Bisclavret

Bisclavret tackles an issue that was revolutionary for its time.  This is story was about a werewolf who was betrayed by his wife but it is deeper than that, it actually tackles a relationship between Bisclavret and the King. At face value, you may just assume they are just good friends but there is a hidden relationship. There are several interesting components of the story. The first one is that Bisclavret bites off his ex-wife’s nose and then all her offspring’s are born without noses which shows how in medieval times they had no clue what happens with the human body. This author decided to write a love story about a king and Bisclavret which would be highly frowned upon during medieval times. During this time, it was very frowned upon to be with someone who is of the same sex but what the author does, which is very interesting. I don’t believe the author was trying to hide the relationship between Bisclavret and the king but it is easy to skip over it. The first reading, I didn’t even realize that the relationship was a thing, I just believed that they were good friends but if you read deeper into it, it was very clear. 

            “She was greatly alarmed by the story, and began to consider various means of parting from him, as she no longer wished to lie with him.”(69). This quotes stick out to describe the relationship Bisclavret had with his wife. He is a werewolf who has not told his wife of his secrets as he leaves for 3 days every week and no one knows where he goes. His wife begs him to tell her where he goes, the interesting part is that she tells him she will love him no matter what. This leads to her being disgusted with him and eventually leaving him and taking his clothes so he cannot turn back to a human. This has a theme of betrayal and starts his process of having a relationship with the king. “the beast possesses understanding and intelligence. Hurry! Let us depart. I shall place the creature under my protection, for I shall hunt no more today.”(70). This is the first encounter between Bisclavret and the King and this is the beginning of their relationship. The reason that it sparks this relationship is because of how the king treats him versus how his wife treats him. His wife only loved him when he was “normal” and was disgusted with him when she finds out who he truly is. The king first sees him as a beast and accepts him which makes Bisclavret feel accepted and doesn’t need to be a human anymore. 

            I figure we could connect this to modern day and how there has are several themes that are still associated with society to this day and how they have changed slightly but also have stayed the same. The first theme that still occurs with society today is the fact that we view woman in a negative light when it comes to relationships and marriages. Bisclavert’s wife “betrays” him in the beginning of the story when she finds out he is a werewolf and decides to hide his clothes which leads him to not being able to change back into human form. By the end of the story her family is cursed by this betrayal and this curse is passed down from generation to generation. She gets cursed because she does what any normal person would do, if you find out that your significant other has been lying to you and is actually a werewolf most people would leave that person. People have got divorced for way less than that which shows how we view woman in a negative way. We are supposed to feel bad for Bisclavret because he was betrayed and suppose to hate his wife because she betrayed him but shouldn’t it be the other way around. Bisclavret is the one who was deceiving his wife by not telling her the truth but that doesn’t mean she was perfect in the story either. The wife said she would be with him no matter what but leaves him as soon as she finds out something bad about him. What we can take from this story is that no one is perfect and there is two sides to every story. Both Bisclavret and the wife both did things that they shouldn’t have done, so there isn’t a good or bad person in this story, there is only human nature and their flaws. In modern day, we still have these problems as we still treat woman badly in many scenarios. A woman could divorce her husband and the reason could be that he was abusive or that they just weren’t right for each other but then society will say she’s a gold digger and the only reason for the divorce is to take money from the husband. This is something that needs to change and shows that we haven’t done much to improve the way we treat woman since Bisclavret was written. 

            Another theme of the story that connects with modern day is the relationship between the King and Bisclavret. This is a theme that can be overlooked and some people might not want to talk about but it is there. The king and Bisclavret have an relationship that is bigger than just a friendship. This relationship is insinuated, it is not directly stated but you can interpret that there is something going on there. Since it is not directly stated, it feels that most people would read this story and not realize it, which may have been done on purpose because it would have been extremely frown upon when this story was written. This makes the story even more impactful because of the this theme was put in, the story was ahead of its time. This theme have become more accepted during modern day which is a good thing, we still have a long way to go but this is an important topic and is refreshing there have been literature texts that have dived into these topics.

            Bisclavret is a story that dives into to many topics that are still relevant today, some are good themes while some are not so good themes. The reason it is good to read a story like this is to allow ourselves to realize if we are doing good in society or bad in society when it comes to certain themes. The story is a good lesson for many people and should be a staple for teaching literature.