Nightmares in The Faerie Queene

There's a lot I want to say here, but I think I'll limit my post to dreams in this text. At the outset, we can clearly say that the protagonist or character of primary concern in the text is man, and we are shown glimpses of his dreams and how they affect his judgment and virtue. Saying this reminds me a little of Inception, but I have come to believe that in literature, what is depicted in a dream state often means one of a two things.. that whatever is dreamt of is an ideal for which the dreamer longs, or it is an idealized tragedy of which the dreamer is terrified. In both cases, the dream is highly unrealistic, but also highly indicative of the dreamer's sensibilities toward his or her own life, the world, and whatever characters or images present themselves in the dream. Also, for an author to insert a dream state into a work of poetry or prose, I think they have to ask themselves what would be an illusive (although realistic enough to fear or conceivable enough to hope in) reality. When they do, and when they insert the answer into the narrative of the dream state, I can't help but think we get a glimpse into the author's sensibilities.

That said, the dreams in the The Faerie Queen are haunted by evil women who mean harm to the man in the play and cause him to lose faith in his own identity and purpose. They function solely to cloud male judgement, using seduction and sexuality as their primary weapons of war. In my opinion, this sort of relationship between man and women indicates a few basic assumptions that the author brought to the table in writing this: men are the center of the world. What matters most is whether or not they can remain brave and virtuous, no matter the opposition. Women make it hard for men to do that, and should be thought of us distracting objects rather than valuable beings. The primary contribution women make to the world--that is, the only reason they're good for anything--is that they can be had sex with. They are "tempting" to men for sex, but otherwise there is nothing particularly desirable or of much concern about them.