Return of Martin Guerre - Book Review

The Return of Martin Guerre

The book "Return of Martin Guerre" is interesting in a sense that incredible and unbelievable situations that you would think never could happen did happen. There were many storylines in the book. Martin was married to Bertrande at a young age during the 16th century. Dowry was arranged and agreed upon between family members from both sides. I don't mind the actual mutual agreement, but I am not a big fan of arranged marriages and dowries. From the start, following the wedding ceremony in front of the priest, Martin had personal issues. He hated working and farming, kept his thoughts to himself, and often argued with his dad. It was also thought the there were spells cast upon him from something that was highly capable of this (21). Martin lived in an area that had many family members and a huge farm that those family members all had a hand in. Often, because of how Martin acted and felt towards his life, Bertrande was being influenced by family members to separate from Martin and dissolve the marriage. According to canon law, she would be able to remarry after only 3 years after divorce (20). That never happened, and one fateful day, Martin disappeared from the family. He simply left the village, his wife, child, and family members behind. Martin's mother and father prayed often for his return, to no avail because the parents died before Martin was ever to return. Fast forward to nearly a decade later, a man approached the family. He looked similar to Martin Guerre and knew several detailed intimate details about family members, but to an important note, couldn't recall all of the details. Regardless of this, there was no imposter thoughts as of now as the entire village rejoiced and people were happy. However, there were noticeable differences in the new Martin's appearance with the old Martin. To say a few, he had scars in different places, a mole was supposed to be on his neck but was missing, he somehow learned how to read and write while away at war, the size of his feet were different than they earlier were, had a darker complexion, a flatter nose, a lower lip that protrudes out farther than his upper lip, and he was considerably shorter and wider than he previously was (68-69). Regardless of these first person accounts he was widely accepted to be Martin and who knew better if this was the real Martin than his wife. After numerous inquiries about how sure she was that this man was the real Martin there was evermore doubt to the real identity of this man. A few in the village were very vocal in casting their doubts that this was Martin and even called the new Martin by his actual name of Pansette (Arnaud) because he was recognized from the past. A few in the village were vocal in defending that this was the real Martin, and most in the village were indifferent did not voice their opinions one way or another probably because of the fear of retribution by the uncle and constituents of the uncle (68). Eventually with growing concerns from the group that thought it was Arnaud, the Parliament of Toulouse was called in to act as mediators and ask the tough questions