Dear Baba,
What a horrible story! Bluebeard sounds like a monster! It's also troublesome that the story seems to discourage curiosity! And why did it have to be the youngest daughter who acquiesced to his false charms? And what are we to make of the key to the forbidden room being "the smallest"? And why was it golden? And why did the blood on it remain?
Also, are there stories similar to this one except w/ the genders reversed? And are there stories where-in the endangered-one saves herself? Or by one like her? What would these contrasts convey?
How long ago were such stories first told? And what is the most modern version of it today?
I have so many questions about this story. Is this really about a predator and the naive? Is this about the dangers of not paying attention to all that one knows? (Presumably the young wife was afraid of the beard like all the others, but she ignored her fears.) Is it also about not keeping one's promises? Or the danger of making promises that are not in one's interest? And what does it say about curiosity? Is it essential that someone from outside the castle came to the rescue? And why weren't others interested before? This story does not speak well of the community! (But is it meant to be a commentary on the community?) (How does the concept of community factor into the identity/formation of the self?)
If these old stories are depictions of human nature, and all the characters are facets of the normal human mind, are there really polar opposites (in the normal/ordinary mind, i.e. the non-pathological mind) that are not reconcilable? Bluebeard represents the suppressor of the curious, the imaginative. He remains married only as long as the naive/ deceived remains naive/ deceived. The story seems to say that the naive initially agreed to remain naive. But once curiosity is generated, which seems to happen spontaneously, one or the other character (i.e. faculty of mind) must die. In this story, the curious lives, but only because another force saves her, just in the nick of time. Who/what is that other force?
Baba, this merits more thought and another letter!!!
~Lucy
What a horrible story! Bluebeard sounds like a monster! It's also troublesome that the story seems to discourage curiosity! And why did it have to be the youngest daughter who acquiesced to his false charms? And what are we to make of the key to the forbidden room being "the smallest"? And why was it golden? And why did the blood on it remain?
Also, are there stories similar to this one except w/ the genders reversed? And are there stories where-in the endangered-one saves herself? Or by one like her? What would these contrasts convey?
How long ago were such stories first told? And what is the most modern version of it today?
I have so many questions about this story. Is this really about a predator and the naive? Is this about the dangers of not paying attention to all that one knows? (Presumably the young wife was afraid of the beard like all the others, but she ignored her fears.) Is it also about not keeping one's promises? Or the danger of making promises that are not in one's interest? And what does it say about curiosity? Is it essential that someone from outside the castle came to the rescue? And why weren't others interested before? This story does not speak well of the community! (But is it meant to be a commentary on the community?) (How does the concept of community factor into the identity/formation of the self?)
If these old stories are depictions of human nature, and all the characters are facets of the normal human mind, are there really polar opposites (in the normal/ordinary mind, i.e. the non-pathological mind) that are not reconcilable? Bluebeard represents the suppressor of the curious, the imaginative. He remains married only as long as the naive/ deceived remains naive/ deceived. The story seems to say that the naive initially agreed to remain naive. But once curiosity is generated, which seems to happen spontaneously, one or the other character (i.e. faculty of mind) must die. In this story, the curious lives, but only because another force saves her, just in the nick of time. Who/what is that other force?
Baba, this merits more thought and another letter!!!
~Lucy
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