Archimago is the main antagonist of Book I of Edmund Spenser's “The Faerie Queene”.

Spenser
uses this character as an allegory on moral, political and religious level. Archimago has been
interpreted as a symbol of hypocrisy, deceit and false faith. His purpose is to bring the downfall
of Red Crosse.
Archimago attempts to separate Red Crosse knight from the truth so that he gradually loses his
path and falls deeper and deeper into sin. He uses magic to disguise himself as a religious and
morally sound person so that Una and Red Crosse trust him. Red Crosse and Una represents
Holiness and Truth respectively. Archimago’s division of truth from holiness symbolizes the
threat of the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church against the English Church.

2. Edmund Spenser’s "The Faerie Queene" is a fanatic allegory celebrating Tudor authority and
Queen Elizabeth-I. In this epic he describes the adventure of The Red Cross Knight who is
appointed by (Gloriana) The Faerie Queen to assist Una to free her parents from the dragon’s
prison. On their journey they encounter a terrible monster Error. This monster is presented as a
horrible creature with the face of a woman and the rear part a serpent. The significance of the
fight is discussed below.
The Red Cross Knight’s heroic and bloody encounter with monster error is one of the main
attractions of “The Faerie Queene”. At one point of this fierce fight the Knight found himself in
the grip of the monsters powerful tail. At that time, Una shouted to the Knight to show his
bravery. She suggested him to have faith in Jesus Christ and to fight bravely. The Knight
gathered courage and released himself from the grip of the monster’s tail. He grabbed the
Monster by the throat with such force that she vomited on Red Cross disgusting poison filled
with books papers frogs and toads. The smell of the vomit is so bad that Red Cross loses his
strength. Seeing this The Monster unleashed all her little offspring on him. They were annoying
but were unable to hurt him. Ultimately, the Knight succeeded to kill the monster by cutting off
its head. Her offspring now freak out and started drinking her blood. After drinking their
mother’s blood they burst apart and died. The Lady Una congratulated him on his victory.
Significance of the fight: The Red Crosse stands for Holiness, righteousness. He is called Red
Cross to symbolize the blood of Jesus Christ who was crucified on the cross. Lady Una stands
for Truth. Her parents symbolize Humanity. The Dragon is a symbol of Devil or Satan. This
fight between the night and the monster also reflects the conflict between Protestantism and
Catholicism in England. The vomit contains books and papers which represents the books and
documents to advocate the false belief and false religion. The offspring represents the self-
defeating nature of the evil. She is named Erruor to represent error or mistakes people make. To
succeed in good deeds one has to overcome error. When Holiness is supported by truth, it can
defeat the enemy quite easily.