Literary Monster

The selected passage tells a particularly important part of the story. Lines 139-168 of the poem describe Bisclavrets first encounter with the king and his dogs. We see how Bisclavret is viciously attacked and pursued by these dogs and the kings’ men. The use of imagery when describing these attacks highlights how Bisclavret was first perceived by the king and his men. The use of words such as "rend" (143) and “tear” (144) displays the viciousness in which the dogs attacked Bisclavret.

This passage importantly displays Bisclavrets unique characteristic and how despite being trapped in the form of a monster, he still continues to display uniquely human characteristics. For example, the passage displays that Bisclavret still maintains his ability to reason. This can be observed when he “beg[‘s] his clemency” during his encounter with the king and is hunting dogs (146). Moreover, this passage notably displays how his human mannerisms differentiate him from other monsters. The king himself notes this and says “come and look at this!/ see what a marvel is this kiss/, this humble, gracious gesturing!” (151-153). These lines demonstrate how the king notices that Bisclavret is different from other beasts as he displays these human characteristics such as possessing humility. The alliteration used in line 153, draws readers attention, emphasising the human behaviours displayed by Bisclavret.

Moreover, this passage also demonstrates that although he is not in his human form, Bisclavret still has the soul and mind of a human. This can be observed when the king says, “that’s a man’s mind, it begs the king for mercy” (154-155). This illustrates that Bisclavret exhibits uniquely human behaviours that even the king notices. As a result, the king decides to treat the beast similar to a human saying, “see that none strike or give it wounds/this beast has mind: it has intent” (156-157). Upon noticing Bisclavrets uniqueness, the king decides to keep the beast close to him saying “he loved the wolf and held it dear/and where the king might walk or ride/there it must be, just at his side” (169-183). The king decides to treat Bisclavret like a human and a friend, even ordering his men to guard and protect him because of how special he his.

Marie de France’s depiction of a monster can be contrasted with the way in which monsters are portrayed in other texts analyzed in this course. For instance, the portrayal of Grendel in Beowulf is very different from the portrayal of the monster in Marie de France’s Bisclavret. For one, Grendel behaves like a typical monstrous creature. He kills without reason and displays the vicious tendencies that a monster is expected to exhibit. This can be observed when he attacks Heorot Hall and kills 30 men without remorse. His vicious nature in his interactions with humans differs from that of Bisclavret, who interacts with humans with human like behaviours. Bisclavret does not display the aggressiveness that Grendel continually displays in the Beowulf text and instead acts civilly with humans. While Bisclavret displays some aggressiveness in the poem such as when he attacks his wife, this aggressiveness is justified due to her gross betrayal of Bisclavret. Grendel differs in this regard as he displays aggressive and murderous behaviour without any rationality or regard for others. These different depictions of monsters further demonstrate how different Bisclavret is from other monsters.