A Deliberate Revenge At the end of the story “Bisclavret”, the werewolf punished his ex-wife brutally to punish her disloyalty. His revenge pushed the story to the climax, but what the story did not explain was how he planned for the revenge or if he even planned for it at all. The werewolf’s special identification as a mix of animal and man makes this problem confusing but interesting. By analyzing the story and applying theories like “The Prince” and “Homo Sacer”, this essay will draw the conclusion that his revenge was intended and planned out of human reason. The background of the driving question is that the werewolf has an ambiguous identity: a mix of animal and human. Revenge as an emotional action exists in both human and beast. Since in the story, the lord who changed into a werewolf …show more content…
But from the whole perspective, it is not saying that only human nature motivated him in this process. He not only had the essence of the human mind but also brutish characteristics. In order to avenge himself, he punished his ex-wife by biting off her nose. Also, when he was trying to please king, “To beg, he seizes the king’s stirrup-ring, and kisses his foot and leg”(France). This was really animal-like action; it seemed brutish and inferior. But he had no choice with a wolf’s shape and an idea in the heart to revenge. He held a rational plan out of human emotion and adopted some brutish methods to make it come true. There is a relevant statement in “The Prince” saying “…there are two ways of fighting, one with laws and other with force. The first is properly a human method, the second belongs to beasts…Thus a prince must know how to make good use of both the beast and the man’’(Niccolò). Beast and human feature served as two indispensable sides of the werewolf’s strategy. Physically, he was a combination of man and animal; mentally, he also showed characteristics of humans and beast