I find it funny how things turned out in Canto 11 of The Faerie Queen. Redcrosse and Una finally finds the dragon that is holding Una’s parents captive. Redcrosee is the underdog in this fight. The dragon is extremely strong and breathes out fire. Well Redcrosse gets hurt and magically, an unnoticed well with healing powers was around and Redcrose happens to discover it before he was about to get finished. Redcrosse gets healed and comes back stronger. Redcrosee strength surprises the dragon and it seems like the dragon would lose but then he gains the upper hand again. Well magically once again a healing tree appears and heals Redcrosse. What are the odds, seriously? And to make it even funnier, both times, he fell and there at the bottom were these amazing things to heal his wounds and make him stronger.
It’s just hilarious how these things turn out. Even though the hero really has no chance to win on his own, the author sets it up where the hero wins and the bad guy has no chance because there aren’t any magical things helping him out. I think it was in The Once and Future King by T.H. White where Arthur breaks his sword but he gets a new one right afterwards. Throughout the story, Arthur, aka Wart, gets magical help. It seems as if Arthur can’t be a good king without this magical help. In The Faerie Queen it seems just the same thing. Redcrosse cannot win without this help. It’s just the way the writer creates these worlds and events so there’s no way for the hero to lose. In reality, though, this will never happen. I guess that’s why they call this fiction or a fairy tale instead of the real world.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I think that it adds to the story the you know the main character cannot die. If the main character died then you feel that the book was not a good one. It is very unrealistic that there would just happen to be a magic well and grove of trees that happen to be where Redcrosse falls, but the book is fantasy. If there was not some magical element to the story it could not be a fantsy book. And with the parallel to The Once and Future King, I think that magical help is more believable because you know from the start that Merlin is there. In The Faerie Queene the magical help comes out of nowhere, but the wart's help is constant.
yeah red crosse was one lucky guy. or was he? (as you raised the point) i liked how you pointed out the benefits of the story being a fantasy. so, really, anything goes. i think it's neat that this "not being able to lose mentality" creates a feeling of lightheartedness throughout the story.
Post a Comment