Classical and Contemporary Love

Edmund Spenser’s perception of love is not unlike that of John Donne. Donne proposed that “whatever dies, was not mix’d equally,” and in so doing made the claim that the burden of sustained love rests on the shoulders of both partners in a relationship. Donne’s love is fragile and under constant jeopardy, like Spenser’s. Spenser finds his own situation analogous to that of Odysseus’ wife Penelope, though instead of weaving a web of love that is ultimately gratified, Spenser’s web is rent to ribbons in “one looke” from his partner—he regretfully reports that years of loving toil can be destroyed in an instant. Spenser offers a situation that appears to both contradict and parallel classical imagery borrowed from The Odyssey. Spenser draws comparisons between himself and Penelope, though Homer’s perception of love as unshakable drastically opposes Spenser’s view of love as a fickle notion. The disparity between concepts of love is manifested in contradictions between Spenser’s own situation and that of Penelope and Odysseus.

Though Spenser appears to liken himself to Penelope—both he and his beloved appear to mirror her behaviors, as Spenser builds webs and his partner destroys them—the purpose of his weaving appears to be different from hers. Spenser states that Penelope “Deviz’d a Web her wooers to deceave,” though Spenser creates his own web in order to express an earnest affection for the woman he loves. The woman which Spenser desires destroys a woven web like Penelope does, but not to preserve a relationship, instead doing so in order to destroy or impede one. If Spenser can be said to represent Penelope and his beloved to then be Odysseus, there again appears to be a contradiction. Odysseus is known as being eternally faithful, a pious man constantly seeking a way home, a way to his family and wife. Spenser’s beloved, however, treats him harshly, denying his acts of love and attempting to quell his feelings with a cold stare. In addition to this, Spenser’s web is hugely unlike Penelope’s. Penelope’s funeral shroud was never described as being as frail as a spider web—in fact, it can only be partially undone via a great amount of laborious unweaving—but Spenser seems to believe his own web can be “broken with least wynd.” On the surface, Spenser’s relationship with his partner can be seen to be similar to that of Odysseus and Penelope, but, upon closer analysis, appears to be disparate. The difference between Homer’s classical tale and Spenser’s contemporary one seems to convey a difference between concepts of love as they have shifted across eras—Homer’s classical love is persistent and resolute, whereas Spenser’s contemporary love is fickle and unbalanced.