The Return Of Martin Guerre Summary

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In the 16th century France, the story of the peasants weren’t very detailed. The history books say little of their daily lives. But Davis’ book, The Return of Martin Guerre, the author paints a picture of a more intriguing lives. From the outside, they seem mundane. They lead their lives, whaling, farming. They rarely leave their villages. They live simplistically. But the accounts in Davis’ book tells much more. Her book tells about the intrigue, scandal and gossip surrounding the lives of these so called simple peasants. It also helps close the gap between noble and peasant by highlighting their shared values. Though much of the lives of peasants isn’t publicly known, its easy to imagine what they lived like. They were the opposites to…show more content…
According to The Return of Martin Guerre, the marriages of even the poor families of rural France where political. Bertrande de Rols and Martin Guerre were married in hopes of improving Martin’s standing and his family’s as well. When Martin disappears, Pierre Guerre marries in to Bertrande’s family to keep the ‘alliance’ and keep control of the the…show more content…
It was clear that religion was very important to the lives of French people. Firstly, as mentioned by Coras and Le Sueur, the whole ordeal of the trial, appeal and following scandal may have been avoided if the towns the trials took place would have been Reformed to the Protestant faith rather than the Catholic faith. This is because the Catholic Church, the popular and recognized faith of France at the time, did not allow divorces. The Protestant faith did. In the first eight years of their marriage, Bertrande and Martin were unable to have a child and the marriage was unconsummated. Bertrande was unable to divorce her husband and Martin left to fight in Spain to escape the pressures of his family. Religion was also mentioned as a calming effect, such as when Bertrande was in prison during the appeal and second

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