Analysis Of The Return Of Martin Guerre By Natalie Zemon Davis

The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis can be argued as a work of “good history” in today’s society. “Good history” is information from both recent and distant past that society can directly learn from in today’s culture. Carl Becker quotes that “History is the memory of things said and done”(Becker 223). The Return of Martin Guerre takes place during the sixteenth century in Artigat, a small town in Southern France. The story focuses on Martin Guerre and the peasants that live within the town. In History: A Very Short Introduction, author John Arnold states, “A historian should be like a lawyer: balancing conflicting accounts trying to establish the exact sequence of events, treating ‘witnesses’(documents) with dispassionate and

Coras decided that he trusted blood relatives above any of the other witnesses, but even here he ran into multiple contradictions. Legal technicalities kept him from arriving at a decision, and he became more and more frustrated. Coras rejected Pierre’s argument about Pierre’s ignorance of Basque because Guerre was only two when he left the Basque country, and it was entirely possible that he had never learned his parents’ native tongue. After eight years away from home, it was possible that he had forgotten what he did know. Coras distrusted Pierre Guerre because of Pierre’s admission that he had misrepresented himself as Bertrande's attorney before the judge at Rieux. Pierre also admitted to having participated in a failed idea to kill Pansette. On the other hand, Coras trusted Pansette because of his perfect recollection of Martin Guerre’s life, including the detailed and personal information given to him by Pierre. A principle of Roman law declared "that it was better to leave unpunished a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one"(Davis, 81). Based on this Roman law, at the time Pansette was found

They had decided to do what Coras originally stated and let Pansette go free back to Artigat with Bertrande. A man hobbling on a wooden leg appeared at the courtroom. He claimed to be Martin Guerre. And so it was. It is cloudy how Guerre heard about the trial in Toulouse. The judges sent investigators to Spain to check Pansette’s testimony about his activities there. The Parliament made the crippled man prove that he was Martin Guerre. Martin’s sisters recognized him as their brother, while Bertrande conceded he was her true husband. Pansette was sentenced to death by hanging for his crimes. Bertrande was spared based on her gender. Although the judicial system was different in several ways, it outlined how we prosecute and defend people in modern court