Comparison Of Wife Of Martin Guerre And Romeo And Juliet Essay, Research Paper

Although at the present time gender issues are not a major deal, they were in the days when WIFE OF MARTIN GUERRE and Romeo and Juliet took place. People living in those times were sensitive about the topic of gender. A woman living in the Middle Ages did not live the same life as one living now a day, and was not treated the same way as a man. The same goes for a woman from the Renaissance. To realize the extent of the differences between men and woman from separate times, I am going to compare the qualities and attributes of some of the characters in both books mentioned above and try to determine the relationships that they have.

In WIFE OF MARTIN GUERRE, Bertrande and Martin are two completely different people, both in their attitude towards things and their qualities. One thing that can be pointed out easily is that Martin deserted Bertrande one day out of the blue and did not return until trouble brewed with the situation. One could say that this situation makes Martin seem careless and immature. He did not think about what would happen to his wife, his child and the rest of his family. In the meantime, Bertrande, who is all alone with her misery, takes up the household duties after Martin s father dies. From this, she could be called intelligent, independent, and reliable. She was probably brave and bold enough to run the house without a fatherly figure. Once Martin s uncle moves into the house to take over the man of the house place, she gives everything up. She does it all to follow the regular routine of being ordered around by a man. This shows she was loyal to her position as a woman in a medieval household. Later in the story, when she starts to become suspicious that the Martin who had just returned was not her real husband, she becomes filled with guilt. It seems as though for the rest of the book she thinks of nothing else besides that she might be sinning if he is not the real Martin. In this part of the story, Bertrande becomes obsessed with her commitments to God and whether she is doing everything correctly. This shows that she is very religious and she cares about God s wishes. This whole time, Martin was off in his own world, probably not thinking about how he was affecting the lives of his family, especially Bertrande.

The comparison of these two characters shows that Bertrande was always caring for everyone else. She took on the job of the man while Martin was away to take care of the family and she always thought about what she was doing wrong in terms of disobeying God. Martin, on the other hand, left her and their child for a very long time, along with the rest of the family, without any notice. He obviously did not care about the people who loved him or else he probably would have never gone away, or had gone away but would have come home after a few weeks, not a few years. If one were to ask which one of them was a better person, partner, and parent, most people would probably choose Bertrande without thinking about it. I believe she was a better person overall as well, but there are still some negative things about her. One of them is that even though she was suspicious about the returned Martin being an imposter, she went ahead and had a child with him. Even though she was constantly raving about how she had sinned against God, she still thought there was something about the mystery of not knowing whether he was Martin or not that stopped her from immediately stopping their relationship. These things, although they are not as severe as Martin s wrongdoings, make Bertrande seem imperfect like her husband.