Bisclavret - Marie de France

This piece was very interesting. It kept me engaged and wanting to find out what was going to happen. I was waiting for Bisclavret to come back and get revenge on his wife and her new knight. The story comes to an end quickly which was a little confusing, but Bisclavret did get revenge and became human again.

"'My lord,' the lady replied, 'It's true more than all the world I love you. You should hide nothing from me, nor ever doubt I'm loyal in any affair.'"

When reading this quote, I thought that his wife was being manipulative. That she was going to take advantage of this information and use it against him, and that is exactly what she did. She left her true love for a platonic realtionship, telling him the whole story. He took her husband's clothes as she requested, making her husband Bisclavret, getting engaged to a man that loved her even though she did not truly love him. It was her only escape. However, in the end, it seems as if she and her first husband, the Bisclavret, leave together and have a family, which would be consistent with de France's work as she tries to avoid the platonic relationships and shows true love. I just don't understand how he could go back to her after all of what she did to him.

Although he was Bisclavret, he was still human and had human nature and tendencies. He begged the king for mercy, not harming him, respecting and obeying him. The king loved this and protected him and cared for him. Everyone that worked and cared for him "thinks it a precious thing, for it's so gentle, well-bred, polite, it never would do what isn't right." After reading this I just thought that it was not true since he has not seen those who had betrayed him. If he saw those who had betrayed him, his wife and her new knight, he would attack which is what ended up happening. However, the king and his men agreed that "it's clear he holds some grudge or other against her and her lord together." The king cares for Bisclavret so much that he makes it a point to find the truth. And when he does, he makes it a point to make him human again which shows true friendship and loyalty. If I was Bisclavret, I would have gone after those who betrayed me as well.