Bertrande knew the real identity of "Martin Guerre" [i.e. Pansette] from the beginning, and took the opportunity to redefine her own identity, improve her personal life, and improve her status in the village. What sources did Davis use to reconstruct the story of "Martin Guerre"? Why was identity theft such a serious crime in the sixteenth- century France? Why did people consider an impotent couple to have been "cast under a spell" or "bewitched"? Why does Davis imply that widows were later persecuted as witches? According to Davis, what role did Protestantism play in this story (particularly concerning the concept of marriage)? Was justice served when the real Martin Guerre returned?
How could she not know? How could the 'widow' or wife of Martin Guerre not know that the man who slept beside her was not in fact her long-lost husband, presumed dead, but was plainly and simply an imposter, a man playing at the identity of Guerre? The obvious answer is that she did know, but chose to pretend that she did not. Else Bertrande would have been condemned like the imposter she took as her husband, returned anew to her home, but presumed dead.
As the original alliance between herself and Guerre was not a 'love match,' Bertrande deployed the unexpected appearance by her 'husband' (in quotes) from the beyond to her advantage. The actual husband of the woman, Martin Guerre, apparently left his wife Bertrande because of an argument with his father-in-law about different inheritance customs and thus original Guerre's relations with his wife's family were far from good and pure. The return of a different man was in fact welcomer than would have been the return of the real Guerre to Bertrande.
Unfortunately, Bertrande lived in a society where to steal a man's identity was a crime akin to murder. Property and life were synonymous for the residents of the small French village. Thus, long, long before identity theft became a contentious issue in the age...
By doing so, she is willing to provide an answer to a question that some historians would say is unanswerable, namely -- how could Bertrande be so deceived, and what would be her motivations in keeping up such a ruse? Davis suggests that her motivations were economic, personal, and social, and were the production of various historical forces, like the rise of Protestantism and the new value accorded to
Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zamon Davis [...] life of the peasant during the Middle Ages. This book is a fascinating account of a true case that happened during the 16th century in France. The book is also an excellent example of how the peasants lived in the Middle Ages, from what they ate, to how they traveled and what their family lives were like. This book shows that
Martin Guerre and his wife Bertrande? Natalie Zemon Davis's The Return of Martin Guerre chronicles the strange, true-life story of a medieval woman named Bertrande who was left abandoned by her husband Martin Guerre for many years, only to live with him once again when 'he' returned -- in the form of an imposter. For many years Bertrande lived with the false Martin Guerre, until the actual Guerre returned to
Natalie Zemon Davis' The Return of Martin Guerre chronicles a true story but Davis' historical work of nonfiction has the quality of a fairy tale because of its improbable character. The title character is a well-to-do French peasant that apparently disappeared, leaving his wife Bertrande de Rols in the status of legal limbo. In a world in which a woman's marital status was all-important, she was unable to divorce and
" Indeed, in the "marriage bed of the beautiful Bertrande things now went well," presumably in sexual cohesion, but also, in reproduction as two daughters were born to them." key part of the Davis story was the trial, in which Arnaud was accused of being the imposter that indeed he was. This is in effect a sidebar to the story, and a sidebar to the issue of "different historians...using different
France Rural Society in Early Modern France The main purpose of this report is to demonstrate my ability to first understand and then analyze historical works. The historical works for this assignment each focused on the rural society of early modern French times. The report's second purpose is to compare how the two authors present French rural society in "The Return of Martin Guerre" by Natalie Zemon Davis and "After the Black
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now