Genre
Historical non-fiction
Setting and Context
France in the early to mid-1500’s.
Narrator and Point of View
Third person perspective representing the New Historicism approach that is mostly objective, but makes room for subjectivity on the part of author.
Tone and Mood
Intellectually skeptical, but emotionally sympathetic.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The entire point of the book is illuminate that history actually produces few protagonists and antagonists, but is rather a perceptual blending of this division.
Major Conflict
The conflict driving the narrative is the question of who knew that the man claiming to be Martin Guerre was not really Martin Guerre and when did they know it.
Climax
The climax is right there in the title: the return of Martin Guerre to reclaim his identity in a court of law.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
The first indication that there is a very obvious physical difference capable of proving the identity of the real Martin Guerre is introduced in an understated, almost throwaway, manner: “The real Martin Guerre had a wooden leg, the soldier said, and then went on his way.”
Allusions
The author’s explicit assertion that Martin was impotent is arrived at allusively rather than scientifically: eight years of marriage had failed to produce a child. There is no medical evidence to back up this diagnosis.
Imagery
The public apology of the man who claimed to be Martin Guerre is a powerful example of imagery: “The amende honorable started with the condemned man on his knees in front of the church in the traditional garb of the penitent—white shirt, bare head, and bare feet, with a torch in his hands…Led through the village with the hangman's rope on his neck, the golden-tongued peasant addressed the crowds.”
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
Martin’s supposed rationale for desiring to disappear himself is presented through an example of parallel construction: “His precarious sexuality after years of impotence, his household of sisters who would soon be marrying, his position as heir, now underscored by the arrival of his son Sanxi, he wanted none of it.”
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“The church disapproved of this 1clandestine’ path to marriage” in which “the church” is a metonym representing the ecclesiastical leaders in the hierarchy making decisions.
Personification
Perception is given a human face through the technique of personification; “Truth and falsehood have both alike countenances…Wee beholde them with one same eye.”
