The Lay of The Were-wolf

After reading “The Lay of the Were-Wolf” I began to wonder who was really in the wrong, the wife or Bisclavaret. This question pits the wife against Bisclavaret. I believe that Bisclavaret was the one who was betrayed, hurt, left, and forgotten by his dear wife. His wife was largely to blame, although she was frightened that her decision was only based on emotion/pathos and no ethos nor logos was used in the decision.

“The Lay of the Wear-Wolf” is about a married man and his wife who separate once he tells her his secret. The husband, Bisclavaret, is a werewolf who would go out three nights weekly at a time so that his wife wouldn’t be scared. When his wife questioned him about his absences, he got scared that she would leave him--so he told her the truth, that he was a werewolf. The idea of her husband being a werewolf scared and so she betrayed him by taking the change of clothes which turned him back into a human. After betraying him and his love, she left Bisclavaret and got married to another man. One day, the king went hunting, found Bisclavaret, and took him in. When the new husband of Bisclavaret’s former wife came to the castle, Bisclavaret attacked him. Later, the wife went to the castle to speak to the king and was viciously attacked by Bisclavaret. After the incident, they found out that he might be a human, and gave him his clothes. Once he became human again he explained his situation. The story shows how Bisclavaert was betrayed by his love. His wife made a choice which didn’t rely on logic or ethics. She put him through such a hard and painful time just because she didn’t like his secret. No one deserves to be treated in such a horrible manner in which they lose everything that they loved and had, just because the wife was scared of her husband being a werewolf.

In conclusion, the choice the wife made--taking his clothes and forcing him to remain a werewolf, was a bad decision and shouldn’t have been decided by her emotions. She caused him a lot of pain and suffering. I defend Bisclavaret because he was forced into a position that he couldn’t control. The only thing that he could be blamed for was telling his wife his secret.