Sunday, March 11, 2012
Monstrous Man vs. Bumbed Beast Born of Broken Bonds
The texts we've read "treat the theme similarly in presenting the werwolf as a sympathetic character wronged by a woman — in the lays, a protagonist is locked into wolfshape by his wife" (Melion and Biclarel) Fear is consistently evident in one of two situations: the wives fear for their individual lives and seek out new protection in the form of alternate lovers, or fear of the truth of these once private familial affairs are revealed to the public. These motifs of fear tie in with those of shame, as when the beast must once again don his clothes to become man, and again the "betrayal condemned as the ultimate antisocial act."(Bisclavret) This fear for what has yet to be proven isn't baseless but is still in a sense 'not right'. Caution is a necessary for the survival of all beings, human and beasts alike, but trust just as love is "lauded as a socializing force in the lai"(Bisclavret)
Fear brings about the beast of sound mind which tears off the nose of his wife upon the sight of her visage which disgusts him. Once the man felt the bonds he once held dear with his wife had been severed, all the love and trust he had in her and for her, had become tainted and dark. However, this malice is clearly only directed towards the wife and lover if one is present in the differing texts, suggesting sanity guiding his malice. The women as are exemplars of distrust and in a sense death just as dogs today are exemplars of loyalty and bravery.
Violence is used as a means of acquiring both revenge and restitution for their ill placed trust. There is a sort of 'absoluteness' in the sense the men sought only to ease the minds of their wives so they would live comfortably while the women only sought the well-being of themselves. The question I wish to pose is, how did these characters know when to follow their instincts as opposed to making "sound" judgements, who was right/wrong, and why? "We see the damage that the monster wreaks"(Monster Culture) but is the monster not just a man? I'd also like us to consider what the term "monster" means.
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You raise the very important idea of Fear prominent in each story. However, I found myself judging the respective sources of fear a little differently. In Bisclavret, it is clear that the wife acts out of genuine fear and misunderstanding. When Bisclavret reveals his secret to his wife, she turned “scarlet with fear; / she was terrified of the whole adventure” (98-9). As she is consumed by fear, she resolves to give herself to a knight who for long had sought her love in return for his assistance in stealing Bisclavret’s clothes. She is overwhelmed by fear again when she is tortured by the King in order force out of her the truth of her betrayal. In this first tale, fear is decisively the motivating factor for the female character and the reason she perceives Bisclavret as a monster. At the same time, we see how the King and his court find humanity in Bisclavret’s begging for mercy on his life. So the triumph over fear erases the label of “monster” cast on Bisclavret.
ReplyDeleteThis fear dynamic is repeated by King Arthur in each of the other two stories; however I don’t find it functions quite the same way for the other female characters. In Melion the daughter of the King of Ireland does not appear to exhibit much fear at all when she betrays Melion. When he changes into a werewolf to hunt the stag, she simply finds it an opportune time to elope with the squire. Her betrayal is almost spontaneous – it was just very fortunate for her that Melion would be trapped as a wolf without the ring to change him back.
In Biclarel, the female exhibits clear premeditation for her betrayal. She tries so hard to coax the secret out of Biclarel. After she steals his clothes, she says, “I am rid of my husband, / In order to be with my beloved” (267-8). She already had a lover and was just looking for a way to get rid of Biclarel. The only time she exhibits fear is when she is attacked – so she fears for her own life.
Fear is definitely a factor in perceiving the “monster” but it appears as though the women themselves function as the antithesis for chivalric code and values.
I’d like to provide a bit of additional textual support for and expand upon the observations Sean offers here. I think pointing to fear as one of the motivating factors behind the female characters’ actions in Bisclavret and the other werewolf stories is very helpful, and the invocation of fear is a good indicator of the emotional range of these narratives. It is also worth noting, though, a shift in the motives attributed to these women in, on the one hand, Biclarel and, on the other, Bisclavret (Sarah alludes to this, below). In Biclarel, the confrontational wife has already, by the time her husband reveals his bestial secret, “given her heart entirely/ To a knight whom he loved./ Then she approached him with guile,/ And tackled him with deception” (55-58). In Bisclavret, however, the wife only changes her loyalties after she has heard the whole story: “There was a knight of that region/ who had loved her for a long time,/… She’d never loved him at all,/ nor pledged her love to him,/ but now she sent a messenger for him” (103-104, 107-109). Only in some cases, then, are these women’s devious activities conceived as fearful responses to the bestial Other. In the case of Biclarel, the appearance of the monster provides the opportunity for the outward expression of long-standing transgression; in Bisclavret, we see instead that the werewolf becomes the motivation for a wholly new and reactive transgression.
ReplyDelete--Matt Richey