The Return of Martin Guerre Essay

Her trial, which started 10 months after the murders, was lead by what towns’ people called the “dream team” of lawyers. The jury had 12 men on it that believed that she was not guilty because after they showed her the skull of her father in court, she fainted, and because she was a girl. They thought that no girl was capable of committing such a crime.

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

Events such as marriage were shared and talked about and doing things as an individual wasnot common, like Martin originally leaving the village. Another example is that when the travelers came into town they were not seen as trustworthy even though they claimed that the person they called Martin was Arnaud. became suspicious not only of the strangers but also Arnaud.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the book "The Return of Martin Guerre" by Natalie Zamon Davis. Specifically, it will discuss the 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.

4. Mr. Erwin Martin, the protagonist of the story, was a small, intelligent, neat and precise man, who followed a rigid daily routine. He never drank or smoked and because of this it made him an exemplary employee at his firm. His boss even stated that “Man is fallible but Martin isn’t”. In terms of characters Martin is considered a round character. He is considered this because he is well developed and has many character traits. As the story progresses Erwin does some things out of character. One of these being, the plotting of the murder of his fellow co-worker. It does not coincide with his character traits and we can also infer that he is going through a change which might make him a dynamic character as well. Instead of murdering Mrs. Barrows with brute force, he “kills” her career by using his knowledge of his perceived personality against her. He does all these things in order to rid himself of Mrs. Barrows and continue his routine life.

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.

Also, she provides her spoiled character Bertrandes modern qualities, such as lying, deception, desire and betrayal are really appealing to the modern reader. At the same time, the Vigne has bias as well, in favor of the fake Martin. For instance, Arnaud’s characteristics, wit, brilliance, sparkle, deception, greediness, boldness and appearance can be found in a modern personality. For him, shining Arnaud as the heroic figure, the director’s bias is clearly obvious towards this character throughout the movie. Yet Vigne with his movie, characters, and themes is able to capture and keep the audience’s attention. I felt myself hoping he would win through (despite already knowing the ending). Honestly, I have put this bias down to the filmmakers, perhaps pandering to their star actor, (Gerard

Starters Davis is right in saying that Bertrande knew that the 1st Martin that arrived was not her husband. “When she saw him she, however she recoiled in surprise. Not until he had spoken to her affectionately, reminding her of things they had done in and talked about, specifically mentioning the white hosen in the trunk, did she fall upon his neck and kiss him;

Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War is a novel that is a personal view of the Vietnam War from the perspective of a Vietnamese soldier. Like the American novel “The things they carried”, this novel brings about the effects of war on people, and especially how it defeats the human capacity for things such as love and hope. Bao Ninh offers this realistic picture of the Vietnam War’s impact on the individual Vietnamese soldier through use of a series of reminiscences or flashbacks, jumping backwards and forwards in time between the events most salient in memory, events which take on a different theme each time they are examined. His main protagonist Kien, who is basically Bao himself, looks back not just at his ten years at

After a few years a man returns and says his name is Martin Guerre, everyone is pleased by his return. Later, a dispute over land occurs and then people start to question if this man is the real Martin Guerre or not. The case goes to court. During the trial, twelve years after Martin vanished, he returns and this time there is no denying who he is. However, there is one question that still remains, did Martin’s wife, Bertrande know about the fake Martin or was she too in the dark?

In the book, The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis, she gives an inside look on the world of peasantry life in France during the sixteenth century. One thing that really stood out to me as a reader was, how it relates so much to modern day views and how the people in the book, back in the sixteenth century, seem so much like us here in the twenty-first century. Some of the views were the same as well as the reactions to different conflicts throughout the text. Davis focuses more on the history of the people rather than hierarchies, like we have been learning about in, Teachers of the Inner Chamber by Dorothy Ko.

The story of Martin Guerre differs considerably between the film and the book. Natalie Zemon Davis’s book: The Return of Martin Guerre, was written after the film, which she also contributed to as an historical advisor. However, what ultimately prompted Davis to write her book was the need to make sense out of a film that was shifting away from historical evidence. Davis’s main objective was to examine what motivated people during the sixteenth century and whether they valued truth in addition to the film’s assumption, which placed importance on money and property.

The only thing that Arnaud and Martin really had in common was that neither was happy or had become very bored with their lives they were born into to remain where they were. The question in hand is, how could Arnaud successfully trade his identity for the identity of Martin Guerre?

In the 1950's the number of people living in the suburbs came to actually equal the number of people living in cities. This wave of people was due mainly to the availability of affordable housing; which allowed middle-class Americans to move to an area previously inhabited only by the wealthy. The houses and neighborhoods built in mass numbers on assembly lines came to look identical to each other. As a result of this, a model American life was created. People all around the country began to follow this model, and before they knew it a race to conform had begun. People no longer strove to be different, neither by ethnicity nor religion; they strove to be the same. David Farber, the author of The Age Of Great Dreams,

Tavington put Gabriel Martin under arrest for treason, and escorts him away, when the second eldest Martin boy tries to free his brother, but is shot and killed by Tavington. In horror, Benjamin Martin, holds his dying child in his arms, this sparks Martin’s involvement in the Revolutionary War.