41 pages • 1 hour read
Natalie Zemon DavisThe Return of Martin Guerre
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1983A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Peasant Identity in Sixteenth-Century France
In the Introduction, Davis begins by addressing the ways in which history and literature remember peasants, and throughout the rest of the book, Davis focuses on this particular culture within French society. Her version of the story of Martin Guerre illuminates peasant life and identity in sixteenth-century France, and she addresses directly the social conditions of the peasant existence that could have produced such a brazen act of dishonesty as Arnaud’s fraud. In this culture, Davis sees a fluidity between truth and lies as the peasant culture seemed open enough to allow some fluctuations in morality. As well, Davis looks closely at the French legal system of this time, which accords peasants in need of legal assistance the same rights as wealthier members of society. Between detailed descriptions of their daily lives, types of employment, and family dynamics, Davis paints a vivid picture of peasant life that goes far beyond traditional comic depictions.
The Impact of Patriarchy on Women and Men
Davis traces the complications of both the female and male peasant experience in sixteenth-century France, identifying the different challenges girls and boys, and women and men, faced under a patriarchal system. Girls lived a constrained life, first attached to their childhood home and then to the marriage home that was decided for them. Boys too were given opportunities by their fathers according to their birth order and their position in their families, another reflection of a patriarchal system.
Davis claims that women generally needed to know how to operate, or even manipulate, the patriarchal system in order to get from it what they needed. After all, both the Guerre and the Rols families benefited from Bertrande’s marriage to Martin. However, the value of this required rite of passage to Bertrande and to Martin is unclear. So, when the patriarchal demands became too much for Martin, he could leave, which he did, but Bertrande was left behind with as little agency she had when she was committed by her family to become a wife in the first place. She had even fewer rights an abandoned wife who was unable to claim the rights of a widow; this reading might explain why Bertrande accepted a phony husband, if she was indeed aware of the difference between Arnaud and Martin.
Deceptions, Lies, and Other Fraudulent Behaviors
According to Davis, deception may be a typical and accepted part of peasant life in sixteenth-century France. For example, masks and costumes that hide one’s true identity were an expected element of casual fun, the true identity of an heir was sometimes obscured by a greedy family member, and stretching the truth was a reasonable way to create a viable identity. Travelers from the Basque region, like the Daguerres, changed their names to fit in with the local French culture, a practical decision only a few steps away from Arnaud’s more devious decision to change his name to Martin Guerre. A fine line must have existed between acceptable misrepresentations and unacceptable fraud.
