Bluebeard

Sorry this is late...on my computer that's still an hour behind!

In reading Bluebeard, I can easily see why one may not classify the story within the fairy tale genre. I had never read it, nor heard of it by name, before being assigned the reading in this course; yet, the story does not seem at all odd, nor unfamiliar. The idea of curiosity is absolutely a recurring theme in many tales, and so is disobedience. I can even think of another story in which the luring aspect is morbid in a similar manner: Sleeping Beauty. Yet, in this tale (which I now question whether or not it is a fairy tale), Princess Aurora touches the spindle while under the curse of the female villain Maleficent; there is no consideration of her disobedience to her (nonexistent) husband. Sleeping Beauty is surrounded by familial, maternal figures that wish to protect her thus making her draw to the spindle not at all her fault.
What is disturbing about Bluebeard is that the woman may here have agency; she may be seeking to find an answer about her husband’s secret past. Does this, along with he r intuitive knowledge of his unnaturalness, make her somewhat superhuman? One gains the sense that she perhaps has the intention to uncover the mystery of Bluebeard all along; why else would she consent to marriage to someone so uncanny and repulsive? This story seems to have a certain fate written all over it from the very start, suggesting that this female character likely does as well. I can thus see why Melies depicted the story through film as overtly fantastical, dreamlike—the tale itself seems to be much like a vision, perhaps a warning more than a lesson.