Symbolism In The Lay Of The Werewolf

During the middle Ages, in the medieval time period, ancient Greeks wrote that people can be transformed into wolves for years and then turn back into their human form. Medieval intellectuals wanted to dismiss werewolves as mere hallucinations. People believe they exist and thought they were either demons or men being punished for their horrible sins. Doherty states, “Marie de France was probably not the first woman to write poetry in the French vernacular. She is, however, the earliest whose name has been recorded.” In this short story, it is not the werewolf that is beastly it is the human themselves, which is expressed by characterization, conflict, and symbolism in “The Lay of the Werewolf” by Marie de France. First, Marie de France characterizes

By him telling his wife, conflict has already started. Bisclavaret’s wife wonders where he puts his clothing and he replies, “Within this wood, a little from the path, there is a hidden way, and at the end thereof an ancient chapel, where oftentimes I have bewailed my lot. Near by is a great hollow stone, concealed by a bush, and there is the secret place where I hide my raiment, till I would return to my own home” (598). After he tells his wife where he goes to put his clothing, she no longer wants to be with him anymore. She turns her love to a knight that always wanted her but could never get her. The night thanks her for her grace, “then she told him all his business of her lord—why he went, and what he became, and of his ravening within the wood. So she showed him of the chapel, and of the stone, and of how to spoil the Werewolf of his vesture” (599). Bisclavaret’s wife tells the knight everything she knows about Bisclavaret. The werewolf trustes his wife and tells her everything, not thinking she was going to betray him. When his wife betrays him, Bisclavaret was stuck as a werewolf and never