In
Edmund Spenser's fist book of The Faerie Queen, we are presented
with two allegories of truth and falsehood. Una and Duessa, respectively
embody these two figures that compete for our as well as Red Cross
Knight's attention yet as this site hopes to demonstrates their
very description conjures up some interesting connections to other
iconic figures. For Una these figures are not only "good,"
"true," and emblematic of the 7 virtues but also quite
collapsible to form a cohesive vision of what truth should entail.
The structure of these associations is linear where surface (textual)
value is a mimetic caricature of it exterior traits. On the other
hand, Duessa is by definition dual and as such her associations
are full of depth, at times deceptive and surprising, at times
blatant. However, this bares more investigation for what is truth
but figure that cannot be narrated. It is flat and stagnant in
terms of driving a plot, and it is to fiction and lies that a
reader as a writer must turn to find a plot that will engage its
reception and drive its creation. Thus truth can only be sough
after in or rather through the labyrinth of seductive falsehood
and its 7 deadly sins. So which path will you take?
