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.