Bisclavret's attack on Gender Roles

The story of Bisclavret by Marie de France merits a proper all-encompassing look into the questionable acts of the typical characteristics of a female and the obvious traces of anti-feminism. The typical feminine characteristics that most literature and other ideals reflect have been domestic, emotional, weak, nurturing, etc. This writing reflects both traditional and non-traditional motifs, and it challenges one to question what things should or shouldn’t be attributed to each gender. The plot summary of this story is the author’s masterful way of bringing certain issues with the female gender role to the forefront. France shows both sides of the old-fashioned vs. modern coin, and she uses the wife’s character to create a very thorough contradiction of a woman’s title role in society. Although the author utilizes the wife’s actions as the main focus of the story, there is also a lot to be analyzed concerning the Lord Bisclavret’s lycanthropic struggles in this story. The Lord displays weakness when he is treacherously fooled by his wife, but he counters his mistake by inhumanely injuring her in return. So the question is, “Is Bisclavret an attack on the traditional gender roles of both men and women?”

This story is definitely an attack on the role of women and their portrayal during the medieval period. When the wife defies most of the traditional things one has come to expect from a woman, the reader is left to question if the presence of every other characteristic that has previously been accredited to females is evident. She shows an utter disregard for the men in her life and uses them as pawns to carry out the best way of life for herself only. The focus of the wife seems to be on assuring that she has a relationship with a solid foundation that she can count on for support. She was not made aware of the Lord’s problematic circumstances prior to their nuptials, and this dishonesty forces her to execute her plan to ensure that she has a normal life by manipulating the men in her life until she is satisfied and content. Bisclavret makes a very heartfelt confession to his wife: “Dame, I become a bisclavret / in the great forest I’m afoot” (Lines 63-4). The wife takes full advantage of his sincere confession, and she pumps him for the necessary information to destroy him. The only emotion that the wife shows is worry for her own well-being above anyone else’s.

The relentless questioning that the wife put the Lord through is also a testament to an unfamiliar characteristic of feminine behavior. Women were not known to question their husbands during this time, and the Lord expressed that he did not want to reveal all of the information to her despite her persistence. After her continuous questioning didn’t get her the results she wanted, she played the guilt card: “Sire, more than all the earth I love you. Why / hide, why have secrets in your life?” (Lines 79-81). One would expect the wife to cease her questioning after the Lord refused to tell her, but throughout the entire story she challenges her husband and every stereotype that paints the image of frail, weak, and soft-spoken women.

Bisclavret is definitely a peculiar story that has several symbolic themes that can be pulled from the plot. In the beginning of the story, there is a short history given on the menacing and volatile nature of werewolves, but France twists the plot and evokes pity for the creature: “Rerouting our sympathies to the werewolf himself as victim of his wife’s beastly betrayal” (Bruckner 251). This turn of events leaves many of the wife’s actions up for analyzation and causes the reader to take a more in-depth look into what France is attempting to convey. Another underlying theme, is the significance of the Lord tearing the wife’s nose off her face and cursing her entire lineage with this jinx. This terrible display of revenge can be seen as literal payback or theoretical punishment for female writers as a whole. The wife’s horrible experience carries more meaning than revenge alone: “The text itself carries out its own castrative punishment upon the female offender of “Bisclavret,” now left nameless and noseless, in contrast with her poetic creator, Marie” (Frese 198). Frese views the removal of the wife’s nose as a female writer, during this time, being dominated by male writers. Men were the most prominent and respected authors during the time this story was written, and their pen, or their ability to write, was seen as the source of their power. The wife loses her nose, or in retrospect her pen, and is therefore rendered irrelevant as a writer. She loses this skill only after she has already been nameless throughout the story. Marie did not take the time to even name the wife, and by the end of the story the wife is totally stripped of every ounce of power she had. This absence of power is an accurate parallel to the situation female writers were in by attempting to create relevant literature and gain admiration and esteem.

The vast majority of the story of Bisclavret is centered around the wife and her actions, thoughts, and feelings, but there is a significant, lycanthropic tale occurring in the background. The Lord’s “hairy” predicament is one of many inspired tales about lycanthropies that were characteristic to the medieval time: “Perhaps more important for understanding the texts in their medieval context, though, are the ways in which the conspicuous problematic of human animalism both implies and elides issues of gender and class proper to the narratives’ feudal aristocratic milieu” (Wood 60). This statement expresses the idea that during the time this piece was written there were many disputed gender characteristics. The story portrays the Lord as animalistic in nature, and this was more than likely an assumption that was applied to all male behavior. There is a lot to be said about France’s account of Bisclavret’s last encounter with his wife: “Marie de France’s Bisclavret ends by associating the hero’s return to human form with a gendered violence that has perturbed many modern readers” (Wood 62). There seems to be a unanimous consensus that the Lord’s revenge on his wife was very inhumane and disturbing. Unfairly, a bad light was shown on the Lord for his reaction to his wife’s treachery, but this is attributed largely to the fact that he was half man half wolf. The detached and somewhat emotionless way that men carry themselves sometimes has led society to see the masculine gender as vicious, brutal, and savage. This story only adds to the stereotypical animalistic misconception about men, but it also revealed man’s weakness and vulnerability which was not commonly exposed. Although the wife was able to trick the Lord with her conniving deception, the Lord proved to have his vengeance in the end.

In conclusion, Bisclavret is definitely a huge challenger of the typical roles that men and women have been known to play. The wife shows herself to be relentless, ruthless, and calculating, but one can also relate to some of her actions because she was not provided with foreknowledge about her husband’s lycanthropic problem. Although the wife’s actions and her story are the main focus, the Lord also dealt with lycanthropic difficulties and masculinity challenges of his own. The story has as many figurative themes as it does literal, and this proves to produce very different angles on this story depending on who is asked.