Martin Who?

            “When you left me,” said Bertrande, “you resembled your father in flesh and spirit. Now you resemble him only in flesh.”

            “My child,” said her husband, ever more gravely, “my father was arrogant and severe. Just, also, and loving, but his severity sent from home his only son. For eight years I have traveled among many sorts and conditions of men. I have been many times in danger of death. If I return to you with a greater wisdom than that which I knew when I departed, would you have me dismiss it, in order again to resemble my father? God knows, my child, and the priest will so instruct you, that a man of evil ways may by an act of will so alter all his actions and his habits that he becomes a man of good. Are you satisfied?”

            “And then,” said Bertrande, in a still smaller voice, marshaling her last argument, “Martin Guerre at twenty had not the gift of the tongue. His father, also, was a silent man.”

-The Wife of Martin Guerre pp. 52

This is the first time that Bertrande confronts (the fake) Martin about his identity. There is a clear portray of her feelings when she says “you resemble him only in flesh.” We can speculate when she means Martin’s father or Martin himself. Her speech also relays some self-doubt when she says “when you left me” as opposed to “when [he] left me” and we as readers are left to doubt her just as much as she doubts herself.

(Fake) Martin’s response is telling in itself. He starts by calling her “my child” as opposed to a more affectionate title such as “my love” or “my wife” which leads us to believe that he does not love her. He also avoids saying directly that he is still his father’s son and instead positions the argument such that Bertrande is made to look like she was a fool for feeling that way by saying “God knows,” “the priest will instruct you,” and “are you satisfied?” These commits decrease her confidence and she immediately begins to question herself. He simply rephrases her argument with conditional statements that may or may not be true, claiming he has “greater wisdom” and that he is “a man of good.”

When Bertrande begins to speak again, her confidence has waned. She has to “marshal” her last statement, which ironically, is her stating that Martin didn’t talk eloquently. In this section, her statement should ring true, since Bertrande was known for speaking more than Martin and his father earlier in the story and here their roles have switched. Martin speaks nearly twice as much as Bertrande, which is a very valid argument in her favor.