Bluebeard Flashcards
What are the consistent themes in every interpretation of Bluebeard?
gender violence, specifically violence around marriage
What is an example of sadism in Bluebeard by Perrault?
- Bluebeard gives her lots of keys to everything
- one of them is forbidden to be used
- this is his way to make random rules to justify his murders
- he feels “right” and justified in his cruelty
- the “I told you so” is the purpose of making this random rule (sadism)
Explain the first moral in Perrault’s Bluebeard
- “you were too curious”
- a generally strange moral
- curiosity is an antonym of obedience
- knowledge is a charm of curiosity
- community and sisterhood is a charm of curiosity (like gossip)
- “you can see a lot of examples of curiosity”
- one can only seek out these examples if they are curious in the first place
- which they’re being advised against in this moral
- one can only seek out these examples if they are curious in the first place
- the moral is told from a similarly sadistic voice to the one Bluebeard uses
- lecturing to women (”you”)
- it doesn’t really make any sense because it doesn’t really reflect the story
Explain the second moral in Perrault’s Bluebeard
- telling “you” that husbands now are way better, and the experience of the heroine never happens anymore
- suggesting that the wives now have the power as opposed to the husbands
What is the role of Sister Anne in Perrault’s Bluebeard?
- the sister is meant to be comic relief
- she’s dumb which is supposed to be funny
- another commentary on women being lesser
What element of the story of Bluebeard makes in an empowering story of patriarchy?
- nobody cared enough about Bluebeard’s first wives to care about them or be curious about their whereabouts
- nobody was going to stop Bluebeard via intervention, he was only going to be stopped by someone he was trying to murder
What are names for Bluebeard in other countries/languages?
Silver Nose in Italy and Mr. Fox in England
What are 3 distinctive features of Bluebeard narratives?
- a forbidden chamber
- an agent of prohibition who also gives out punishments
- a figure who violates the prohibition
What is the bloodstained key viewed as in some takes on the story?
an omen of infedelity on the wife’s part
What are 3 typical plot points in the story?
- heroine’s discovery of her husband’s misdeeds
- her craft in delaying the execution of his murderous plans
- her ability to engineer her own rescue
Summary of “Bluebeard” by Perrault
- Bluebeard married a daughter who didn’t initially like him
- he left to do some business for some weeks
-** gave her the keys to a house, but forbade her from using one of them that led to a small room** - the heroine could only think about what was behind the little door and ended up unlocking it
- inside was a pool of blood and the bodies of his former wives
- she dropped the key into the pool of blood, it left a stain that wouldn’t come off
- Bluebeard came back early, and the wife gave him back his keyring without the one for the little door
- he noticed and asked about it
- she brought it down and he could tell that she had opened the room
- he declared that she must die now
- **she cries and begs for extra time to live so she can say some prayers
- instead of praying she calls up Sister Anne and asks her to send her brothers over to save her**
- waiting for her brothers took a while so Bluebeard was extra angry
- he grabbed her hair and was ready to chop her head off but** her brothers knocked on the gate in the perfect moment**
- he opened the gate and her brothers attacked him
- since he had no kids the wife got all of his money
Summary of “Fitcher’s Bird” by the Brothers Grimm
- a sorcerer disguised himself as a poor man and begged from door to door to capture pretty girls
- he went to a house with three daughters and ran off with the oldest one when she offered him bread
- he just touched her and she magically went into his basket
- he goes on a trip but gives her the keys to the house first
- says she’ll die if she opens the door that the little key opens
- he gives her an egg to take wherever she goes, something bad will happen if she loses it
- she explored the house and opened the door
- she saw a bunch of dead people in a basin and dropped the egg into it
- the blood stains wouldn’t come off
- when he returned she gave the keys and egg back and he knew she had been in the room
- he chopped her head off
- he did the same thing to the second daughter
- the third daughter was taken too, but instead of bringing the egg with her when she explored she left it in a safe space
- she opened the door and saw her sisters, when she put their body parts together they came back to life
- he comes back and says she passed the test and now they are to be married
- she says sure but he has to bring her parents gold first
- she put her sisters in the basket with the gold
- this made it extra heavy but she said she’d be watching him and not to rest on the journey
- the third daughter planned the wedding, inviting people over, as the sorcerer was on his walk
- she disguised herself as a bird and walked right past the wedding guests
- putting a bejewled skull in the window so it could look like her
- her brothers set fire to the house once she left
Summary of “The Robber Bridegroom” by the Brothers Grimm
- a miller decided that only the perfect suitor would marry his daughter
- one who was rich showed up and he agreed to marry him to his daughter
- the girl didn’t like him, she didn’t want to visit him
- she used peas and lentils to mark the path to his house as she made her way
- when she entered the house a bird in a cage warned her against it
- the house was empty except for a woman in the kitchen
- she said that cannibals lived there and they were going to eat her
- she told her to hide
- the “robbers” came home with a different maiden, drunk
- **they made the new maiden drink to death and then they prepped her to be eaten
- one of the new girl’s fingers fell in the lap of the hiding girl, but the old woman convinced the robbers not to look for it**
- they began to eat and the old woman put sleeping potion in their wine
- the two women escaped when they were sleeping, following the sprouted lentils and peas home
- the robbers appeared at her house on the day of the wedding
- each person was asked to tell a story at dinner
- **the bride told about her “dream” of her experience at the cannibal house
- when she got to the part with the finger with the ring on it she pulled it out, proving her story was true**
- the robber tried to escape but him and his buddies were arrested
Summary of “Mr Fox” by Joseph Jacobs
- Lady Mary had lots of lovers, but her favourite was Mr Fox and they decided to marry
- they decided to live in his castle after the wedding
- close to the wedding hay, Lady Mary walked to find the castle
- on various walls and things variants of “be bold, be bold, but not too bold lest that your heart’s blood should run cold” were written
- Lady Mary was braved and open a door that led to a room with dead bodies of young ladies
- she started to run out but saw Mr Fox who was bringing in an unconscious young lady
- **he saw a ring on the new one’s finger and tried to pull it off, unable he cut the finger off instead
- the finger went into Lady Mary’s lap in her hiding place**
- he kept going up to the bloody chamber
- the wedding day comes
- **she tells him of her ‘dream’ at breakfast
- retelling her day at his castle
- she pulled out the ring to prove it**
- he was cut into a thousand pieces by her brothers and friends
Summary of “Mr. Bluebeard”
-** Mr Bluebeard had a wife, and he would lock people in a room that she wasn’t allowed into
- he forgot his key one day, and she opened the room
**- the living ones ran away
- she dropped the key in blood
- Mr Bluebeard was a witch and knew she got into the room so he left his business before dinner to return home
- Mrs had 2 brothers, one was a witch and knew she was in danger
- Mrs knew Mr was coming to kill her and kept asking Sister Anne if she saw anyone on their way to the castle
- Mr came in and grabbed Mrs by her hair
- she asked for time to say a prayer
- Sister Anne sees her brothers coming, they save Mrs
Summary of “The Forbidden Room”
- a woman was married off to a very rich man → his horse kept dropping gold on their way to his house
- he gives her the keys to the house, saying that if she opens a specific room he’ll kill her
- one day she opened the room and saw women’s bodies inside of hit
- she dropped the key into a puddle of blood and it got stained
- the “devil daughter” gave her three needles with instruction to drop them - she grabbed a horse and fled
- the “devil” (bluebeard) came back home and caught word that his wife had fled with his horse
- he grabbed a different horse and went after her
**- he caught up, but she dropped a needle- it turned into a big forest which increased the distance between them**
- he caught up to her again as she got to her home, he “carry half of the man’s house”
