The Bible is an infinitely plastic text. The Wife of Bath illustrates this plasticity, in effect, by reworking Scripture and shaping it to fit her specific argument. In an exploration of both the Prologue to the Tale of the Wife of Bath and the Tale itself, and through detailed references to the text and Scripture, it will be argued that the Wife uses Old and New Testament texts and values ​​to, in essence, deconstruct the paternalistic Church. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay From the first lines of the prologue, the Wife of Bath establishes that she will speak from experience and not authority. In fact, he keeps his word, because he subsequently reverses, contradicts and deconstructs established authority, primarily St. Jerome and St. Paul. The Wife recounts St. Jerome's interpretation of the wedding feast that Jesus attended at Cana, which he intended to imply that since Jesus only went to one wedding, it surely follows that, following Jesus' example, women are permitted just to attend a wedding. get married once. The Wife categorically recognizes and declares the absurdity of this statement, stating that nowhere in the Bible does it explicitly state that women can only marry once. As ridiculous as this argument may seem, it is no less ridiculous than some of the glosses the Wife herself makes on Scripture. The Wife of Bath is well versed in Scripture and seems to prefer to deconstruct the opinions found in the Epistles of St. Paul. , and, using them to her advantage, interprets St. Paul's advice that women should rule over their husbands' bodies as a way to extort sexual favors and exercise sovereignty over her husbands. The Wife boldly asks where in the Bible God forbids marriage or commands virginity, knowing full well that in Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, he "deemed virginitee/Moore parfit than marriage in freltee" (91-92). Yet the Wife continues by saying that Paolo limited himself to advising and not to commanding. The Wife believes that although virginity is purer than marriage, she prefers marriage and has a healthy, or perhaps more than healthy, appetite for sex. The Bride further deconstructs this traditional value by making the exuberant claim that Christ too would have preferred marriage to virginity, referring to the Gospel according to Mark, in which he compares chastity to bread made of "pure white seed" and to married wives like her same as "barley bread", which is coarser than refined white flour. Further deconstructing the Gospel, the Wife recounts that Christ chose coarser bread over refined bread to feed a crowd of five thousand, or in his own words, "to [refresh] many men, adding an element of sexual innuendo." (146). What Christ truly believed on the issue of virginity versus marriage is unknown, and the Wife takes advantage of this unknowability to add her own interpretation to the established values ​​found in Scripture, after all, if others like St. Paul and St. Jerome can interpret the Bible, what stops the Bride from turning it upside down? The Bride also declares that "virginitee is greet perfeccioun", but adds that Christ did not command perfection in all other respects, such as poverty, alluding to Matthew 19:21, in which Jesus warns of the danger of riches and says : "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow Me." However, the Wife is not shy in declaring that "He spoke to those who will live decently, / And the.