In Edmund Spenser's epic novel titled The Faerie Queene, the author takes the reader on a journey with the naïve Red Cross knight on his path to finding sainthood. On the Knights of the Red Cross's journey to sainthood, he meets two very different women who will influence his journey to becoming a virtuous man. The first woman the Red Cross meets is Una, a woman who represents the innocent, purity and truth. One is beautiful and graceful, but seems to be the strong force that leads the Knight of the Red Cross towards a more virtuous life. To oppose the truth in Una, Spenser creates Duessa a juxtaposition to Una's personality. The Red Cross encounters trouble when he is deceived by the evil Duessa who represents duplicity, falsehood and deceit. Duessa, like Una, appears to be very beautiful but her appearance, like her personality, is deceiving. Unlike Una, Duessa's beauty is only skin deep, a detail the Red Cross Knight learns the hard way. Throughout the epic novel, Spenser paints the depiction of 16th century women through a variety of female figures. While women like Una and then Caelia and her daughters represent grace and faithfulness in women, other figures like Duessa and Errour represent the falseness and wickedness of women. Although Spenser created two very different types of women in The Faerie Queene: Book One, the two types of women are similar in that they appear to be very strong at times and very weak at others. Why did a woman reign during the In the 16th century, women, for the first time, had power within society. While many sixteenth-century authors depicted women as mere damsels in distress, Spenser portrays the play's two main women as potentially strong women....... center of card......, Jr., Harry . "Sexual and Religious Politics in Book I of Spenser's "Faerie Queene." "Fidessa/Duessa of the Redcrosse Knight." Philological Studies 109.3 (2012): 192-198. Premier of Academic Research. Web.Jeyathurai, Dashini Ann. "Exorcising Female Power in The Faerie Queene: The Treatment of Duessa in the Book of Holiness." Lethbridge University Research Journal. 3.2. 2008 Web. Jordan, Richard Douglas. "One Among The Satyrs The Faerie Queene, 1.6." Modern Language Quarterly 38.2 (1977): 123. Academic Research Premier. Web. 22 April 2014.Spenser, Edmund. “The Fairy Queen, Book 1.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Ninth Edition: Volume B. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 781-934.