150-81 Flashcards
‘Lo Judith as the stories also can tell”
-The narrator and offering evidence to support his claims uses stories from the old and new Testament from mythology and legend and from everyday life
“Abigail/ saved her housband” “Esther by good council delivered”
The first two are drawn from the Bible and apocrypha
-The knowledgeable reader will be aware that Rebecca: helped Jacob deceive Isaac to receive the blessing
-Judith’s; heroism arises because she saved her people by seducing Holofernes than decapitating him as he slept
-abigail; successfully pleased for the life of her husband with her please charmed King David so much that he later married to her
-esther like Judith saved people by betraying her man
-The messages clear either the narrator is a poor biblical scholar or the passage is heavily ironic as all the paragraphs of female virtue share one characteristic and that each betrayed a man who would place particular trust in her
-They all contradict January argument wives a passive obedient
-They highlight the view of women’s agency and ability to manipulate circumstances
“They been so knit their may noon harm bitide and namely upon the wives side”
The narrator is allegedly “quoting the ancient classical authority Seneca and Cato advising that if a man does everything his wife says gives her all his good and loved her as if they were one no harm will come to him
-The final line makes already plain by modifying the session no harm before the wife at any rate
Also ironic as this is exactly what January does and he still gets betrayed by may
“She shall command and thou shalt suffren it”
Highly ironic presenting the contradictory idea that husband should both tolerate in control their wives
-Contradicting the passage before in that woman must do as their husband says
“Love wel thy wife”
The imperative verbs suggest moral instruction reinforcing the idea that marriage is duty rather than a personal choice
“Love your wife as well as Christ loves church”
Ironic as January’s own motivations for marriage are far from selfless or spiritual but driven by lust and self pleasure
