The Woman Oisille & The Man Hircan

Oisille, we argon informed, is an old leave behind with much experience in life who seeks to see a holy place, the abbey of Our Lady at Sarrance. Oisille is shown to be a Christian, except a realistic, humanistic, down-to-earth Christian who appears to be above superstition.

reached her destination, scantily only after struggling through rugged and contrary terrain. . . . The most tragic thing was that most of her horses and servants died on the way, so that by the time she arrived at Sarrance she was accompanied only by one man and one woman (61).

Only iii people survive the arduous journey, 2 of them wo manpower, and one of them an old, minacious widow! Clearly, women are to be portrayed by moon daisy as exceptional cases. However, if the reader expects all the women to be wondrous feminists with a spiritual perspective, he or she will be surprised. This racy book is full of women who are as licentious as any macho male. Marguerite certainly promoter to hold Oisille up as an ideal character, plainly she is non ab protrude to claim that all women are saintly, nor that all men are equally bestial.

With respect to the latter point, for example, we find the two young men in the Prologue who willingly put their lives on the line to drive away the murdering bandits. Hircan, himself shown to be a brave avenger, is hardly portrayed at the start as the bearing of gross oaf he will turn out to be. Perhaps Marguerite did not want to portray him in such an unfavora

Marguerite is so adept at portraying the human qualities of both Oisille and Hircan that, any(prenominal) we think of both of them in wrong of their virtue, we must defend that they have their charming qualities. Oisille could easily be portrayed as a two-dimensional prig without a sense of sense of humor and with a superior vision of herself. However, Marguerite shows her to be a highly big and empathic human being with a humble view of her own virtue, and with a decidedly rattling sense of humor.

Similarly, Hircan could have been shown to be a thoroughly heartbreaking character (as he is, but only now and then), but Marguerite portrays him as such a pixy, so unspoiled about his own dishonesty, so proud of his tricks and deceptions, that there is a certain charm about him. After all, considering the previous tolerant reference to his own cuckoldry, he cannot be accused of a double standard with respect to his wife---he allows that she has the same right to betray that he has---as long as she gets away with it.

Marguerite hardly portrays Lady Oisille as a feminist stick-in-the-mud. She is shown to have a lively sense of humor, even and especially about sex, and is not above teasing Nomerfide when the latter takes a somewhat prodigious viewpoint with respect to her own virtue. Oisille is shown to be "amused" that Nomerfide is " riled" at Oisille's playfulness. This reveals that Oisille does not place herself above others in terms of virtue, and she is not willing to let others place themselves in a superior position morally either. She always seems to be seeking a humanistic perspective for her Christian beliefs.

Therefore, we should not be too quick to think that perhaps Oisille completely accepts the rascal Hircan as merely a playful scamp. For example, one character says that the Italians believe that "the greater the sin the greater the pleasure" (366). his pedagogy would seem to perfectly summarize the philosophy and practice of Hircan. If we are expecting a laugh and acc
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