The Wife of Martin Guerre Response

As this story really revolves around the absence of Martin Guerre and the question of his return, I found a passage on page 31 to be quite dramatic and worth closely analyzing. This is the moment in which Martin leaves his wife. Lewis writes, “So he went off. Once he turned to wave with a free, elated gesture, and then the shadows of the trees engulfed his figure” (Lewis 31). This brooding imagery of the darkness enveloping him (and Bertrande’s ensuing thoughts) almost signal to the reader that Martin will be gone much longer than the eight days he claims will be enough. This passage was really the first time in the novel in which I really felt Bertrande’s thoughts. “She greeted the swineherd absently, thinking of Martin’s journey, and how he would pass village after village, ford the cold streams, follow the narrow passes beside the Neste and eventually emerge into the greater valley of the Garonne, see the level fields, the walled cities, broad roads traversed by bands of merchants and armed men” (Lewis 31). This line—in my opinion—really shows the simultaneity of life that we discussed in class last week. In this depiction, we get Bertrande’s actions as well as her inner thoughts. As she walks back to the farm, she greets the swineherd, but only absently. This is a great distinction, because I can picture the absence in her greeting and her mind being elsewhere. The reader then gets the description of what she’s thinking about instead. The detail of her thought is displayed in a long list of what Martin would do or see on his journey. It is played out as if on a movie screen. Then, we are brought back from the imagined journey to a central part of what character is all about, desire: “She wished that she might have gone with Martin” (Lewis 31). But as soon as that desire is made known, the idea is stripped away from us when Bertrande reaches the farm and finds Sanxi. Lewis concludes this scene writing, “At the farm she found Sanxi, and was glad that she had not gone” (31). The phrase “at the farm” is a tag which brings us back to the reality, outside of Bertrande’s thoughts and desires, but not only us back to the reality, but Bertrande as well. When she finds her son, she is now glad that she did not follow her husband. This passage is a great example of Bertrande’s characterization; it captures the simultaneity of a character’s brief moment in time. This passage is also crucial to the novel, as it is the paragraph in which we are told Martin officially leaves. Bertrande’s strong inner thoughts return when her husband is claimed to have returned and she struggles with believing he is an imposter.