Great to see all your posts in, on time!

The contextually disobedient wife. Don't hit me.

"Rich is the man whose wife is dead and horse alive"

This is an anonymous proverb from Agricultural France, back in the day not long before Bluebeard would begin to be first told. While today, the tale speaks volumes about the man's treachery and blatant criminal record, the society from which this tale comes is one where family and marriage were only just worth the procreation that they enabled. According to sociologist Edward Shorter, in France a husband would likely be publicly humiliated for not having control of his wife by riding an ass backward through town. The death of a child was so common that it hardly caused sorrow, and in fact infanticide or [close to it] the abandonment or giving away of children was not uncommon. Thus, it is unlikely that emotional attachments existed to any great degree like they do today. (Sociology 101 text, by Rodney Stark)

Put in this [breifly described] setting, the crime of Bluebeard's murders and the crime of his wife's disobedience can be met at a much more level plane. Perroult's morals back this as well: while "Curiosity... can bring with it serious regrets," and "women succumb," "You will understand that this tale is one that took place many years ago. No longer are husbands so terrible".

Another proverb from the same time and place to end on -
"The two sweetest days of a fellow in life,
Are the marriage and burial of his wife."

Question 2: Heroine in Fitcher's Bird

This version of Bluebeard seems to only scold curiosity without forethought. The third sister thought to put the egg in a safe place rather than keeping it on her person at all times. She also remained calm enough to reassemble her sister's body parts and bring them back to life. Then she devised a plan for getting them, and eventually herself, safely away from Bluebeard. In addition to protecting herself she even tricks Bluebeard into carrying her two sisters home on his own back. This clearly exemplifies how this heroine took her role beyond a celebration of self-preservation and to a new level of cleverness.

Sally in "Bluebeard's Egg"

Perhaps the most interesting and complex Bluebeard tale we read was Margaret Atwood’s “Bluebeard’s Egg.” This modern interpretation of the Bluebeard tale is interesting in the greater complexity in the character of Sally, Ed’s wife. Possibly because her character is more developed, it seems harder to assign a label to Sally as either a model of self-preservation and cleverness or as a disobedient female. I would argue that she is far from a disobedient female because of the amount she depends on Ed but it is interesting to explore the level of self-preservation and cleverness in her character. The story is told from a third-person point of view that is limited to telling the reader Sally’s thoughts only, which becomes is a very important element of the story because much of Sally’s internal dialogue revolves around her inability to really know what Ed is thinking. The narrator observes, “He’s constantly developing, like a Polaroid print, new colours emerging, but the result remains the same: Ed is a surface, one she has trouble getting beneath.” The reader may therefore be biased somewhat in his opinion of her since he is only provided with Sally’s observations and interpretations. From Sally’s point of view it seems rather obvious that she sees herself as a model of self-preservation and cleverness, especially in contrast to Ed who she views as outright dumb. The narrator notes, “On good days she sees his stupidity as innocence, lamblike, shining with the light of (for instance) green daisied meadows in the sun.” However, Sally’s ability to judge Ed’s intelligence is called into question after she observes him with Marylynn in a moment that might be indicative of an affair between the two. Sally’s inability to predict or even suspect such an affair casts doubt over the truth of her opinions about Ed and her relationship with him.

Sally worries about losing Ed, who had two wives before her, however she tries to reassure herself with observations of his supposed ignorance. Sally wants to know what happened to his first two wives and the narrator explains, “But it’s also a cause for anxiety: for if he doesn’t know what happened with the other two, maybe the same thing could be happening with her and he doesn’t know about that, either.” Worries about losing Ed ignite Sally’s self-preservation instinct and throughout the tale she seems to try to consciously act in a manner that will prevent any such loss. Yet, Sally can hardly be seen as a model of self-preservation because it seems that if she really wanted to survive she should not have attached herself to Ed in a manner that almost seems unhealthy. At one point, the tale points out, “She knows she thinks about Ed too much. She knows she should stop.” If she were really a model of self-preservation, she would do just that – she would stop. Additionally, Sally’s cleverness, which the story seems to explicitly tout through its narration that includes her own self-praising thoughts, is called into question especially after the incident with Ed and Marylynn. Sally’s categorization of Ed as “Ed Egg, blank and pristine and lovely. Stupid, too,” no longer appears applicable. At the end Sally notes, “…the egg is alive, and one day it will hatch.” The moment shared by Ed and Marylynn turns Sally’s whole world upside and makes everything even less certain. This change highlights Sally’s lack of self-preservation and also lowers her self-esteem and opinion of her own intelligence. Thus, it appears that despite her fervent hopes, Sally was delusional in her belief in her ability to preserve herself through her marriage to Ed and through her cleverness.

Question 1: Horror in Bluebeard

In my opinion the most horrific aspect of any of the Bluebeard stories was the first moral at the end of Perrault's version. Somehow this moral manages to turn a fairy tale about a male serial killer into a tool to place social constraints upon women. The Perrault and Grimm versions teach that a women should always obey her husband or else she will receive severe punishment. These stories offer the ultimate form of Victim Blaming. Because the wife disobeyed her husband and entered the forbidden room, she risks her life. The husband's crazed and murderous tendencies is excused while the wife's curiosity is chastised. The inhuman nature of the Bluebeard character is also shocking. The Grimms' versions and then Jacobs version actually goes so far as to describe the brutal murders of women.

Perhaps the best message that a woman could take from these stories is that she should marry for love. All of these stories involved women marring the Blulebeard character due to an arranged marriage; despite a feeling of hesitation. If you take time to get to know your future husband, you probably stand a better chance of avoiding a brutal death at his hands later on.

Horror in BlueBeard

The components of horror in the story are clearly the points of interest in the tale. This is evident by the descriptions they get, such as "clotted blood" and "bloody basin filled with dead people who had been chopped to pieces". This is similar to the exaggerated imagery of magic in fairytales. While the fact that blood exists for the purpose of pushing the narrative forward, the detail is there for effect.

Horror in Bluebeard Tales

I think that in most of the Bluebeard stories horror functions as a way to reinforce the image of the husband as evil. In Perrault’s “Bluebeard” and the Grimm’s “Fitcher’s Bird,” the room that the wife is forbidden to enter is described in a manner seemingly designed to shock the reader. Perrault describes the room as covered in blood with dead women hanging on the walls, while the Brothers Grimm story depicts a basin filled with chopped up people. Both stories seem to want to horrify the reader and thus make him reflect on the evil nature of a man who would commit such acts. Similarly the Brothers Grimm story “The Robber Bridegroom” and Jacobs’ “Mr. Fox” describe the gruesome acts of a husband-to-be who cuts up girls, including cutting off their fingers to obtain the ring on it. The horror in these two stories seems essential to the plot in order to validate the woman’s refusal to marry the man in question. After telling the story of atrocities she sees her future husband commit, which she frames as a dream in both tales, she is no longer obligated to marry him and her family takes care the bridegroom for her.

One story that stands out as different from the others in its use of horror is “Bluebeard’s Ghost” by Thackeray. Thackeray seems to use horror as the device to prompt Bluebeard’s widow into making a decision between Mr. Sly and Captain Blackbeard. The horror manifests itself in the visits made by Bluebeard’s “ghost” to his widow during the night. When the widow finds out the real source of these supposedly supernatural visits, she learns the true nature of Mr. Sly and is able to pick Captain Blackbeard without any qualms. In “Bluebeard’s Ghost” the horror provides almost the only action in the story and also propels the most important conflict in the story to its resolution in the widow’s picking of Blackbeard.

Clever Bride in "The Robber Bridegroom"

In the "Robber Bridegroom," the female protagonist is portrayed in an intelligent, clever manner. She shows foresight in filling "both her pockets with peas and lentils to mark the way" to the bridegroom's house - thereby listening to the feelings that make her "dreadfully frightened" when she "was supposed to leave." The girl also places her trust rightly in the matronly old woman, who saves her when she tells the robbers to " 'come and eat,'" efficiently distracting them from trying to find the finger that flew into the girl's lap. Even though going through the gruesome ordeal of witnessing a murder, she also does not faint or scream when hiding behind the barrel, and is only said to be "trembling and shaking." The girl then escapes with the old woman and immediately tells "her father about everything that had happened." She has the werewithal to keep the chopped off finger and ring to present as evidence later during the wedding celebration. The girl is never described as overtly curious and she does not disobey anyone's orders. Therefore, I would say that she is depicted as possessing a high level of intelligence and self-preservation.

Elements of Horror Comparison

When comparing the elements of horror used in "The Robber Bridegroom" and "Fitcher's Bird," several differences can be seen. In "The Robber Bridegroom" there are two main instances where horror is used: "when the ungodly crew...tore off [the maiden's] fine clothes, put her on a table, chopped her beautiful body into pieces, and sprinkled them with salt" and when one robber "took an ax and chopped the finger off" to get a "gold ring." The first instance is used to both startle the audience and move the plot along, whereas the second instance mainly functions to move the plot along. The second plot element is used later so that the clever bride can prove that her story is true, and also save herself from her soon-to-be murderous husband.

In "Fitcher's Bird," the two main uses of horror are with the description of the sorcerer's secret chamber with the "large, bloody basin filled with dead people who had been chopped to pieces," and when the first wife is murdered by the sorcerer - "he threw her down, dragged her in by the hair, chopped her head off on the block, and hacked her into pieces so that her blood flowed all over the floor." Both of these elements are used to shock the reader, and to elaborate on the storyline to express the horrifying qualities of the sorcerer. Not only does he kidnap young women, but he also murders them gruesomely.

I believe that certain stories such as the grimm brothers' Fitcher's Bird is a story that celebrates the heroine's ability and cleverness to escape the evil sorcerer/bluebeard rather than a tale of female disobedience. More than half of the story is spent on the third wife's clever deception, rescue and escape from bluebeard. The heroine is a deeper character, dedicated to family and she is rewarded with life, and punishes not only the evil sorcerer, but also his whole "crew". The bride in Fitcher's Bird creates the most complicated lies and seems to be the most intelligent of the bunch, but she is also the only bride not to receive a whole bunch of money in the end. The other brides who were more victims than heroines where rewarded for their pacifically by all of bluebeard's treasure. In Fitcher's Bird the bride is able to destroy more evil, but she is punished for her cleverness by not being monetarily rewarded. So, i think i've changed my mind, and that the story punished female disobedience, even though she did save the day.

Horror in Bluebeard

The two types of horror in he bluebeard stories are the dead severed hand and the floor covered in blood. The hand with the ring is a physical horror because it is lifeless, bloody, and a way for the evil, bloodthirsty bluebeard to find and kill the heroine. The hand is especially frightening because it's existence and place meant in the heroine's lap is her closest brush with death. There is the dramatic suspense when bluebeard is looking for the hand (and the ring), that catches their breath and brings them within an inch of death. The floor covered in clotted blood, reflecting the images of the dead women or chopped-up people is a much more gory and traditionally horrific image. The blood and guts are gross, but i think the suspense linked to the severed hand is much more horrifying. With the hand, the heroine loses control. Her life or death is entirely up to chance, and that is terrifying.

Assignment 8 - 24. March 2009

Hi Brian, Caitlin, Briana, Amy-Lee and Lydia,

For this week, please complete two separate posts.

Question 1: Compare the elements of horror in the various versions of Bluebeard that you read for today. Please name the elements you are comparing and discuss how they function in the story. Do they help move the plot along? Elaborate the story? Startle the audience? etc.

Question 2: Tatar offers two readings of the heroine's character: either as a celebration of self-preservation and cleverness or as a disobedient female. Using a version other than the Perrault, consider how the heroine gets presented. Use quotes to support your reading.


DEADLINE for Posts: Midnight on Tuesday

DEADLINE for Comments on atleast two other posts: Midnight on Wednesday

Again, please post two separate entries!

Ann