How Does Natalie Davis Characterize Martin Guerre's Wife?

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The two interpretations – Natalie Davis’ and Robert Finlay’s - diverge most profoundly when characterizing Martin Guerre’s wife, Bertrande de Rols. While Davis guesses about Betrande’s emotional state and her longings to have a different husband, the author does not cite any passage in Coras’ account or in any other sources to support this claim: “Beyond a marriage in which her husband understood her little, may have feared her, and surely abandoned her, Betrande dreamed of a husband and lover who would come back, and be different.” In her exploration of Betrande’s emotions and feelings, Davis is committing the historian’s fallacy, Finlay argues. He writes that Davis is applying her own twentieth-century understanding and expectations of love,

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