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Theme Of Destruction In The Faerie Queene

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Greed as an Excuse for Destruction in The Faerie Queene
Though the desire for excitement and adventure lives in everyone, even if the definition of such things varies for every individual person, it is safe to say there are some who are more inclined to achieve their desires rather than watch them pass by. This inclination is a driving force that can, and often does, lead to disastrous or unnecessary outcomes. In watching Redcrosse in the first canto of Edmund Spenser’s, The Faerie Queene, it is seen that humankind can be selfish and inconsiderate of who or what it may affect. So much so that a sheltered, nursing mother is ultimately killed when all she was trying to do was protect herself and her young. In the end, it was not the beast’s fault for her and her young’s peril; it is the fault of Redcrosse who, instead of listening to the words of his companions and thinking through his next move carefully, decides to act upon his greed and desire for fulfillment. This episode brings forth the idea that the error in a person’s ways is not brought out by an inability to decipher what they should do, but is otherwise dangerously expelled by the conscious decision to ignore what is ethical and proper.
Throughout all the twists and turns trying to find their way back from whence they came, Una, Redcrosse, and the dwarf stumble upon a path that “brought them to a hollow cave, amid the thickest woods” (1.11.6-7). While Redcrosse does not know that the cave belongs to Errour at first,

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