Marie de France's lais, including "The Lay of the Were-Wolf" are stories about courtly love and court interactions; therefore, by their very nature they explore the behaviors and relationships of upper-class people. The main characters are a lord and lady, a king, and a second lord.
The first lord is a "bisclavret" or "werewolf," and when he confesses to his wife that his second identity as a wolf is the reason he is missing for days at a time. She outwardly supports him but plans to betray him behind his back. The lady starts up a relationship with another lord who had previously written love letters to her. In courtly love conventions, lords could express such sentiments to married ladies as a form of appreciation, though nothing was expected to happen as a result (so as not to disturb the sanctity of the lord and lady's marriage).
The lady plans with her new lord to steal her husband's clothes when he transforms to a wolf so that he cannot change back to a human. Thus, she is able to claim her husband has disappeared and marry the new lord. Meanwhile, the wolf comes across the king and his men in the woods, and the king recognizes something noble about him and takes him in. Later, he is able to reveal his true self and is rewarded by the king. Again, all of the interactions here are between nobility.
In terms of gender, the lady is the character who is probably depicted as the most conniving and is punished the most harshly, when her nose is bitten off. The whole scheme is credited to her and she is considered the bad influence even though the lord is the one who first approached her through the love notes.
Marie de France's "Lay of the Werewolf," a courtly romance, focuses on upper-class people: aristocrats and royalty. The story presents us with a baron, a lady, a knight, and a king as the main characters. These characters are primarily identified by their social roles. Lower-class people are invisible in this story. When the king has a banquet, he invites to it "his great vassals and barons." He also invites his huntsmen or "lords of the venery," but these are clearly high-status people. The king shows his power and his favor through the pomp and "show" of a great feast. There is a clear hierarchy: the other guests at the feast are the king's subordinates, who have been summoned to be with him.
Only the werewolf would be potentially outside of this feudal class structure. But in this case, since the werewolf Bisclavret is actually a baron, he behaves within the confines of the courtly system, presenting himself as a gentle vassal of the king by putting his paw on the king's stirrup and offering his loyalty. This is what saves Bisclavret and, in the end, allows him to be vindicated, for the king takes an interest in this gentleman-like wolf servant.
The story shows men having more agency than the sole woman character, the lady. She notices that her husband goes away mysteriously for periods while she is stuck at home. She can only find out why he goes off by coaxing the story out of him; his love for her is her only leverage. When he tells her his story—which is that he goes off as a werewolf and can only regain human form by putting his clothes back on—she must again work through a man, her beloved knight. He, not she, is the one who steals the baron's clothes. The story shows us a female character who, though near the top of her social hierarchy, must depend on a male to act for her.
https://frielingretc.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/the-lay-of-the-were-wolf-clear-2.pdf
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