ipl-logo

Return Of Martin Guerre Quotes

1027 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of women in the middle ages

Natalie Zemon Davis highlights Bertrande’s role in The Return of Martin Guerre. In doing so, she explores the little regarded world of female peasantry. Bertrande is a woman with two seemingly contradictory desires in life: a desire for independence and a desire to uphold her reputation as a virtuous woman (28). In a medieval society where womanly virtue is based off of obedience to the males in one’s life, these desires appear contradictory; independence in a woman is dangerous because she will be prone to disobedience, and disobedience would stain her appearance of womanly virtue. However, Bertrande manages to execute both of these desires throughout her life. Bertrande shows that a woman will fashion herself as much is possible in the confines …show more content…

With Martin, she only ever stuck to the duties a woman normally sticks to, but Arnaud is a merchant. When a woman’s husband is a merchant, she is allowed to engage in merchant activities as well, thus with Arnaud Bertrande’s sphere of freedom expands. She gets more opportunities to experience the world around her aside from the normal confinement a woman has to her house. Bertrande seizes this chance for independence to the fullest, and “What Bertrande had with the new Martin was her dream come true,” (44). For not only does she get more freedom with him by being a merchant, but she also fulfils her previous more mature independent desire for a partner she genuinely likes. Unlike Martin, Arnaud actually takes interest in her wellbeing and treats her with respect; this inspires the emotional bond that Bertrande shows she has for Arnaud when she tries to protect him from having his identity questioned. The dream continues to come true for Bertrande because she also gets the benefit of a good public appearance with Arnaud as she did with Martin. Due to Arnaud posing as Martin, in the public eye she is still the virtuous wife who is loyal to her husband no matter what they have been through. However, Arnaud is

Show More
Related
362 Words | 2 Pages

C3. a quotation that stands out to me is, “it was a wonderful picture: himmelstoss on the ground; haie bending over him with a fiendish grin and his mouth open with bloodlust, himmelstoss head on his knees” (50). This quote is significant because it demonstrates just how much the soldiers disliked himmelstoss. Himmelstoss is the most feared disciplinarian in the camps and he forced soldiers to obey ridiculous and dangerous orders because he enjoys tormenting them. The men are already angered by him but they now hear of His idea of a cure for Tjaden bed-wetting.

Read More
1120 Words | 5 Pages

The author uses a comparison and contrast between Madame Ratignolle and Edna Pontellier to show how these two ladies are different from one another. Chopin emphasizes how feminine Madame Ratignolle is to demonstrate how Edna seems to be an outcast from the Creole society. Chopin chooses to incorporate the appearance of the two ladies to support the fact that Edna feels like she does not fit in, especially when Leonce refers to Madame Ratignolle in some parts of the novel. How Conventionality is Being Challenged “She was blindly following whatever impulse moved her, as if she had placed herself in alien hands for direction, and freed her soul of responsibility.”

Read More
165 Words | 1 Pages

Part of Zemon-Davis and Engel’s differences is the nature of the type of book they wished to write, as well as the time periods of which they wrote. The seventeenth century was not as revolutionary for women as the post-Great Reforms Era of nineteenth-century Russia when everything, for everyone, was changing. “Static” and “value” are by no means mutually exclusive and a picture of the static reality for many women is not unimportant picture to write, especially considering the silence that has been the reality of so much of women’s history. Likewise plotting a narrative to understand philosophic changes in authority and how they affected the populous, especially those on the periphery, is not inherently more valuable. However, the difference

Read More
574 Words | 3 Pages

Jacques inherits some land and money from a family member that passed away and once Jeanne finds out, her persona changes for Jacques. Jacques asked for Jeanne’s hand in marriage and Jeanne accepted. Soon after the proposal, Jeanne was already imaging what her life would be like when Jacques dies saying “Simon would be overjoyed to marry into a country estate” (Robins 164).

Read More
1456 Words | 6 Pages

Chivalric romances are often centered upon the efforts of gallant knights seeking to achieve a concept known as “true knighthood” which involves embarking on quests or adventures to obtain honor, love, and Christian virtue. The brave knights of these stories are met with many obstacles to overcome, commonly in regards to rescuing or protecting a lady. In other words, the typical role of women in this period is that of the damsel in distress or a helpless, dependent lady in need of a hero. However, the stories of Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain, the Knight of the Lion and Friedrich Heinrich Karl La Motte-Fouqué’s The Magic Ring strays from the typical role of women as the damsel in distress.

Read More
767 Words | 4 Pages

As well as underestimating the piety that Bertrande had, Davis may also have overestimated the magnitude of freedom granted to a peasant woman in this place and time period. Women were not yet granted nearly as much freedom as men, and in comparison to today’s standards were under oppression. It is highly unlikely that Bertrande would act with as much freedom as Davis portrays. Bertrande was a young housewife in a peasant village, who may or may not have had the sort of feminist capacity and knowledge required for acting in the way Davis portrays. The women at the time were probably taught to unconditionally obey the man of the house and could do little to improve their circumstances merely on their own.

Read More
222 Words | 1 Pages

The lack of traditional sources pertaining to the lives of the ordinary people at social historians’ disposal, combined with the gendered expectations deeply embedded in eighteenth century European society, truncates one’s understanding of the lives of ordinary women. Regardless of where such a method falls short with men, there is little to be gleaned from examining the reading habits of women, as, despite the surge in literacy from 1600 to 1800, women “lagged behind men in most countries”(McKay 669). There is even less clarity in Darnton’s Great Cat Massacre, as the closest Darnton gets to unearthing the lives of eighteenth century French women occurs in the connection he finds between cats and female sexuality (Darnton 95). Albeit this connection

Read More
441 Words | 2 Pages

As a feminist growing up in a increasingly feminist society, The Wife of Marin Guerre struck a note for me more so than the movie. Love is beautiful, however, when someone gets a love they don’t deserve from someone they don’t deserve, that lacks justice, and justice occurs naturally around us through the principle of karma. Bertrande is a strong and empowered woman. This wasn’t an ordinary personality trait for women in the 1500’s. In fact, in countless towns, it was frowned upon.

Read More
849 Words | 4 Pages

He, unlike Edna, cannot escape the confines of society as Edna is still married to Leonce, a fact that he is well aware of. Edna has embraced her awakening and has rejected societal norms; however, Roberts’s unreciprocated love serves as a sign to Edna that she is truly alone in her awakening. The relationship between Edna and Robert serves as a constant reminder that Edna is still confined by social

Read More
1455 Words | 6 Pages

This proves itself by how Claudette took on a large dose of self-confidence and independence. At the installation of the fourth section, Claudette ignored Jeanette’s need for help and continued with what she needed to accomplish for herself to be successful at the time. Claudette’s confidence and independence shows her understanding of situations and comfort in her new life. Further along in the fourth stage, when the Debutante Ball began, Claudette had her hair swept “back into high, bouffant hairstyles” and was “wearing a white organdy dress with orange polka dots” while eating fancy hors d’œuvres (Russell 242). This display of comportement further shows her confidence and acclimation to the human culture through her ability to stand the high class situation.

Read More
1731 Words | 7 Pages

What is most shocking is that Montaigne’s disdain for women extends even to his own daughter. In speaking about his education system, Montaigne notes that “…even if my hopes for her should be disappointed, there will be enough other causes for blaming my educational system... I should have followed it still more scrupulously with sons, who are less subservient and are freer by nature.” (Montaigne, p. 142). Montaigne had only one surviving child, a daughter, but instead of educating her well and treating her with the same respect that he would give sons, he blames her failure on her subservient and unfree nature.

Read More
1124 Words | 5 Pages

Edna’s marriage to Leonce “was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate. It was in the midst of her secret great passion that she met him. He fell in love, as men are in the habit of doing, and pressed his suit with an earnestness and ardor which left nothing to be desired” (Chopin 18). As Edna’s awakening develops, she begins to act out of character, driven by her inward desires. She starts spending more and more time with Robert, and while Leonce is aware, he pays no attention to the affair.

Read More
1533 Words | 7 Pages

For example, Fowles emphasizes Ernestina’s rigid persona, as she feels obligated to act and behave a certain way in Lyme, a town which “gave ladies an excellent opportunity to assess and comment on their neighbors’ finery; and of course show off their own” (Fowles 127). Despite Ernestina’s appeal to the Victorian status-quo of feminine behavior, her adherence to this societal ideal limits her ability to express herself in any other way, as demonstrated through her “unwelcomely artificial” humor, and the city’s “hidebound” and solemn nature (129). As a result, Ernestina embodies a sterile, rigid, and un-natural perspective of love, and is never truly happy; without being able to express what she wants, her marriage is only a piece of paper, meaningless and simply the result of a “market for brides” (129). On the contrary, Fowles depicts Sarah as the human embodiment of freedom, the polar opposite of “English solemnity too solemn, English thought too moralistic, English religion too bigoted” (129-130). And though Sarah may never

Read More
951 Words | 4 Pages

These ideals that Edna now has, have not just come from herself but also the women she surrounds herself with. On her journey of discovering herself, she forms relationships with multiple women who help shape her, specifically Mademoiselle Ratignolle, a devoted mother and wife, and Mademoiselle Reisz, an old lady who is a pianist. These two women who she meets stick with Edna through her path of not letting anyone control her as well as finding what she loves. They communicate with her about her struggles and what she wants out of life, helping her open up and express her frustrations she wishes to get rid of. Not only do they help her rediscover her passions, but they also introduce Edna to the world of music.

Read More
770 Words | 4 Pages

Kate Chopin introduces her main character as “Mrs. Mallard” to signify her being married. However, within her marriage, she loses herself. Being married, she took her husband’s last name and became a wife. In a way it changed her personality. She was no longer her own self, she was someone else’s “property”.

Read More

More about Return Of Martin Guerre Quotes

Related Topics

Open Document