wife of martin guerre response

“At the end of a few months Bertrande found herself with child. She rejoiced thereat, and she also trembled for at times a curious fear assailed her, a fear so terrible and so unnatural that she hardly dared acknowledge it in her most secret heart.” (Lewis, 50)

The most chilling and sinister scene in The Wife of Martin Guerre is the moment when Bertrande becomes conscious of her doubt that “the bearded traveler” (50) is not her husband Martin. Up until that pivotal point, the novel read like a semi-idyllic historical narrative. Yet the instant that Bertrande senses her husband is an impostor, the novel undergoes an axis-tilting shift. Paralleled by the conception of her son, this creeping doubt slowly starts to grow within Bertrande until she finally confronts the impostor, and the second half of the novel chronicles the choices she makes to bring truth back into her household. 

Lewis carefully brings her audience to the brink of the precipice of doubt. The passage preceding Bertrande’s revelation is dreamlike and literally blooming with good fortune. The vivid descriptions of the new Martin’s seamless integration into the family and compassionate embodiment of his role of Master are accompanied by Bertrande’s prophetic observation: “it was a new life, almost a new world.” (49) Here, Lewis strategically weaves together the identity of the land and community with the identity of the new Martin. This new reality that Bertrande experiences is pleasing to her––it’s the happy ending she had been longing for since her husband abandoned her eight years earlier. Instead of challenging the fact that her dreams came true, Bertrande “surrendered the responsibilities of the farm to her husband’s care, and surrendered herself to his love.” (49) This two-fold sentence outlines the extent of Bertrande’s trust and allegiance to the new Martin. Body and home she gives unreservedly to her husband, but there is one part of her that does not fall under the new Martin’s power: Bertrande’s unborn child. 

The presence of a child in her womb is closely related to Bertrande’s new insight and perception into the fake identity of her new husband. The knowledge that she is with child should be joyous, but instead Bertrande confronts her deep suspicions, the doubts the take root in her “most secret heart.” (50) This inner-knowledge is reminiscent of a maternal preternatural intuition. Yet the internal nature of Bertrande’s intuition also sets up a jarring conflict between the land and household that welcomes the new Martin, and the less rational, more instinctive part of Bertrande that rejects the new Martin. 

It is this disorientating effect that Lewis creates when she abruptly breaks the spell of the ‘hero returned home’ trope and undermines the identity of the Master. From one breath to the next the reader is haunted by the uncertainty that either the new Martin is not real or haunted by the fear that Bertrande might be insane.