Bluebeard
Encyclopedia
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...
and is one of eight tales by the author first published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697 in Histoires ou Contes du temps passé
Histoires ou contes du temps passé
Histoires ou contes du temps passé subtitle: Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye is a collection of eight literary fairy tales written by Charles Perrault and published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697...
. The tale tells the story of a violent nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of one wife to avoid the fate of her predecessors. Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Montmorency-Laval , Baron de Rais, was a Breton knight, a leader in the French army and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known as a prolific serial killer of children...
, a 15th-century aristocrat and prolific serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
, has been suggested as the source for the character of Bluebeard as has Conomor the Accursed
Conomor
Conomor , also known as Conomerus or Conomor the Cursed, was an early medieval ruler of Brittany. His name, which has the Welsh cognate Cynfawr, means "Great Dog", but could also indicate "Sea Dog" in early Brythonic. Conomor was notorious for his cruelty, becoming a legendary villain in Breton...
, an early Breton king. "The White Dove", "Mister Fox" and "Fitcher's Bird" are tales similar to "Bluebeard".
Plot summary
Bluebeard is an immensely wealthy aristocrat, feared and shunned because of his "frightfully ugly" blue beard. He has been married several times, but no one knows whatever became of his wives. He is therefore avoided by the local girls. When Bluebeard visits one of his neighbours and asks to marry one of her two daughters, the girls are terrified, and each tries to pass him on to the other. Eventually he persuades the younger daughter to visit him, and after hosting a wonderful banquet, he convinces her to marry him. After the ceremony she goes to live with him in his châteauChâteau
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
.
Very shortly after, Bluebeard announces that he must leave the country for a while; he gives all the keys of the château to his new wife, telling her they open the doors to rooms which contain his treasures. He tells her to use the keys freely, and enjoy herself whilst he is away. However, he also gives her the key to one small room beneath the castle, stressing to her that she must not enter this room under any circumstances. She vows she will never enter the room. He then goes away and leaves the house in her hands. Immediately she is overcome with the desire to see what the forbidden room holds, and despite warnings from her visiting sister, Anne, the girl abandons her guests during a house party, and takes the key to the room.
The wife immediately discovers the room's horrible secret: its floor is awash with blood, and the murdered bodies of her husband's former wives hang from hooks on the walls. Horrified, she drops the key into the pool of blood. She flees the room, but the blood staining the key will not wash off. She reveals her murderous husband's secret to her sister, and both plan to flee the castle the next day. But Bluebeard returns home unexpectedly the next morning, and, noticing the blood on the key, immediately knows his wife has broken her vow. In a blind rage he threatens to behead her on the spot, but she implores him to give her a quarter of an hour to say her prayers
Prayers
is an anime set in the year 2014 where the young of Japan have rebelled against the government for segregating Shibuya and declared themselves to be independent of Japan...
. He consents, so she locks herself in the highest tower with Anne. While Bluebeard, sword in hand, tries to break down the door, the sisters wait for their two brothers to arrive. At the last moment, as Bluebeard is about to deliver the fatal blow, the brothers break into the castle, and as he attempts to flee, they kill him. He leaves no heirs but his wife, who inherits all his great fortune. She uses part of it for a dowry to marry off her sister, another part for her brothers' captains commissions, and the rest to marry a worthy gentleman who makes her forget her horrible encounter with Bluebeard.
Sources
Although best known as a folktale, the character of Bluebeard appears to derive from legends related to historical individuals in BrittanyBrittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
. One source is believed to have been the 15th-century Breton
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...
nobleman and later self-confessed serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Montmorency-Laval , Baron de Rais, was a Breton knight, a leader in the French army and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known as a prolific serial killer of children...
.
Another possible source stems from the story of the early Breton king Conomor the Accursed
Conomor
Conomor , also known as Conomerus or Conomor the Cursed, was an early medieval ruler of Brittany. His name, which has the Welsh cognate Cynfawr, means "Great Dog", but could also indicate "Sea Dog" in early Brythonic. Conomor was notorious for his cruelty, becoming a legendary villain in Breton...
and his wife Tryphine
Saint Tryphine
Saint Tryphine is a semi-legendary Breton saint whose life is often considered to be the basis of the story of Bluebeard. In Brittany she is widely revered as a patron saint of sick children and those whose birth is overdue...
. This is recorded in a biography of St. Gildas, written five centuries after his death in the sixth century. It describes how after Conomor married Tryphine, she was warned by the ghosts of his previous wives that he murders them when they become pregnant. Pregnant, she flees; he catches and beheads her, but St. Gildas miraculously restores her to life, and when he brings her to Conomor, the walls of his castle crumble and kill him. Conomor is a historical figure, known locally as a werewolf
Werewolf
A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...
, and various local churches are dedicated to Saint Tryphine
Saint Tryphine
Saint Tryphine is a semi-legendary Breton saint whose life is often considered to be the basis of the story of Bluebeard. In Brittany she is widely revered as a patron saint of sick children and those whose birth is overdue...
and her son, Saint Tremeur.
The character's blue beard is regarded as a symbol of his otherworldly origins.
Commentaries
For Iona and Peter Opie, the tale reads as a legend imperfectly recollected. For example, a gap occurs in the narrative between the wife's entrance into the forbidden chamber and Bluebeard's unexpected return, a time when her house guests vanish without explanation, and Bluebeard's willingness to wait a quarter of an hour before slaying his wife is out of character and poorly excused. Although no earlier retelling of the story has been discovered, it may be assumed one existed.
The fatal effects of feminine curiosity have long been the subject of story and legend. Lot's wife, Pandora
Pandora
In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman. As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts...
, and Psyche
Cupid and Psyche
Cupid and Psyche , is a legend that first appeared as a digressionary story told by an old woman in Lucius Apuleius' novel, The Golden Ass, written in the 2nd century CE. Apuleius likely used an earlier tale as the basis for his story, modifying it to suit the thematic needs of his novel.It has...
are all examples of patriarchal stories where women's curiosity is punished by dire consequences. In an illustrated account of the Bluebeard story by Walter Crane
Walter Crane
Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most prolific and influential children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of...
, when the wife is shown making her way towards the forbidden room, there is behind her a tapestry of the Serpent enticing Eve
Eve (Bible)
Eve was, according to the creation of Abrahamic religions, the first woman created by God...
into eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
.
In addition, hidden or forbidden chambers were not unknown in pre-Perrault literature. In Basile's Pentamerone
Pentamerone
The Pentamerone is a seventeenth-century fairy tale collection by Italian poet and courtier Giambattista Basile.-Background:...
, one tale tells of a Princess Marchetta entering a room after being forbidden by an ogress, and in The Arabian Nights Prince Agib is given a hundred keys to a hundred doors but forbidden to enter the golden door, which he does, with terrible consequences. In the story of Prince Agib, the motive is clear: the forbidden door is a test. However, in "Bluebeard", the motive is less clear. It is not explained why Bluebeard would give a key to his wife that will reveal his horrific marital past. In an Indian story, an ogress looks after a prince while disguised as a beautiful woman and tells him not to enter the Tower, Pit or Kitchen, which will reveal her. In the Tower, an old man who has been tied up by her reveals who she is, in the pit are the bones of her victims, and the Kitchen contains three magical balls which the prince uses to escape the Ogress, with the final one a fire is caused which the Ogress runs into and burns to death in.
Aarne-Thompson classification
According to the Aarne-Thompson system of classifying folktale plots, the tale of Bluebeard is type 312.Another such tale is The White Dove
The White Dove (French fairy tale)
The White Dove is a French fairy tale collected by Gaston Maugard in Contes des Pyrénées.It is Aarne-Thompson type 312, and an oral variant of the type, which is best known by the literary tale, Bluebeard.-Synopsis:...
, an oral French variant. The type is closely related to Aarne-Thompson type 311, the heroine rescues herself and her sisters, in such tales as Fitcher's Bird
Fitcher's Bird
Fitcher's Bird is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 46.It is Aarne-Thompson type 311, the heroine rescues herself and her sisters. Another tale of this type is How the Devil Married Three Sisters. It is closely related to the tale Bluebeard...
, The Old Dame and Her Hen
The Old Dame and Her Hen
The Old Dame and her Hen is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr.The Brothers Grimm noted its relationship to Fitcher's Bird.-Synopsis:An old woman had three daughters...
, and How the Devil Married Three Sisters
How the Devil Married Three Sisters
How the Devil Married Three Sisters is an Italian fairy tale collected by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales.It is Aarne-Thompson type 311, the heroine rescues herself and her sisters...
. The tales where the youngest daughter rescues herself and the other sisters from the villain is in fact far more common in oral traditions than this type, where the heroine's brother rescues her. Other such tales do exist, however; the brother is sometimes aided in the rescue by marvelous dogs or wild animals.
Some European variants of the ballad Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight
Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight
"Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" is the English common name representative of a very large class of European ballads. The subject matter is frequently associated with the genre of the Halewyn legends circulating in Europe...
, Child ballad 4, closely resemble this tale. This is particularly noteworthy among some German variants, where the heroine calls for help, much like the calls to Sister Anne in Bluebeard, and is rescued by her brother.
Variations
Other versions of Bluebeard include:- Ariane et Barbe-bleueAriane et Barbe-bleueAriane et Barbe-bleue is an opera in three acts by Paul Dukas. The French libretto is adapted from the symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck....
by Paul DukasPaul DukasPaul Abraham Dukas was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man, of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, and he abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions... - Bluebeard's CastleBluebeard's CastleDuke Bluebeard's Castle is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of the composer. It is in Hungarian, based on the French fairy tale "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault...
by Bela BartokBéla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
and Béla BalázsBéla Balázs----Béla Balázs , born Herbert Bauer, was a Hungarian-Jewish film critic, aesthete, writer and poet.... - Captain Murderer by Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
- The Awful History of Bluebeard by William Makepeace ThackerayWilliam Makepeace ThackerayWilliam Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
- Bluebeard's Keys by Anne Thackeray Ritchie
- The Seven Wives of Bluebeard by Anatole FranceAnatole FranceAnatole France , born François-Anatole Thibault, , was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters...
- The Bloody ChamberThe Bloody ChamberThe Bloody Chamber is a collection of short fiction by Angela Carter. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1979 by Gollancz and won the Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize. All of the stories share a common theme of being closely based upon fairytales or folk tales...
by Angela CarterAngela CarterAngela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works... - Bluebeard's EggBluebeard's EggBluebeard’s Egg is a collection of short stories by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, published in 1983.In this collection, Atwood explores the politics of sex and heterosexual relationships, examining the emotions, betrayals, and casualties of such relationships...
by Margaret AtwoodMargaret AtwoodMargaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C... - Bones by Francesca Lia BlockFrancesca Lia BlockFrancesca Lia Block is the author of adult and young adult fiction, short stories, screenplays and poetry, most famously the Weetzie Bat series. Block wrote her first book, Weetzie Bat, while a student at UC Berkeley; it was published in 1989 by Harper Collins. She is known for her use of imagery,...
. - Bluebeard (play), an off-BroadwayOff-BroadwayOff-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
comedy by Charles LudlamCharles LudlamCharles Braun Ludlam was an American actor, director, and playwright.-Early life:Ludlam was born in Floral Park, New York, the son of Marjorie and Joseph William Ludlam. He was raised in Greenlawn, New York, on Long Island, and attended Harborfields High School. The fact that he was gay was not a... - Bluebeard by Kurt VonnegutKurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
In Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
' short story, the titular character is described as "an offshoot of the Bluebeard family", and is far more bloodthirsty than most Bluebeards: he cannibalises each wife a month after marriage. He meets his demise after his sister-in-law in revenge for the death of her sister, marries him and consumes a deadly poison just before he devours her.
In DC Comics's Fables
Fables (comics)
Fables is a comic book series created by writer Bill Willingham, published by DC Comics's Vertigo imprint beginning in 2002. The series deals with various characters from fairy tales and folklore – referring to themselves as "Fables" – who have been forced out of their Homelands by "The...
series, Bluebeard appears as an amoral character, willing to kill and often suspected of being involved in various nefarious deeds.
In the Japanese light novel and recently adapted manga/anime Fate/zero
Fate/zero
is a prequel to Type-Moon's visual novel Fate/stay night. It is a light novel by Gen Urobuchi, illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi. The first volume was released on December 29, 2006, and is a collaboration between Type-Moon and fellow developer Nitroplus. The second volume was released on March 31,...
, Bluebeard appears as the Caster Servant, where his character largely stems from Gilles de Rais as a serial murderer of children.
In film
Several film versions of the story exist:- Barbe Bleu (1902 film)Barbe-bleue (1902 film)Barbe-bleue is a 1902 silent French crime film drama directed by Georges Méliès. It was released on May 3, 1902.-Synopsis:...
(Blue Beard), a short film by Georges Méliès - Bluebeard (1944 film)Bluebeard (1944 film)Bluebeard is a 1944 film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, starring John Carradine in the title role. After the film's release, it became a favorite of horror movie fans and still later, a cult classic. It would also be registered as a film in thepublic domain...
, a film by the cult director Edgar G. Ulmer, starring John Carradine - Blaubart, released in the United States as Bluebeard, a 1951 German-French film directed by Christian-JaqueChristian-JaqueChristian-Jaque was a French filmmaker. He was married to actress Martine Carol from 1954 to 1959.Christian-Jaque was born at Paris....
, starring Hans AlbersHans AlbersHans Philipp August Albers was a German actor and singer. He was the single biggest male movie star in Germany between 1930 and 1945 and one of the most popular German actors of the twentieth century.- Life and work :... - LandruLandruLandru is a 1963 French motion picture drama directed by Claude Chabrol. The screenplay was written by Françoise Sagan...
, released in the United States as Bluebeard, a 1963 French film directed by Claude Chabrol, starring Charles Denner - Bluebeard (1972 film)Bluebeard (1972 film)Bluebeard is a 1972 thriller starring Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, Joey Heatherton and Sybil Danning. It was filmed in Budapest, Hungary and directed by Edward Dmytryk....
, a film directed by Edward Dmytryk, starring Richard Burton - The French filmCinema of FranceThe Cinema of France comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad.France is the birthplace of cinema and was responsible for many of its early significant contributions. Several important cinematic movements, including the Nouvelle...
Barbe BleueBluebeard (2009 film)Bluebeard is a 2009 French film directed by Catherine Breillat.-Plot:In the 1950s, Catherine toys with her older sister, Marie-Anne by reading her the story of Bluebeard which scares her. As Catherine rereads the story, the film moves to 1697, where two sisters, Marie-Catherine and Anne have...
, directed by Catherine BreillatCatherine BreillatCatherine Breillat is a French filmmaker, novelist and Professor of Auteur Cinema at the European Graduate School.-Life and career:Breillat was born in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres, but grew up in Niort...
, is modeled closely on the work by Charles Perrault.
External links
- Edwin Sidney HartlandEdwin Sidney HartlandEdwin Sidney Hartland was an author of works on folklore.His works include anthologies of tales, and theories on anthropology and mythology with an ethnological perspective. He believed that the assembling and study of persistent and widespread folklore provided a scientific insight into custom...
"The Forbidden Chamber" The Folk-Lore Journal. Volume 3, 1885. - Legendary Scottish bluebeard Sir John Cathcart
- SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages: Heidi Anne Heiner, "The Annotated Bluebeard"
- Variants
- "Bluebeard and the Bloody Chamber" by Terri Windling
- Leon Botstein's concert notes on Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-bleue
- Glimmerglass Opera's notes on Offenbach's Barbe Bleue, the Bluebeard fairy tale in general, and operetta in the time of Offenbach.
- A Shakespeare reference Bluebeard, audio version
- Translation of the German version of the fairy tale "Knight Bluebeard" by Ludwig Bechstein
- Game about Bluebeard