Bluebeard's Reading Reflection

1. The fairytale Blue Beard very much reminded me of the old saying “the curiosity kills the cat”. This is the first time I heard of this fairy tale however I was not expecting for the woman to escape safely from the Bluebeard man. The Mast-Truan version of the story remind me of Rapunzel, but instead of using hair, she used a rope to escape where she was being trapped. The Robber Bridgeroom version reminded me slightly of the movie on Hulu called Fresh. The man “dates” these women, but then takes them to a basement in a home hidden far in the forest to kill them and eat them/sell their meat.

   1. Discussion:

      1. Was this fairytale empowering for women during this time?

      2. For the Charles Perrault version, why should a new partner so quickly erase the bad memories she had with the Bluebeard?

      3. What was the purpose of repetition “my dear i must have been dreaming this”, in the Grimm version?

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3. Some patterns that I notice not only with this fairytale, but with others, is that the women are always blamed for what happened to them. Sure, the wife was warned what not to do, but in this case, there lies a bigger fault in deceiving a woman in order to then kill her. After Perault's version of the story was release, more began to follow along with the idea that the story was about the "evils of female curiosity". It draws parallels to other stories, the most famous being that of Adam and Eve, where Eve falls into temptation and eats the apple.

4. I tried drawing a blue bearded man. I envision him to be pretty good looking, but I know the women in the fairytale do not think he is.