“The wife of Martine Guerre demonstrates that communities value happiness more than honesty” Discuss
In the novel ‘The Wife of Martine Guerre’ by Janet Lewis, everyone takes a different view on what the value more, Martin Guerre obviously values happiness over honesty, and so does Arnaud du Tilh, but then his father Monsieur Guerre and Bertrande value honesty over happiness, and because of the patriarchal system it really comes down to what the cap de hostel values most.
It is obvious that martin vales his happiness over honesty. This is first shown when he leaves on a bear hunt without telling anyone where he was going to be, when he returned that night “He was exultant”, even though he has been dishonest to his father. Martin is again dishonest when he steels from his father and then runs away and doesn’t return for many years, he stays away for reasons unknown, but we do know that he ran away in the first place to get away from a punishment from his father that would not have made him happy, also he stole the seed so that he could feel like he had more power then given to him by his father he was happy that he wasn’t letting his land go to waste. It is indeed true that Martin values his happiness over honesty.