The Lais Of Marie De France Analysis

In The Lais of Marie de France, poet Marie de France illustrates many different kinds of love. The main themes being marriage and extramarital affairs. From reading the lais, Guigemar and Bisclavret, I believe that Marie has a traditional view of marriage. I can assume that Marie believes a marriage takes two to work. I also can assume that Marie believes that either partner can cause a marriage to fail. In her stories she does not put the blame of a failed marriage on just the husband or the wife, instead she creates different scenarios that causes the audience to recognize that it is not just one gender that possesses certain characteristics. She plays with what society would consider masculine or feminine by giving the characters opposite
However, it is not your typical dirty, dungeon tower; it is beautiful. Marie describes it as a “thick, high wall made of green marble.” In the inside, the walls of the tower are covered in paintings of venus, the goddess of love. Her husband even provided her with a noble and intelligent servant. However, the beauty of the tower and her servant was not enough to please the wife. She was trapped in the tower day in and day out and was never allowed to leave without her husband’s permission. She was a damsel in distress who needed
Unlike the the story of Guigemar, where Marie was able to somewhat hide the affair from the audience, in Bisclavret, Marie allows the affair to be seen clearly. Marie begins the tale by introducing the audience to Bisclavret, who is loved and appreciated by all in his home town. Bisclavret lives with his loving wife and all is well between them except for the fact that each week, Bisclavret disappears for three days without telling anyone where he is going. Bisclavret’s wife gets frustrated and demands he tells her what he’s been going. Feeling guilty about his absence, he gives in and reveals to his wife that he is a werewolf. He explains that to transform he must remove all articles of clothing and to transform back into man he must put the clothing back on. The wife questions where he puts his clothes, but he refuses to tell, because if he lost them he would remain a werewolf forever. The wife badgers him until he gives in and tells her that he hides them behind a piece of wood. This piece of information shocks the wife and Marie then reveals the wife’s true feelings toward her husband. She is disgusted with her husband and she no longer wishes to be with him. She then begins to plot his demise. She asks a knight, who happens to have a crush on her, to go and hide Bisclavret clothes so he would stay a werewolf forever. She promised him once he did what