In Marie de France’s lai Bisclavret, one has to accept the challenge of breaking previous perceptions and stories of a werewolf. She also confronts the themes of chivalry and courtly love that again go against what the reader might expect. Marie focuses on telling a story that is based on peoples expectations, but then reverses the savage roles within the beast and other individuals within in the story. She creates a lai that clearly defines the human experience by highlighting the potential for good and evil that is immanent within every individual, while also focusing how others tend to help in trusting, loving, and or fearing that potential. Marie de France uses imagery, symbolism, allusions, and repetition in creating a story that argues
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Marie writes, “there lived a nobleman/whom I’ve heard marvelously praised;/ a fine handsome knight/ who behaved nobly./ He was close to his lord/ and loved by all his neighbors/ He had an estimable wife/ one of lovely appearance” (15-21). In the lines we learn that this Bisclavret was of good nature and everything around him seemed to be pleasant. Marie describes his human features as handsome and that he had a beautiful wife of great respect. This backstory of the protagonist and his wife help shape the actual story. It gives the reader comparable features that they can relate to and help provide sympathy for the Bisclavret character, which will play out in the remaining story. It also gives the beast human elements that almost every individual strives to celebrate and achieve. This is where the reader’s expectations start to break down, as we learn what the wife’s recent concerns have been. She is troubled by the recent long absences of her husband and questions why he leaves for such a long, believing that he might be having an affair. Bisclavret bravely tells his wife the truth of his beastly transformation, even though doing so will in return cause great loss in his life. Marie writes Bisclavret’s concern by stating, “Harm will come to me if I tell you about this/because I’d lose your love/and even my very self.” (54-56). These lines …show more content…
She shows us how one battles with the inner beast in both the literal and figurative sense. By questioning the selfish nature in oneself, one can subdue the savage side of our human existence. Marie also counters that message with alluding to that if one indulges in the self-absorption without question than the results are detrimental not only to oneself, but to our children leaving the scars of our selfish actions imprinted for generations to come. Marie again tells us at the end of her lai, “The adventure that you have heard/really happened, no doubt about it/The lai of Bisclavret was made/so it would be remembered forever.” (315-318). This is to tell the reader that her story of Bisclavret is one of truth. This of course is again a playful way to feed into the werewolf lore one last time, while also actually stressing the “truth” in her message and the poem’s meaning. It is a clever and useful way to guard herself from making up a story in the folklore category and to defend those who doubt her overall
Marie writes, “there lived a nobleman/whom I’ve heard marvelously praised;/ a fine handsome knight/ who behaved nobly./ He was close to his lord/ and loved by all his neighbors/ He had an estimable wife/ one of lovely appearance” (15-21). In the lines we learn that this Bisclavret was of good nature and everything around him seemed to be pleasant. Marie describes his human features as handsome and that he had a beautiful wife of great respect. This backstory of the protagonist and his wife help shape the actual story. It gives the reader comparable features that they can relate to and help provide sympathy for the Bisclavret character, which will play out in the remaining story. It also gives the beast human elements that almost every individual strives to celebrate and achieve. This is where the reader’s expectations start to break down, as we learn what the wife’s recent concerns have been. She is troubled by the recent long absences of her husband and questions why he leaves for such a long, believing that he might be having an affair. Bisclavret bravely tells his wife the truth of his beastly transformation, even though doing so will in return cause great loss in his life. Marie writes Bisclavret’s concern by stating, “Harm will come to me if I tell you about this/because I’d lose your love/and even my very self.” (54-56). These lines …show more content…
She shows us how one battles with the inner beast in both the literal and figurative sense. By questioning the selfish nature in oneself, one can subdue the savage side of our human existence. Marie also counters that message with alluding to that if one indulges in the self-absorption without question than the results are detrimental not only to oneself, but to our children leaving the scars of our selfish actions imprinted for generations to come. Marie again tells us at the end of her lai, “The adventure that you have heard/really happened, no doubt about it/The lai of Bisclavret was made/so it would be remembered forever.” (315-318). This is to tell the reader that her story of Bisclavret is one of truth. This of course is again a playful way to feed into the werewolf lore one last time, while also actually stressing the “truth” in her message and the poem’s meaning. It is a clever and useful way to guard herself from making up a story in the folklore category and to defend those who doubt her overall