knight accepts the challenge, but the woman tells the knight he shall only go wearing "the armour of a Christian man specified by Saint Paul, vi. Ephes." By this, Spenser suggests that Christianity leads one to a virtuous victory.

Holiness is the particular virtue that the Redcrosse Knight embodies. The cross is a symbol of Christianity; it is impossible to be holy without being Christian. Because the cross appears on the Knight's shield, Spenser also suggests that Christianity protects one from death. The trials and tribulations that the Redcrosse Knight encounters -- such as the monster Error and the dragon -- are all tests of his faith and spiritual fortitude. Because Spenser writes The Faerie Queen in part to glorify Queen Elizabeth's official conversion of the state religion to the Protestant faith during the Reformation, the evildoers and enemies of the Redcross Knight symbolize not Satan but Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicism was an emblem of all that…