My First Experience with Bluebeard

We have begun studying the tale of Bluebeard and his wife this week.  This is one of the few fairy tales I had not read previously, although I was acquainted with the characters thanks to good ol' Uncle Walt. 

Upon exiting the Haunted Mansion attraction at the Walt Disney World theme park, this is one of the featured tombs on display in the graveyard.  For years I have stopped and read the words and always interpreted them to mean that the last wife had murdered her husband.  I was a little surprised when I read the tale that the wife's hand in Bluebeard's death was indirect and that she actually had to rely on her brothers to save her.  This was a little disappointing for me, as thanks to the rhyme engraved on the tombstone pictured above, I had imagined the wife to be a resourceful and victorious heroine who had emerged victorious over a character of some villainry (why else had he already been married and widowed so many times).  To read that she was the helpless victim (and possibly a descendant of Pandora and Eve), was a letdown.

Perrault's moral inserted at the end of the story completes this image of a weak charactered wife by reminding us that she was the maker of her her destruction by being curious. 

"Moral:

Curiosity, in spite of its appeal, often leads to deep regret. To the displeasure of many a maiden, its enjoyment is short lived. Once satisfied, it ceases to exist, and always costs dearly."

See, "Bluebeard", by Charles Perrault.

Further reflection on the story and this tomb have led me to determine the wife may not have been as passive as I originally thought while I was reading Charles Perrault's version.  While she may have been dependent on her brothers to actually kill Bluebeard, the wife manipulated the situation and set the events in motion by stalling and delaying her immediate death and allowing herself the chance to signal for the help she needed.

Looking at it from that perspective the rhyme, once again, rings true for me.

"Seven winsome wives, some fat and some thin. 

Six of them were faithful, but the seventh did him in."

See, Bluebeard's Tomb, Haunted Mansion Graveyard, Walt Disney World.

Gretel the Hero!

This week we have left behind our princesses and little girls in red hoods off to visit their grandmothers, and moved on to the story of Hansel and Gretel, yet another classic fairy tale from my childhood.  The image above is the cover of the first version of the book I read as a child.  What made this story so special and different for me was it was one of the first times I was exposed to the idea of the girl coming to the rescue instead of the boy.

In the world of fairy tales, the female heroine actually performing the defining act of heroism is pretty rare.  It is much more common to see the character saving the day be a male, while the female serves as his reward for doing so.  Gretel is completely refreshing in this sense.  She saves Hansel, her brother, not because she will gain marriage to a prince or riches or some kind of magical item.  She saves Hansel simply because he is her brother and in danger from the witch.

Even more impressive, is Gretel begins the story a frightened girl dependent on her brother to lead.  Her character's progression is nicely summed up by Marcia R. Lieberman in the essay, "Some Day My Prince Will Come: Female Acculturation through the Fairy Tale", where Ms. Lieberman states: "Gretel does perform the decisive action at the end, but for the first half of the story she is the frightened little sister, looking to her brother for comfort and help."

This was an awesome and powerful lesson to teach children (especially girls) reading fairy tales.  ANYONE can be the hero - even the girl!  And you do not need to start out as the hero; Gretel didn't.  She adapted and grew as the situations around her changed.

There may not have been princesses and castles and magic spells in this fairy tale, but it was spell binding to me nonetheless.   

The Animal Unleashed

While still on the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood", our class has been taking a closer look at the character of the Wolf of late.  He has proven to be a fascinating study, as he can be interpreted to symbolize so many different things: the villain, an object of fear and evil, darkness, man, the seductive manipulator, a sexual predator, and even a victim.

I lean towards the theories of seductive manipulator and sexual predator myself.  As seen in the video clip below, the Wolf in Sondheim's musical "Into the Woods" is a shining example of this persona (and he's anatomically correct too).

Hello Little Girl - Into the Woods, OBC

Perhaps Sondheim got his inspiration for his Wolf character from the one in Charles Perrault's version of "Little Red Riding Hood".  Perrault's wolf has quite the seduction scene where Red exclaims over the wolf/grandmother's features as each new part is exposed. From the Perrault version, "The wolf, seeing her come in, said to her, hiding himself under the bedclothes, "Put the cake and the little pot of butter upon the stool, and come get into bed with me."

Taken from www.deviantart.com, a drawing of the wolf from "Into the Woods" by Selinelle.

Clearly, in the video clip above and the drawing, he is not an animal in the conventional sense of the word.  He looks all man, well, all animalistic man.  Arrrooo....