I HAVE ARGUED that a fundamental aim of The Faerie Queene, Book One, is to distinguish a specious from a valid mode of self-interpretation, and that the former's spuriousness is revealed chiefly in narrative terms, that is, in terms of where the protagonist's subscribing to it really leads him (to Orgoglio's dungeon by way of the House of Pride), as compared with where it seems to him to be leading (to knightly glory). On that basis, we might expect the contrasting genuineness of the latter ethos to be indicated in an equal and opposite manner, by the hero's actually attaining the goals a reformed mode of self-interpretation sets before him. And to an extent, that is what we do see; for once Redcross is schooled in the importance of performing his earthly duty to Gloriana, he promptly brings to a successful end the dragon-slaying quest he was previously disinclined and unfit to perform, and thereupon obtains both the earthly fame and the declared status of sainthood (see esp. II.i.32) that Contemplation has set out for him as the twin rewards of righteous obedience (I.x.59–61).

There is, however, another respect in which his very attainment of those rewards actually renders questionable the supposed reformation of his character. For the means whereby he secures a good reputation after slaying the dragon can put in doubt whether his self-interpretative regime is genuinely rectified, or whether instead the characters and narrator who collude in representing him as reformed should themselves be regarded with moral suspicion.