Literary Monster: Close Reading
Even though a monster may display positive human-like characteristics, it is not enough to make them completely trustworthy. A positive human-like characteristic in this case relates to not causing other people harm and being protective over them.
When the main character is human, he is portrayed as a loving and loved lord. When he is the Bisclavret, he still shows his human characteristics and is aware of his surroundings and those who are around him.
In the following lines, the Bisclavret meets the king for the first time as a werewolf, “But then he picked out the King / And ran there for mercy. To beg, / He seizes the King’s stirrup ring, / And kisses his foot and leg. / The King sees this and feels great fear; / … / Its sense is human. It begs for mercy.”(Bisclavret, J. Shoaf, 1996) Here the king is initially frightened, likely because, without any warning, a monster has come up to him and has kissed his foot and leg. The king however senses that it is begging for mercy and decides to call off the hunting dogs and does not harm the Bisclavret.
When the Bisclavret does not harm anyone and follows the king, the king decides to treat him kindly and treasures him. This is shown in the following lines, “He tells his people it’s his pleasure / For them to take the best of care / Of it; let no-one harm it, or dare / To strike it, for the love of the King. / It must be fed well and given drink / … / For it’s so gentle, well-bred, polite, / It would never do what isn’t right.” (Bisclavret, J. Shoaf, 1996) In these lines, the care the king is showing towards the Bisclavret seems to be conditional, the Bisclavret is described as gentle, well-bred, and polite, and as long as he remains this way, he will be showered with love and affection from the king and his people.
The line “It would never do what isn’t right.” (Bisclavret, J. Shoaf, 1996) can be considered foreshadowing, since later on the Bisclavret attacks his wife’s new husband and then his wife, both of these things are considered not right since it does not fit the positive human-like characteristics of not causing harm to other people.
Even though the king stated earlier that no one must cause the Bisclavret harm, when the Bisclavret attacks his wife’s new husband and then his wife, the king immediately decides and does not object to anyone hurting the Bisclavret. This is in the lines from the passage chosen, “Now they surround him in the place, / They’re ready to cut him to pieces, / When a wise fellow tells the King,”. (Bisclavret, J. Shoaf, 1996) The king does not stop anyone from harming the Bisclavret, and it is possible that he was part of the group that surrounded the Bisclavret. Even though the Bisclavret has shown positive characteristics and has been loyal to the king, when he attacks two people, the king does not stop the attack until he is convinced to do so by the wise man.
In the passage, the wise man explains to the king that it is likely that the Bisclavret holds a grudge against the people he attacked. He explains to the king, “He's never before hurt anyone, / Or shown a criminal disposition, / Except to this lady you see here. / By the faith I owe you, it's clear / He holds some grudge or other.” (Bisclavret, J. Shoaf, 1996) The wise man talked about how everyone in the court has watched the bisclavret and how up until these two people showed up, he displayed no sign of a criminal disposition, one that would generally be expected of a wolf-type beast. The wise man explains to the king that the wolf did not attack these people without reason. There is an explanation as to why this occurred, and holding a grudge can be considered to be a human-like characteristic. Fortunately for the Bisclavret, the king understands this and finds a way to help transform him back to his human form.
Based on all this, we can see that even though the Bisclavret has shown a gentle disposition and didn’t harm any person as a monster, the moment he attacks two people, people stopped trusting him. They immediately surrounded him, ready to hurt him, not taking into account the relationship between the two people he attacked and the possible true identity of the Bisclavret. Fortunately, there was one person who did observe his behaviour and noticed all the patterns present.