I feel as though all of the criticisms of the Bluebeard stories we have read and the other blog postings that I have seen have focused on the discussion of the wife's curiosity and the consequences of that. This has been amusing to me because it seems that the fact that he is a serial killer, a black widower. Why is it so bad that the wife opens a door, and not so much that he kills at least seven women. Is it just a result of the significance of men being elevated higher in society, or something else?
One thing that occurred to me was that it has often been revealed through interviews with other psycho paths (modern day Bluebeards)the thrill of the chase, the excitement of predator and prey, the building of fear in their victims to raise the interest they have in murdering people. If Bluebeard really did not want her to go into the room, he didn't need to give her the separate key that went to that room (unlike in the beauty and the beast story where the father gave his daughters a key that went to all the rooms in the castle and told them not to go into one, Bluebeard has to give her a separate key for the room. He is bloodthirsty and clearly enjoys killing his victims, so I believe that he had the intention to kill her eventually whether she opened the door then or not, but by giving her the key, he knew he was making the option irresistible and that she would open the door and be horrified (which heightens the thrill of her murder for him).
He is crazy in a very bad way and he is a serial murderer; she just opens a door and through gaining this knowledge saves her life. Why is she the bad guy in this story?! I just feel that the past critics and our class is missing something...
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In response to your post, I think that the Bluebeard stories emphasize the forbidden door, the special key, and therefore make a bigger deal out of the wife opening the door instead of the past actions of out Bluebearded killer. Bluebeard was already a horrifying character, even before we knew for certain that he was a murderer because his physical appearance and his wife’s gut reaction to him already made us regard negatively.
ReplyDeleteYou asked if the focus of critiques you have read is the result of men’s higher place in society, and it is my opinion that yes, this is the case. But I do not think that the wife is by any means the “bad guy” in the story, nor do I think critics or our classmates do either. The wife, like the majority of female portraits in fairytales we have studied represent certain gender constructs that we have internalized to be associated with negative characteristics (such as inability to control curiosity in the wife’s case) but this does not make her evil. There are double standards against women at work here, and in my opinion if the roles were reversed; the wife wouldn’t be able to get away with even one murder (as opposed to the over half of a dozen murder’s that Bluebeard got away with). A female murderess is also less horrifying than a Bluebearded male murderer so perhaps our understanding of this story as one of horror has taken away the emphasis on the terribleness of the mass murders because we expect this from Bluebeard.
I don't think that the wife is seen as the bad guy in this story. The fact that she opens the door is eventually rewarded with freedom and the condemning of menace. If she hadn't opened the door, we probably would not feel bad for her if she was to killed. I personally didn't feel any remorse for the seven other wives dangling lifeless in that room. Her inquisitive nature saved her life (and the narrative).
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