Edmund Spencers uses thermic imagery during the Redcross Knight’s struggle with suicide because of its biblical connections as well as its visceral way of expressing pain to the reader.
Before examining the use of thermic imagery in the Fairy Queene, the teachings of St Barsanuphius need to be examined. The St Barsanuphius’s readings assigned for today, “refer to spiritual works and to struggle with passions.” These teachings explain earthly passions/desires that are considered negative and how to overcome these feelings (specifically gluttony for my assigned section). Later in the reading, St Barsanuphius begins speaking about suffering and human’s ability to propser and grow from suffering. St Barsanuphius uses a particularly relevant simile that is stated below:
“As Gold heated in the furnace becomes pure and suitable for the royal crown, so a man from the fires of suffering, becomes the son of the Kingdom, if he endures from thankfulness. So believe that all that happens to you is for your own good, to endow you with daring before God.” (358)
Barsanuphius here is using heat as a simile to suffering. Just as the unprocessed gold must withstand intense heat and pressure to become pure, man must suffer in order to grow and expel his vices. The connections between heat and suffering are plentiful throughout most literary cannons, (specifically biblical imagery), as most depictions of hell are engulfed in flames.
The use of hot and cold imagery in The fairee Queene is not as simple as “hot means suffering and cold means relaxing.” Rather, there are contradictory (and somewhat confusing) uses of temperature making a distorted and nonlinear reading experience for the reader. For example:
“With fire zeale he burnt in courage bold, Him to avenge, before his bloud were cold” (40-41), “And brought vnto him swords, ropes, poison, fire, And bad him choose, what death he would desire.” There are several more lines that contain these thermic images, however, I do not have the time to examine them each individually. Ultimately, my argument is that heat in the Barsanuphius reading is used as a simile for suffering. The use of temperature in the Fairy Queen may somewhat reflect this idea, as well as provide an even more nuanced take regarding the complex (and often contradictory) nature of suffering and suicide.
***I used an Epizeuxis argument in this blogpost by examining the repeated use of words such as “fire,” “heat,” “cold,” etc. throughout the Faerie Queene.***