#6 The fake's attempt to be real: The Return of Martin Guerre
The fake is of far greater value. In its deliberate attempt to be real, it's more real than the real thing. —Deishuu Kaiki
Martin Guerre was a simple country boy. In 1527, when he was 3 years old, he moved with this family in a small village called Artigat which is somewhere in the Pyrenees of Southwestern France. So far so good.
He grows up happily and joyfully as any peasant boy in the middle ages. When he is about fourteen years old, Martin gets married to a 11 year old girl, Bertrande de Rols. She was the daughter of a well-off family and a great mach for Martin.
Unfortunately their marriage does not start in an ideal way. It seems that Martin is a bit of a prick: distant, cold, even hostile to Bertrande. Eventually he gets used to it and becomes a bit softer. Moreover, with time they become very loyal lovers. Or, as Janet Lewis (we will talk about her later) writes in her book,
“gradually Bertrande’s affection for her husband became a deep and joyous passion, growing slowly and naturally as her body grew.”
The couple also has a son as a result of this joyous passion. That’s a nice story so far right? A couple of young kids being “forced” to get together, dealing with their instincts, fears and immaturities, and eventually learning to love each other. And then they lived happily ever after, making love, growing kids and eating fresh vegetables from the garden. Right?
Well, it’s the middle ages, so NO.
One day Martin has a fight with his harsh and retributive father. Martin is scared so he does what people do when they get scared of their father: He runs away to another village. He swears to Bertrande that he will only be gone for a short time, eight days at most and he will be back when his dad has calmed down.
Martin is gone for eight years…
Before we continue with the story, let’s first address the reason I picked it. You see yesterday I found out that Natalie Zemon Davis, one of the biggest historians of the early modern period, has passed away. I was not familiar with her and her work so I started reading up on her. And then a bit more. And a bit more after that.
Her main research interests have been early modern social and cultural history. She specialized in microhistory, a method that studies the lives and interactions of individuals and small groups with the goal of isolating ideas, beliefs, practices, and actions that would otherwise remain unknown by means of more conventional historical strategies.
Looking at her work, I quickly came across “The Return of Martin Guerre”, which is apparently one of the best known works of microhistory. In this book she examined the curious case of Martin Guerre and his wife Bertrande.
Before this book, Natalie had already published a groundbreaking collection of 8 essays, “Society and Culture in Early Modern France” (1975). So when cinematographer Vigne and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière decided to make a film about the Return of Martin Guerre, they had Natalie Davis to be their main history advisor. More about the film later…
Back to the story
One sunny day a man comes to the village. The villagers ask him who he is. “Don’t you remember me?” he answers and greets them all with their names. “ I am Martin, I am back”, he says. He has changed quite a bit, so many years have passed after all. But one by one, all the villagers start recognizing him. It is a happy day in the village. He goes to the house, he sees Bertrande and hugs her in tears. He sees the little boy. “You are now a real man!” he says. Everyone is overwhelmed with happiness about this unexpected reunion.
Life goes back to normal, he and Bertrande are happier than ever. Martin is now a mature man, full of love, kindness and affection for this wife and child. They have some more children. Life is perfect, and the couple seems to be getting back everything they lost during all these years. And this could be the end of the story. But it’s not.
Everything changes when a couple of vagabonds express their doubts about the real identity of the man. They say it’s not Martin but some other guy named “Arnaud” and is from a neighboring village. They also say that Martin went to the war and lost one of his legs. Everyone dismisses these claims as pure lies.
The story escalates when he gets into an argument about money with his uncle (both his parents have passed away while he was gone). “I don’t owe you anything”, the uncle said, “You are not even the real Martin”.
The disagreement leads to a full trial. His life is really at stake - if he is not really Martin, then both he and Bertrande are adulterers and their children are bastards (We are in the middle ages).
During the hearing “Martin” argues well, and the villagers are divided on whether the man is in fact Martin.
Bertrande is siding with him. She says she has been loyal to her husband during all these years (The Canon Law was strict about that) and that she is absolutely sure its him. After several elevations of the proceedings, the judge prepares to acquit Martin primarily on the strength of the testimony of Bertrande.
The final plot twist
At the last minute, an unexpected witness appears. He is tall and has a wooden leg. Everyone is confused. The more people look at him, the more convinced they are that this is the real, the actual Martin.
The fake/impostor finally Martin confesses that he was a soldier with the real Martin. It seems that Martin told Arnaud that he was never going back to his village. So he decided that it would be a good idea to go and take his place. Bertrande also recognizes that the new witness is Martin.
The fake Martin, Arnaud, is sentenced to death.
The movie is very nice to watch. The role of the fake Martin is played by Gerard Depardieu and he really carries the movie. Equally good and, in her own way, almost as mysterious is Nathalie Baye as his wife, Bertrande, whose fidelity is rewarded when Martin returns as a far better, funnier and adoring husband than he was before he left.
When watching the movie I couldn’t help but wonder how could something like that might have actually happened. How could a whole village not understand that this guy was fake? I could think of some reasons:
Martin was gone in the years of puberty when the body experiences a big transformation.
His parents, the people who knew him better than anyone, passed away during the years that he was gone.
But what about his wife? How could a woman not understand that she was sleeping with a different man? Or did she?
And here is the main reason that Natalie Zemon Davis wrote her book. In the movie, you really get the impression that everyone, including his wife really believe him and had been fooled by the false Martin. They made the fake martin, Arnaud du Tilh “the inventive figure in the tale,” Professor Davis wrote.
For her, though, Bertrande is central to the story. “By the time she had received him in her bed,” Professor Davis wrote, “she must have realized the difference.” Bertrande, in Professor Davis’s telling, “knew the truth” and colluded in the masquerade until it became impossible to sustain.
But why would she not react if she knew the truth. Why would she defend the fake Martin in the court? We get the answer some time later when the judge visits the village and asks her this question.
Bertrande then admits : She says that she accepted him because he (the fake Martin) was a far better husband and man. As simple as that. Especially if you think of the Church, the Canon Law, it was not so simple for a woman (or anyone) to change partner if she doesn’t like the one appointed to her.
Apart from Natalie Zemon Davis, there is another writer who focused on the role of Martins wife. The wife of Martin Guerre (first published 1941) is a short novel written by Janet Lewis and tells the story from the point of view of Bertrande. In this novel, Lewis discusses Bertrande’s psychic while dealing with the impossible dilemma and moral problem presented when a man—possibly an impostor—takes the place of her actual husband. The original Martin is a tough, unkind person who appears not to love her while the second Martin is kind, funny and loving. What should she do?
It’s a novel quite nice to read, - Davis does mention this book in a footnote of her own book, dismissing it as “charming,” an epithet usually reserved for trifles.
For those who like triffles, here is the novel.
The biggest takeaway for me was the discovery of Dr. Natalie Zemon Davis and the concept of microhistory. Here is a great discussion with her in the “medieval podcast”.
It summarizes why I really love microhistory (even without knowing the term till some days ago). It talks about people, common people who have to find their way and navigate through their own worlds. And occasionally they have to navigate new ones, unfamiliar ones that require them to change, to reinvent themselves and finally, break through.
Till next time,