Questionable Morals...

At the end of Perrault's Bluebeard story, two morals are presented. One basically says that curious women always end up in trouble if they try to satisfy their curiosity. The other is a little more ambiguous, but seems to be saying that husbands are no longer unreasonable and jealous, and that women rule the relationship. The first moral is contradictory to the second. In the first, women are shown to be weak and "succumb" to their curiosity all the time. Clearly, this is a bad thing because we all know women should stay out of men's business and not go looking into locked rooms that aren't the kitchen or the nursery. Perrault uses this "moral" to show his view of women's place in the world and the consequences they will face if they step out of it. The second moral contradicts this by implying that women rule in relationships and make their husbands "toe the line". The only reason I can think of for Perrault to provide two very different morals at the end of the story is to make fun of the "curiosity killed the women" message in the story. The first moral is perhaps an ironic acknowledgment of the apparent misogynistic message of the story. Many people would look at the story and only see the moral as, when women go where men tell them not to, bad things will happen. Perrault added the second moral to show that this is a simplistic view of the story and an old fashioned way of thought. The first line of the second moral is "if you just take a sensible point of view". He is showing that a sensible person would see beyond that initial moral and understand that "this tale is one that took place many years ago". In "modern" or Perrault's time, women can be curious and question their husbands without fear of death. So the second moral is the one that Perrault really believes.