Question 1

In Bluebeard's Ghost and the Seven Wives of Bluebeard both authors make an attempt to translate the fantastical of the fairy tale into reality. The horror in the Bluebeard's Ghost is that in the middle of dull exchanges of romance, the supernatural, having been explained away the hole time, rears its head again in the form of Bluebeard's ghost. The appearance of the specter throws the entire story off balance, which until then was obsessed mostly by the small interactions of the widow, to suddenly include the wider implications of her history with bluebeard. It is the resolution that settles the story again in reality as Blackbeard gets the girl and the the shy facade of frederick is shown to be just that. In this case the return to the normal is a relief, and the horror is the departure from this. However, in The Seven Wives of Bluebeard the horror of the plot comes from the unswerving reality of it. It instead becomes a tragedy of a good man constantly taken down at every turn. Had it at any point gone back to the fantastical, it would be welcome. It would mean that in the end the villain lost and the hero was rewarded. Instead, by sticking to the plausible world that the author created, we are presented with a man driven into ruin. The horror of the story comes from the last few lines, where bluebeard is disgraced, and the corrupt lovers achieve everything they dreamed of.

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.

Woman in Anatole France's, "The Seven Wives of Bluebeard" at depicted as a disobediant female. This notion can be depicted in the final scene. The way they tricked Bluebeard is evidence enough. THey had to trick him. Tricking has the implications of deciept and betrayal. the "chavalier, whom Jeanne had hidden in the cupboard in the room, apeared alone." Later, after the initial attack, Jeanne "fled terror-stricken", as if she knew the disgust of her own actions. Later she turns to her brothers to kill Bluebeard, "Quick, quick, brothers, save my lover!". At that, her brothers stabbed Bluebeard ling after he was dead. This depiction suggests that the female was more someone conniving rather than a celebration of self-preservation.

Question 1

In both "the seven wives of Bluebeard" and "bluebeard's Ghost" there are elements of horror that generally are not associated with the fairy tale genre. Furthermore, such horror elements are also used differently from story to story, though they share a common trend. For example, this Bluebeard's Ghost focuses more on the ghost being the scary facet of the story, The Seven Wives of Bluebeard look to the wives as potential suspects though ghosts are still present, or at least part of the given world. Thus, While both use the ghost as an element of horror, violence is the common denominator that acts as the undercurrent for the genre.

Such violence functions to move the plot along while at the same time elevating suspence. This suspence is what creates the framework for the plot to progress. While moving the plot along, it also sets the tone and thus dictates the intended outcome and ideal moral for the story.

I will have my post in by 4pm.. sry, I forgot about it and am in class all day...so my stuff is to come..

Question 1

Question 2

In the Grimm's "Fitcher's Bird," the heroine is presented as a smart and clever woman. They make a clear comparison between this sister and the two "foolish" sisters. Clearly, a foolish girl doesn't think before she acts and ends up being punished with death. Nevertheless, when the evil beggar "went and captured the third sister, ... she was clever and sly." Clearly, cleverness and slyness are valued features, and if they can help someone survive (and bring that person's sisters back to life), they are heroines and save the day. The contrast between the death of the two foolish sister and the survival of the smart sister show this the best. 

Question 1

One of the main horror elements in most of the Bluebeard stories is the chamber filled with the chopped up body parts of Bluebeard's wives. This part functions as the climax and helps the story to move along because the heroine finally discovers the truth about her husband and the fate of his previous spouses. Also, this is the part of the story in which she finds herself making a mistake, so the rest of the story leads off of it as her punishment for this action. This part definitely startles the audience by showing them a terrible fate for a wife and sending a message to the young women who might be wives in the future - obey your husbands. 

The Women of Bluebeard: Airheads, Survivors, or Murderers?

Charles Perrault's version of Bluebeard stresses that the heroine's rendezvous with disaster was a result of her impertinence and curiosity, not because Bluebeard was a monster. Anatole France's "The Seven Wives of Bluebeard" also tries to disenchant the monstrosity of Bluebeard by blaming the seven wives' disreputable natures for wrongly labeling Bluebeard, or rather Monsieur de Montragoux, as murderer. France insists that Bluebeard's newest wife, Jeanne de Lespoisse, was instead the murderer, and her greed and immorality was the cause of Monsieur de Montragoux's murder. There was no closet with the hanging dismembered bodies of the other six wives- only the "fairy key" was retained from the myth, but it was the fact that "the criminal wife mistook... the reflection of the sky still enpurpled by the roses of dawn...for a bloodstain on iron" that disclosed the seventh wife's true nature. (Zipes, 581) Mdme de Montragoux's crime was her affair with the Chevalier de la Merlus, which eventually led to her scheme to murder Monsieur de Montragoux for his estate. The effect of portraying the seven Madames de Montagoux as women with absolutely atrocious merits and virtues, in particular the seventh wife, strengthens Perrault's claim that women's troubles arise from their indiscretions. These women weren't struggling against a grotesque murderer. Instead many of the wives took advantage of Monsieur de Montagoux's "kindness and tenderness... [that] would have softned the most savage hearts," especially the "execrable brood of Lespoisse." (Zipes, 580) From the untameable Colette Passage to Jeanne de La Cloche, who "loved wine and drank it to excess" and the foolish Angele de La Garadine, Monsieur de Montagoux suffered the most unfortunate marriages, and all their vices drove Bluebeard to make the worst decision to marry Jeanne de Lespoisse.

Anatole France spares no expense on berating all the vices of women. In order to save the reputation of Bluebeard, France also tries to pass this story as a true story. (But the inclusion of the "fairy key" quickly blows his cover.) The end effect is that the seven wives of Bluebeard appear as complete wretches (or bitches, for that matter) and Bluebeard ends up as a martyr for men's virtus and virility.

Fitcher's Bird- A Tale of Horror

Of all the tales we were supposed to read for this week, I thought the Grimm's "Fitcher's Bird" and "The Robber Bridegroom" were by far the most ghastly. I don't know about you, but the descriptions of girls being hacked to pieces were quite dreadful- especially the part in "The Robber Bridegroom" where the maiden's sobs and screams were unheeded as the robbers "tore off her fine clothes, put her on a table, chopped her beautiful body to pieces, and sprinkled them with salt." The scene of the basin of girls' severed and bloody body parts stewing in the dark was also not very appetizing, either. Granted I don't go out of my way to watch horror movies, but if these two stories were adapted to a movie screen, the would make a nice rated "R" movie. (Insert hint of sarcasm here.)

So what purpose does the sense of horror in these two stories serve? If you compare them to, say, Perrault's "Bluebeard" or Thackeray's "Bluebeard's Ghost," the two Bluebeard versions appear quaint, and they act as an admonition or slap on the wrist to young women who let their sensibilities get in the way of reason. Perrault and Thackeray attempt to criticize bad female conduct either in court or in high society, and try to show that a woman's curiosity can overwhelm her moral compass and logic. However, the truely graphic nature of the Grimm's tales shows that a woman's curiosity is well founded. If it weren't for her snooping around, the female character of "The Robber Bridegroom" would have fallen prey to the robbers the same way the other maiden had, and if the youngest daughter hadn't used her wits, she and her sisters would have shared the same bloody stew for a grave.

But besides proving that women do, indeed, have a brain for a purpose, the graphic nature of "The Robber Bridegroom" and "Fitcher's Bird" are meant to disgust the reader. In both stories, the murderers are men that beg and steal. They do not work for an honest living, and they prey upon those that do (especially maidens.) They lack the industriousness and God-fearing piety that a good German should have, and the Grimm Brothers portray their antagonists this way to stress that beggars and thieves should be feared for more than just their potential violence. They should also be feared for their lack of contribution to the economy and morality of Germans- and other peoples as well- because their lifestyles harm those that live around them. The Grimm Brothers portray the beggars' and theives' means of income as revolting by creating a dramatic scene in their stories that illustrates the grotesqueness of their ways of living.

Assignment: 24 March 2009

Since class had to be cut short today, there will be two posts for this evening.

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.

Again, please post two separate entries by midnight tonight.