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Who does 'you' refer to in the statement 'That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.'?

1) The speaker
2) A specific person mentioned earlier
3) Any person in general
4) The reader

User Amantel
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

The pronoun 'you' generally refers to any person, though its exact reference may vary depending on the literary context. It can direct towards an individual, an entire audience, or even the reader as part of a reflective experience, emphasizing universal human experiences.

Step-by-step explanation:

The pronoun 'you' in the statement 'That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.' refers to any person in general. This is evident from the use of 'you' throughout various pieces of literature, where it is often used to address an audience or invoke a universal quality or situation that could apply to many readers. The pronoun may shift in meaning depending on context, sometimes speaking directly to a person, other times more generally as to a collective audience or even to the reader themselves in a reflective sense.

For example, when considering lines from Ovid's Ars Amatoria, the advice is seemingly directed towards women of his time, yet the underlying message can be applied to anyone concerning the matters of appearance and societal expectations. Similarly, in the works of Horace, he addresses women directly, but the themes of beauty and morals transcend to a broader audience acknowledging societal pressures on appearance.

In the reflections on a poem, the 'you' might also give the reader an insight that blurs the line between the speaker's personal context and the reader's interpretation, thereby expanding the pronoun's reference to include anyone engaging with the text. Ultimately, 'you' functions as a versatile pronoun that can encapsulate both individual and universal aspects of the human experience.

User Tarasinf
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