The Last Duel by Eric Jager Essay

Story of the duel to end all duels

In the story The Last Duel by Eric Jager, fourteenth century in medieval France, a knight by the name of Jean de Carrouges challenges a squire, Jacques Le Gris, to a duel. The reason for this trial by combat, a court-ordered duel intended by fate of God to determine the truth, was to seek vengeance for the sake of his own honor. The wife of Jean Carrouges was the "young, beautiful, good, sensible, and modest" Marguerite. She was expected to maintain a ladylike mannerism and remain loyal to her husband. When the couple traveled to Capomensil to visit Carrouges mother-in-law Marguerite stayed under her watch while Carrouges set out on a journey in desperate need of cash. While away on his journey …show more content…
After the violation Le Gris threatened the weeping Marguerite to keep quiet, and tossed a bag of coins beside her. She let him know she didn't want his money, she wanted justice. And she wouldn't keep quiet for too long. "Le Gris counted on Marguerite's old family disgrace as a guarantee that she would remain silent about this fresh shame". She only kept silent until the return of her husband.

Jean returned from Paris receiving bad news from his wife of Le Gris brutally attacking and raping her, and also that she was pregnant. After five years of being married they weren't able to conceive a child, and now after the rape Marguerite was pregnant. Who was the father of this child? Instantly I had known it was the child of Jacques Le Gris because this couldn't have been a coincidence. In the book there was a mentioning of a theory of reproduction, based on teachings of Galen, that in order for a female seed to conceive with a male seed, the female has to orgasm, meaning "woman could not possibly conceive is she did not participate". This theory is complete stupidity and close minded thinking, and probably ruined many cases in rape where the woman became impregnated by her attacker. After learning of the attack Jean summoned Jacques to trial, and was stretched out for a long period of time. Basically throughout all that time Jean and Jacques awaited whether or not they would be able to settle this accusation through a

Show More

Related Documents: The Last Duel by Eric Jager Essay

Jacques Le Gris And Jean De Carrouges Summary