Folk Lore and Fairy Tales Blog #7

Out of the Bluebeard stories we read, it was very difficult for me to choose a favorite because I have trouble choosing favorites in general. I do know however, that the stories where the heroine saves herself are my favorite ones. The Brothers Grimm: “Fitcher’s Bird” and Joseph Jacob’s: “Mr. Fox” are probably my top two favorite Bluebeard stories. I like the ones where the heroine saves herself because they have stronger female leads than the other ones. 

 One of the main aspects of the “Fitcher’s Bird” I liked was the uniqueness of the story in comparison to the other stories. Rather than one girl there were three sisters and the third one was smart enough to outsmart the sorcerer and save her sisters. I also liked how she invited all the sorcerer’s friends and then ran out of the house disguised as a bird. I also liked the genius of her plan and how “she took a skull with grinning teeth, crowned it with jewels and a garland of flowers, carried it upstairs and set it down at an attic window, facing out,” (Tatar 195), to make it seem that she herself was keeping an eye out the window when she actually wasn’t. I thought that was rather amusing. I also thought it was unique how she practically brought her sisters back from the dead. I think the ending is very interesting because they not only killed the sorcerer, but they killed all his bad friends as well. 

The main reason I enjoyed “Mr. Fox” is because the heroine, Lady Mary, had absolutely no help escaping Mr. Fox, because she got out of his house on her own when she saw him with the beaten woman. I thought various aspects of the story were very unique, such as the fact that the main heroine actually had a name and how the walls and doorways were warning her and telling her to be brave. As gruesome as this part of the story is, I thought it was interesting how the severed hand of the woman landed in Mary’s lap and that’s what essentially saved her from the marriage to Mr. Fox. I really liked the part that Mary goes: “but it is so, and it was so. Here’s hand and ring I have to show,” (201), because of how lyrical it is and how those were the words that saved her from a grim fate.  

Originally I first heard about the story of Bluebeard through a show I watched not long ago called Strong Woman Bong-Soon, because in the show there was a serial kidnapper and murderer who was inspired by a play called “Bluebeard,” which I had never heard of, so I was surprised that it was actually based off an old fairy tale which I learned through this class. In the show the villain kidnaps young women and beats them and locks them up to be his brides. Eventually the main character and heroine of the show saves the trapped women, and in turn ends up getting captured herself because she upsets the villain. Although when she gets captured, she is able to have the strength to free herself and eventually capture the villain and turn him into the police. Through learning about the Bluebeard story in class I was very eager to see how it compared to the show I watched and if it was based off it, and I was excited to find out that it was definitely related.