Previous
The Priest
The Rochefort soldier is a friend of Martin Guerre’s from the war. After the man who claims to be Martin Guerre has returned to Artigues, the Rochefort soldier pays him a visit. To the soldier’s surprise, Martin does not remember him, nor does he recall the battle at St. Quentin, where the Rochefort soldier claims that Martin had lost his leg. When the soldier hits Martin below the knee and discovers that he doesn’t have a wooden leg, the soldier becomes suspicious, and he accuses Martin of being an imposter. Pierre, who witnesses this scene, becomes suspicious of Martin for the first time. The Rochefort soldier is one of Bertrande’s only concrete pieces of evidence when she testifies in court that the man claiming to be her husband is an imposter.
Get the entire The Wife of Martin Guerre LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Rochefort Soldier Character Timeline in The Wife of Martin Guerre
The timeline below shows where the character The Rochefort Soldier appears in The Wife of Martin Guerre. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: Artigues
...returns from church with his sister, Pierre, and the priest. The owner sends out a soldier from Rochefort who says he is a “comrade in arms” from the battle in which Martin lost...
(full context)
...returned Martin regrets that he disappointed the man; however, he does not want to host the Rochefort soldier while Bertrande is in such poor health. At home, Pierre and Martin’s sister tell Bertrande...
(full context)
...to a stillborn daughter. Bertrande, who appears to be on her deathbed, asks to see the soldier from Rochefort , but he has left. Bertrande is brought signed papers in witness of the soldier’s...
(full context)
...Pierre to believe that she is not mad. Pierre admits that, since the visit from the Rochefort soldier , he has questioned the returned Martin’s true identity. Moreover, Martin has been acting strangely:...
(full context)
Part 3: Toulouse
...verdict. The judges reason that if Bertrande had mistaken the prisoner for her husband, then the Rochefort soldier could easily have mistaken Arnaud for Martin. Moreover, it was not humanly possible for a...
(full context)
