The Return Of Martin Guerre Analysis

In the book “The Return of Martin Guerre,” by Zemon Davis Martin Guerre left his wife on a long journey for twelve years and then returned. While he was gone a fake man by the name of Arnaud du Tilh came and took Martin place. He came in as if nothing happened ad as if he was the “real” martin. Martin’s wife Bertrande claimed not to know that the imposter was not her husband Martin. I believed that she did know that wasn’t her husband. How can you be sexually involved with someone and not realize that is not the man you married. There is no way she didn’t know that wasn’t her husband. I think that she didn’t want to believe it because she was in love with her husband and didn’t want to question him because of the fact that she missed him.

The Return of Martin Guerre, written by Natalie Zemon Davis, is the tale of a court case that takes place in sixteenth century France. Martin Guerre is a peasant who deserted his wife and family for many years. While Martin Guerre is gone, a man named Arnaud du Tilh arrives at Martin’s village and claims to be Martin Guerre. Bertrande, who is Guerre’s wife, Guerre’s sisters, and many of the villagers, accepts the imposter. After almost three years of being happily married, Bertrande takes the fraud to court under pressure of Pierre Guerre, her stepfather and Guerre’s brother. Arnaud du Tilh is almost declared innocent, but the real Martin Guerre appears in the courthouse. Throughout this tale, many factors of the peasant life are

Martin Guerre takes place in 16th century southern France, in a village called Artigat where the Guerre family is highly respected and is one of the leading families. Davis takes the story first of when the Basque Guerre’s arrive in Artigat and their quick assent in the village society. Davis explains that Martin’s father, Sanxi, arranged a political marriage with another high end family, the De Rols. The marriage occurred when Martin was just fourteen and Bertrande was ten. Davis does point out that even in the 16th century that was young. Davis shows the reader what life was probably like. She moves through their lives of Martin running away, his return twelve years later, and finally the imposer 's trial and execution.

In the book “The Return of Martin Guerre” by Natalie Zemon Davis it tells a story about a time in 1560 when a man named of Martin Guerre was impostered by a man named Arnaud Du Tilh. As an infant Martin’s father moved his family to the small town along the French and Spain board name Artigat. In his early teenage years while living here Martin marries a young lady named Bertrande. After being married for several years Bertrande became pregnant and had their only son named Sanxi.

In the spring of 1734, a fire occurred in Montreal that destroyed a hospital and 45 homes on rue Saint-Paul. Criminal proceedings were soon underway against Marie-Josephe dite Angelique, a Black slave, and her White lover, Claude Thibault. The majority of those who were present fled the scene, leaving Angelique on her own to prove her innocence. Twenty some witnesses filed before the judge, all of which were convinced that the slave of the widow Francheville was guilty, yet not one was able to place her at the scene of the crime, or be able to attest to having seen Angelique setting the hospital on fire. [Who committed crime, What does this tell us about their society Thesis Insert]

In the mid-14th century, the name Martin Guerre became quite popular amongst Artigat households. This man of two faces, who is known for his disappearance, didn't always have a life of secrecy. Mr. Guerre’s life grew its own shadows, becoming something rather unexpected. Natalie Zemon Davis dived into the shadows of Martin's life in the book The Return of Martin Guerre. Davis used written accounts and summaries of the Martin Guerre trial to create the book. Through these accounts she was able to write about why Martin left, why an impostor took his place, and the circumstances that brought about someone’s untimely death.

The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis was written to chronicle the practices of French lifestyle during the 1500's. Throughout the majority of 16th century France, it was common for the French citizens to be illiterate. This made the task of recording their daily events and proceedings difficult to record. In fact, it was rarely done. Natalie Zemon Davis, a well-researched historian gives the reader her portrayal of the village inhabitants by drawing from her in-depth research. Although Davis did not always have undeniable proof or knowledge of what life was like at the time, she was able to share her perspective and insights on how an entire community of people lived on a day to day basis. Since the legend of Martin Guerre and

The Tale of Martin Guerre has been retold throughout history in the forms of; a play, movie and a book. What makes this story so interesting is due to the fact that it stems from a real-life peasant court case which occurred in the 16th century. In the case, a man by the name of Arnaud du Tilh takes the identity of a middle-class family man by the name of Martin Guerre. He manages to take on the persona of Martin Guerre for a period of three years where he manages to both; increase the Guerre family estate, and father a child with Martin’s wife, Bertrande de Rols. What helped Arnaud steal Martin’s identity was due to the fact that the real Martin Guerre had left his wife and family eight years prior to Arnaud arriving in the French village of Aritigat. Twentieth Century historians Natalie Zemon Davis and Robert Finlay have attempted to provide historical reasoning for why the case of Martin Guerre became so popular. As this essay will show; both historians were constrained to the same archival evidence; however they used different methods of interpretation to come up

The main focus of the story is on Bertrande de Rols and her place in sixteenth century society, especially as a wife. At the age of nine, Bertrande was married to Martin Guerre who was a

War is a dangerous game, many people would likely agree to this, however, very few have ever seen a battlefront. The truth is that war, no matter how awful we can imagine it, is always exponentially worse. In Timothy Findley’s The Wars, Robert Ross, the protagonist,­ faces a situation that he finds difficult to come to terms with, and when faced with a similar situation later on in the novel, he must take drastic measures to reconcile the uncertainties of the past situation. Timothy Findley suggests, through the life of Robert Ross, that one’s need to reconcile the uncertainties of past experiences dominate our actions when such situations come up again in our lives. In the words of Hiram Johnson, a US Senator during the First World War,

The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis offers a detailed narrative of the famous story of Martin Guerre’s turbulent and unique life. At the center of this story lies Bertrande de Rols and her relationship with both her real husband Martin Guerre, and his crafty imposter Arnaud du Tilh (Pansette). Up until a certain point, Davis appears to be writing a straightforward retelling of the basic occurrences in Martin’s story (whilst citing various sources), devoid of any personal contentions. However, when Arnaud arrives under the guise of Martin Guerre, Davis begins to bring about an allegation of sorts. She casually begins to assert that after a certain point, Bertrande must have known that Pansette was certainly not Martin. While this

Davis’s monograph demonstrates the complexity of the story that Vigne failed to incorporate as well as to point out the differences of the interpretations between Vigne’s and Davis’s accounts. Davis provides a detailed description of the two trials of the accused imposter. The first trial occurs at a local court in Rieux, where the imposter is charged with stealing another person’s identity and impersonating Martin’s life, while in the film the trial occurs in the same village of Artigat. Pierre Guerre, Martin’s uncle, presents the charge of imposture. Davis argues that Bertrande implies her support for the accusation with the hopes that Pierre would lose the case against the imposter. Bertrande proceeds to protect herself by coaching the imposter covertly while publicly supporting the move by Pierre. Specifically, Davis asserts that the couple worked out a plan to follow during the trials to counter Pierre’s arguments. Bertrande “either by explicit or tacit agreement … helped him become her husband” (Benson 44). The trial declares the imposter guilty of the crime and sentence him to death, but he appeals the case.

History is built on stories that were handed down from generation to generation. The beginning of humanity started the beginning of history. Humans started with telling stories orally and then they begin to write them down for others to read and interpret. There are two problems with the way stories are passed down. The first is that when passing down a story orally words can be switched around, omitted, or added, this could mean that a story could be changed easily. The second problem with stories is that when they are written, people read them, and a person can interpret the story anyway they like. Two people reading the same story could interpret it differently and both of their interpretations would be right. The Return of Martin Guerre

Natalie Zemon Davis’ The Return of Martin Guerre depicts the peculiar historical life behind the trial of Martin Guerre and his wife Bertrande de Rols, whose lives were infiltrated by the imposter, Arnaud du Tilh. Taken place in Languedoc, France, the life of Martin Guerre a young peasant man, in which his abandonment of his flourishing farm and lifestyle in the village of Artigat, created the historical trial of impersonating lies, held to justify the innocence of one’s word against another. In the visual effects of the filmographic film The Return of Martin Guerre directed by Daniel Vigne; visualizes the historical story of Davis’ work into the world of cinema. In the time span of two hours and three minutes, the viewer is presented with the mysterious revelation of the identity of Bertrand's’ husband Martin. While both the film and the book uncover the identity of Martin and his imposter, Arnaud, the representations of the uprising allegations against Arnaud in the film are in fact not equivalent to that of the book. Throughout the film, it showcased Bertrande as of a victim of Arnaud’s duplicity, viewing her as a pure wife who was caught in the lies. Rather than playing the victim, in the book she consorts a dishonest marriage within a period in which women were consigned to subordinate positions, holding the most important voice in the rising of allegations against Martin Guerre.

Poets frequently utilize vivid images to further depict the overall meaning of their works. The imagery in “& the War Was in Its Infancy Then,” by Maurice Emerson Decaul, conveys mental images in the reader’s mind that shows the physical damage of war with the addition of the emotional effect it has on a person. The reader can conclude the speaker is a soldier because the poem is written from a soldier’s point of view, someone who had to have been a first hand witness. The poem is about a man who is emotionally damaged due to war and has had to learn to cope with his surroundings. By use of imagery the reader gets a deeper sense of how the man felt during the war. Through the use of imagery, tone, and deeper meaning, Decaul shows us the