The original Beauty and the Beast tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont is said to be a story created to condition young women into the possibility of not only marriage, but marrying young, and to placate their fears of the implications of an older husband. [14] It shows the beast as secretly compassionate, and someone meant to curb the aggressive sexual fears that young women have towards marriage. Anatole France's short story "The Seven Wives of Bluebeard" names Jeanne de Lespoisse as the last wife before Bluebeard's death. An editor Though "Beauty and the Beast" holds several similarities in Gothic imagery to "Bluebeard,"(such as is shared with Cupid and Psyche as well, in the case of a mysterious captor, a looming castle, and a young, beautiful heroine) Tatar goes on to state that the latter tale lives on the entire opposite side of the spectrum: one in which, instead of female placation, the tale simply aggravates women's apprehension, confirming one's "'worst fears about sex'". Accessed 30 Apr. Characters: Bluebeard, wife, sister, brothers. Accessed 30 Apr. A Classic Fairy Tale, illustrated by Edmund Dulac: Once upon a time, in the fair land of France, there lived a very powerful lord, the owner of estates, farms and a great splendid castle, and his name was Bluebeard. Sumpter, Caroline. In giving his wife the keys to his castle, Bluebeard is acting the part of the serpent, and therefore of the devil, and his wife the part of the victim held by the serpent's gaze. ), marks him as a figure of overpowering masculinity, an ‘alpha male’ whose strength and virility are almost superhuman. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43308720. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41390294. 358–360.

Just … [more] about Cinderella. "The White Dove", "The Robber Bridegroom" and "Fitcher's Bird" (also called "Fowler's Fowl") are tales similar to "Bluebeard". 74, no. The sister saw only the sun and the meadow. [7] However, Gilles de Rais did not kill his wife, nor were any bodies found on his property, and the crimes for which he was convicted involved the sexually-driven, brutal murder of children rather than women. Mary's father scared her as a little girl by telling her of all the women that were killed by disobeying men.
160–162. 2020. “One Bad Husband: What the ‘Bluebeard’ Story Tells Us about Marriage.” The American Scholar, vol.

The fairytales that Charles made famous: Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, and Puss in Boots. Both are used to leisure and luxury and want to marry a man of means capable of allowing for that transition. A conflict was going on back then between the old who believed that people should stick to the traditional way of writing and the young who were fighting for a new, fresh way of writing. However, Bluebeard unexpectedly returns and finds the bloody key. They were Bluebeard’s ex-wives. “‘Not So Very Blue, after All’: Resisting the Temptation to Correct Charles Perrault's ‘Bluebeard.’” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. His father was very strict and imposed a particular kind of education upon him, so he decided to study law. Bluebeard urges her on. The Question and Answer section for Bluebeard is a great Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. Bluebeard is a wealthy and powerful nobleman who has been married several times to beautiful women who have all mysteriously vanished. Bluebeard was the subject of the pilot episode of an aborted television series. In Jacques Offenbach's opera Barbe-bleue (1866), the five previous wives are Héloïse, Eléonore, Isaure, Rosalinde and Blanche, with the sixth and final wife being a peasant girl, Boulotte, who finally reveals his secret when he attempts to have her killed so that he can marry Princess Hermia. Bluebeard (1697), a French folktale by Charles Perrault, tells the story of a wealthy man with a hideously ugly blue beard who marries then murders a series of wives.