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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page paper which examines how Dame Alice (the Wife of Bath) uses biblical and classical references in an attempt to justify her lifestyle. No additional sources are used.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGbathpro.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
took a critical look at society during the Renaissance of the fourteenth century and didnt like what he saw. With his poison pen, he created a memorable collection of
social parodies entitled The Canterbury Tales. One of the most memorable stories, "The Wife of Baths Prologue," skewered everything from church hypocrisy to female sexuality. In it, the
five-times married Dame Alice (or Alisoun, the Wife of Bath) attempts to plead the case for her scandalous lifestyle by making several biblical and classical references to justify her position.
She begins by acknowledging that much of the criticism for her many weddings stemmed from the fact that Jesus Christ had only ever attended one wedding, at Cana
in Galilee. The Dame then argued that when Christ told a Samaritan woman that her fifth husband was not her husband, this was simply a males distorted interpretation of
what He meant. She went on to cite classical references of famous men in history (Solomon, Abraham, and Jacob) who had several wives without ever experiencing any type of
social repercussions: Lo, heere the wise kyng, daun Salomon; I trowe he hadde wyves mo than oon- As, wolde God, it leveful were to me To be refresshed half so
ofte as he- Which yifte of God hadde he, for alle hise wyvys? No man hath swich that in this world alyve is... I woot wel Abraham was an
hooly man, And Jacob eek, as ferforth as I kan, And ech of hem hadde wyves mo than two, And many another holy man also (lines 35-40, 61-64). Dame
Alice mentions that God advocates "to wexe and multiplye" [to be fruitful and multiply] (line 28), which is something she wholeheartedly approves of because of the implication that if it
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