Bisclavret, one of the twelve lais of Marie De France has a unique perspective on the ‘supernatural’ and the ‘magical’. It is a story about a werewolf which represents the baron’s beastly other self, who had experience a lot of suffering because of his wife. It breaks the conventional norms of romantic and supernatural storytelling, and challenges ideas of both the genres. The wolf here is a magical creature because of its capability to turn into a non-human for three days and escaping everyone’s suspicion, additionally Marie speaks about the ‘werewolf’ curse as something that ‘often used to happen.’ The beast’s ability to communicate with the king not only raises the issue of the role of the animal within the human realm, but also develops the theme so widespread within Marie’s lais, of the relationship between the violent animal world and amiable social space of the court or town. The wolf is thus a metaphor of the animal nature of the human being which brings us to the question of how much of a ‘human’ the characters in the narrative are and the importance of conquering the beast within. Medieval romances were initially written for enjoyment and they have a ‘siren-like ability’ to lure the audiences’ imagination. Currently, critics have started classifying them, ranging from pure entertainment to a genre invested in ‘sophisticated …show more content…
The narrative makes us realise that each one of us battles the beast within, but the wisest and most virtuous of us make an attempt to subjugates the beast to logic. When the werewolf first approaches the king, the king is terrified but he can sense that behind this beastly nature is a man who is begging for mercy. As he is able to choose loyalty over selfishness, and accepts his beastly side, therefore conquering it, emerges victorious ultimately. Whereas his wife refuses to address her own vanity and ends up being banished from the kingdom with a legacy of nose-less