Choice versus Chance: How will it end?

The Purpose:

The purpose of this choice versus chance game is to illustrate the interplay between fate and human choice in the plot of Marie de France’s Bisclavret. Pay special attention to how social structures affect the progression of the game.

How to Play:

This game is for one player. Each Stage contains a Question. On the Choice Questions, the player gets to choose Yes or No. On the Chance Questions, the player must flip a coin to determine the answer to the question. Heads will indicate Yes, tails will mean No. Then the player clicks the corresponding link for that answer and goes from there.

Ready? Let's go!

Introduction

Here's the deal: you are a noble, wealthy British baron. You have a beautiful wife and a happy life with her. Your life is perfect except for one thing; a dark secret haunts your happiness. Your wife has no idea that you are, in fact, a werewolf! Three days a week, you are forced to leave your loving companion and go naked into the forest as a wild beast. You hide your clothes near a chapel so that you can return to your wife in human form at the end of your stint as a murderous beast. Without your clothes, you would be stuck as a werewolf. But your wife is suspicious. She wants to know where you’re disappearing to all the time.

Choice:

Do you tell her you're a werewolf?

Yes

No

Stage One

Your wife is still confused. She has learned that without your clothes, you will be unable to revert to human form. She wants to know where you hide your clothes. She nags and torments you relentlessly to tell her. 

Choice:

Do you tell her?

Yes

No

Stage Two

You eventually break down under her nagging and tell her where your clothes are hidden. But rather than bringing you closer together, the truth has driven a wedge between you. Your wife is terrified!

Chance: Flip a coin!

Does she betray you?

Yes

No

Stage Three

Bad luck! Your wife simply cannot accept your condition. She has decided to leave you and hook up with some guy that used to have a crush on her. She enlists his help to steal your clothes, leaving you stuck as a werewolf full time. You are forced to live in the wilderness for a year.

Chance: Flip a coin!

Do you survive in the wilderness for a year?

Yes

No

Stage Four

Great job! You have managed to survive in the forest as a werewolf! But what's this? The king's hunting party is in your forest and his hounds have you cornered! You can try and fight them off, or you can appeal to the king and hope he takes pity on you.

Choice:

Do you appeal to the king for mercy?

Yes

No

Stage Five

You have decided to appeal to the king. You kiss his foot and humble yourself in a desperate plea for mercy.

Chance: Flip a coin!

Does the king take pity on you?

Yes

No

Stage Six

Whew! The King is merciful and takes you back to his castle to live as a pet. The king instructs that everyone treat you well. You are well fed and cared for. You have the choice: behave well and build a reputation as a noble animal, or take advantage of the king's generosity, give into your animal nature, and cause mischief. 

Choice:

Do you behave yourself as a castle pet?

Yes

No

Stage Seven

Nice! You live in the castle with the king and build a reputation as an intelligent, gentle animal. You are well taken care of.




But what's this? One day you encounter your traitorous wife! Now is your chance for vengeance!

Choice:

Do you tear your ex-wife's nose off?

Yes

No

Stage Eight

Mmmmm! Sweet, delicious revenge! But the King is a little freaked out that you’re biting off people’s noses. The wise man thinks maybe there’s a reason for your attack.


Chance: Flip a coin!

Does the wise man intercede on your behalf?

Yes

No

Stage Nine

The wise man has decided to voice his concerns. Considering your reputation as a gentle, noble creature, the wise man suggests that the King interrogate your ex-wife and get to the bottom of things. 

Chance: Flip a coin!

Does the king follow the wise man's advice?

Yes

No

Stage Ten

What a relief! The King has decided to follow the wise man’s advice. He tosses your ex-wife into the dungeon to be tortured. 

Chance: Flip a coin!

Does your ex-wife come clean under torture?

Yes

No

Stage Eleven

Your wife tells the whole story and returns your clothes to the king. The king has your clothes, but you cannot honorably put them back on in his presence. The only way you can become human again is if he gives you some privacy. 

Chance: Flip a coin!

Does the king give you your privacy?

Yes

No

Stage Twelve

At last!

The king leaves you alone in his room with your clothes, allowing you to change back into a human. For her betrayal, the king banishes your ex-wife and her lover from the kingdom. Most of her female progeny are born without noses. The king returns your lands to you and you live happily ever after!

Congratulations, you win!

For a look behind the scenes into the making of this game

click here!

Game Over I

Congratulations!

Your wife will either accept your eccentricities or leave you better off.

You win!

Game Over II

Oh, no!

You have starved to death in the wilderness.

Better luck next time!

Game Over III

Oh, no!

You have been dismembered by ravenous hunting hounds.

Better luck next time!

Game Over IV

Rats!

The king doesn't want a pet werewolf that can't behave. You die.

Better luck next time!

Game Over V

Drat!

Looks like you're going to be a werewolf forever!

Better luck next time!

Game Over VI

Bad luck!

The king doesn't want a pet that tears noses off for no apparent reason. You die.

Better luck next time!

Creator's Notes and Analysis

 I created this online game to illustrate the interplay between “chance” and human choice within Marie de France's Bisclavret, and to show the role of social hierarchy in informing those forces. For the game, I identified some of the most pivotal moments where the plot is advanced either by chance or Bisclavret's own choices. Using these pivotal points, I developed a sort of choose-your-own-adventure game. The player acts as Bisclavret, and each stage contains a question that determines how the plot progresses. The questions labeled “Choice” indicate decisions that Bisclavret makes for himself. Forces beyond his control—machinations of other characters and sheer dumb luck—are presented as “Chance” questions. The game shows how, at any point during the story, a different decision on the part of Bisclavret or one of the other characters could end the story immediately. Naturally, some poetic license was necessary in determining alternate endings at each stage.

An initial comparison of choice versus chance in Bisclavret is interesting but superficial. By inspecting how the social hierarchy portrayed in the poem informs the characters' decisions, and thereby influences the plot, it is possible to push past the surface of the piece. The poem’s ending is determined by a series of interactions with a particular social hierarchy. This hierarchy is headed by the king, under whom we find the knights, then the wild beast Bisclavret, and finally the woman. Bisclavret’s ultimate fate is decided by his and the other characters’ relationship with that order.

The poem is full of examples of how success and happiness are achieved by accepting the social structure, and how challenging the social order leads to destruction. In Stage One of the game, the wife is already going against the social order by nagging her husband, her superior (line 87). In Stage Three, the treacherous wife violates the pecking order further by betraying her husband outright (100-126), with disastrous results. But in Stage Five, Bisclavret finds himself cornered by hunting dogs, and saves himself by humbling himself to the king (139-160) and placing himself in agreement with the social order. Stages Six and Seven show the king extending grace to Bisclavret because of the animal's faithful submission. Even the violent action in Stages Eight through Ten conforms to the social structure, where the wise man and king award higher status to the faithful beast than to the faithless woman (240-260). Bisclavret’s concluding submission to the social hierarchy comes in Stage Eleven, when he refuses to dishonor himself and the king by publicly changing back into a human (283-302). This final act of deference to and respect for the king ensure his ultimate success in the lai. In Stage Twelve, the conclusion is that the king and Bisclavret, both of whom have acted in accordance with the social structure, enjoy a favorable ending. Conversely, the subversive wife is humiliated and banished along with her new husband (303-314).

The underlying connection in the poem between success and conformity to a male-dominated social structure is especially interesting considering its historical context. The lai was produced by a female poet in the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who is noted for being among the most independently influential women in medieval Europe (Bailey). Evidently, the expectation of negative consequences for the subversive woman held true even in the court of a woman famous for her agency. The modern reader might be taken aback by Bisclavret's disfigurement of his wife and the king's decision to have her tortured. However parallels exist in other medieval literature for what would now be considered brutish behavior. One such parallel is found in a book written in the fourteenth century by Geoffrey de la Tour Landry to instruct his daughters in lady-like behavior. The book contains a story of a woman who betrays her husband by reproving him in public. For this offense her husband “smote her with his fist down to the earth. And then with his foot he struck her in the visage and broke her nose, and all her life after she had her nose crooked, the which shent (ruined) and disfigured her visage” (Coss 159). Contextually, this is a cautionary tale to women about obedience to men, meant to reinforce by fear of violence the social structure which was headed by men. This story brings to the forefront the oppressive social context that can be seen beneath the surface of de France's Bisclavret.

By analyzing the choices made by various characters throughout the poem, we are able to catch a glimpse into its social and historical context. Comparing Bisclavret with other medieval literature yields a consistent picture of a male-dominated social structure, characterized by violence and strict standards for conformity.

Works Cited

Works Cited

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De France, Marie. "Bisclavret." The Medieval Period. Ed. Joseph Black. Vol. 1. Peterborough, Ontario [u.a.: Broadview, 2006. 158-66. Print.

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