Spooky Gender Roles on Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Something funny happened to me today.. I couldn't go out trick or treating with my family because I feel horrible and I hope I'm not getting the flu because I have sooo much to do. But that's not the funny thing. Here it is: I cuddled up with a blanket to watch my favorite Halloween show of all time-- "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." (I know..I'm a light weight.) I own it on video so I thought that and a brownie would have to be a good way to relax and spend Halloween. But I couldn't help noticing the strong gender roles portrayed in that Halloween special! Because of this class, I am noticing the gender typing in more and more things, and I can't hardly stand to watch cartoon network with my son because of the darn commercials. Did you know that little girls now can have a baby doll that wets and poops?! Horrible! But back to Charlie Brown's Halloween show...In the first scene, Lucy takes her little brother Linus out to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin. She picks the largest one and makes HIM carry it. She never even helps. When the pumpkin gets away from him and he gets rolled over by it, Lucy looks angry with him, as if he did something wrong. It was strange that the boy had to do all the work. When Linus later writes to the Great Pumpkin, all the little girls come in and make fun of him. His male friend is fairly supportive, but the girls put him down and laugh at him. This show is very old, but I have noticed that the theme of girls making fun of stupid boys or men can be seen in many tv commercials and sitcoms today.
Then there is the scene where Lucy tries to get Charlie Brown to kick the football. He at first says that he is not going to fall for that trick again this year because she will pull it out from under him. But Lucy is convincing and even has a written document that she will not do that to him. But she pulls the football and makes Charlie Brown go flying through the air. She excuses herself by saying that the document was never notarized. We have seen in many of our fairy tales that women were often thought to be tricky and conniving, and now we can see this portrayed in a family cartoon. While it is interesting to start noticing this gender typing, it makes me feel a bit angry and hopeless that women will never be taken seriously or considered good and intelligent. All of the commercials I saw for little girls this morning had to do with styling hair or making the doll or pony's hair change color. The boys had cool trucks that danced and cars that raced and costumes with lazer guns. When did girls get so obsessed with hair?
Anyway, apparently I watched too much tv while I felt bad today so I hope I feel better tomorrow! Meanwhile, I'm glad I was able to be in your fairy tale class because it sure is thought provoking on many levels. Have a safe and happy Halloween!

The Same Fairy Tales--Different Views

Two of the students who did their presentations on Thursday were Felix and Megan. (I hope I am spelling her name right.) They both spoke on the same fairy tales; the versions of "Little Red Riding Hood" by Perrault and by the Brothers Grimm. However, on the question of, "which fairy tale is better for children" they took completely opposite views. It was very interesting to watch how they each did this and what they used to prove their points. Felix argued on the side of the Perrault tale and did this convincingly by doing a good close analysis of the stories. He brought out details from the literature such as length of lines, story content, and development of characters. His view was that some of Grimm's tale was lengthy and boring, as compared to Perrault's. He said that the characters were better developed in Perrault's tale and that made them more interesting. He thought that the moral was more clear in the Perrault tale and that, overall, it seemed more realistic. He had some very good and convincing points and his close analysis was thoughtful. Megan, on the other hand, said that the moral in the Grimm's version was much better and that cildren would get two good moral lessons out of the tale. The first is the obvious one, which is to obey your parents. The second moral lesson Megan brought out was very thought provoking and it is displayed in the fact that the Grimm version introduces a good guy---a hunter that comes at the end and rescues them from the wolf, who is seen as the bad guy. Her moral lesson was that little girls should know that there are bad men in society that will hurt or trick you but that there are also good men that you can trust. You know, I think every girl does have to learn this at some point in her life while growing up around males. For women, this subject deals with rape and molestation and how women have to be warned against "wolves" or bad guys who will do these things. Men do not really have to worry about being raped or being tricked by a woman to get him into bed with her. Yet women have to be warned against bad men and taught to look for good men that they can trust. Perhaps the reason that Felix did not get a clear moral lesson from the Grimm's tale and Megan did, is just a matter of gender! But despite gender differences, they both did a great job of discussing their opposite views of the "Little Red Riding Hood" tales.

Beauty and the Beast: Another Example of Men's Fears

When we were studying Little Red Riding Hood, we discussed that the story could show men's fear of their own sexuality or their fear of a woman's rejection of their sexuality. I believe that some of these sexual issues and acceptance issues can be seen in "Beauty and the Beast" as well. First, the main male character in BATB starts out as a Beast. He is big, ugly, and scary to women. In the beginning of the tale, he seems mean and hateful, since he tells the father that he'll have to send one of his daughters to die in his place if he wants to live. The Beast knows that no woman will accept him as he is. He must trick a woman into coming to live at his place. He really did not seem to have the desire to kill Beauty when she got there--he just wanted a woman to live with him. This portrayal of the Beast could point to the same deep-seated fear in men that the beast has. They are afraid that they won't be attractive to women. They are afraid that they are too big and gruff and unrefined to "get" a woman. They may also fear that their own sexuality is too "beastly" or animalistic for a woman. They hope that a woman will accept them as they are, just as Beauty eventually accepted Beast, even while he was still ugly.
Also, notice that in most of the Beauty and the Beast tales the Beast has plenty of money. The castle or house is big and richly decorated. The food is good and plentiful, and he seems to spare no expense for the comfort of his guests. This makes me think of what a guy in our class said about the Bluebeard story; that the women were after his wealth. In the BATB tales, would the women have accepted him if he was dirt poor and they had to live in a bare hut? Perhaps this points to another fear men have--that women are attracted to the man's wealth and that if you don't have money, you probably won't get a woman. Come to think of it, in many fairy tales, the man who gets a woman in the end is wealthy. Cinderella doesn't fall in love with a good looking plow boy...she gets the wealthiest guy in the land! Snow White and Sleeping Beauty both get handsome and wealthy princes. Poor guys! We often think that fairy tales objectify women but look at how the winning men are portrayed. You have to be very handsome and rich to get a beautiful girl. No wonder men are afraid that women will not accept them or their sexuality. They may be afraid that they won't live up to the standards set up by fairy tales. Very interesting.

Gender Typing Seen in Commercials

I was interested in the comments you and some of the students were making about gendering and how tv commercials make a huge contribution to that issue, just like fairy tales. So I watched some kids' channels this week, and it was quite amazing. The ads aimed at little boys all involved either fighting, winning, or being in control. The first I saw was some sort of batman set up with little figurines. The batman figurine could swoop down from a special rope and knock over the "bad guys." Everything shown on that commercial that the young boys could do with this toy involved violence. The next I saw was a car racing kit with transformer vehicles. It said that you could "be first to the finish line!" The entire commercial played strong rock-in-roll type music and showed the boys competing with their little cars and yelling when they won. It was all about competition and winning. The little girls' commercial was just as you said. It was all pink and purple and happy music played. The particular ad that I saw was a bunch of little girls putting makeup on dolls and styling their hair. I could not help but wonder if this is all our society thinks little girls should spend their time on. While boys are out fighting for justice and racing their cars, girls should be learning to look pretty. However, the last commercial I saw was perhaps the most disturbing. It showed two boys playing with a large remote-control dinosaur. He looked pretty cool. He could roar and walk and shake his head; but the disturbing thing was that while the announcer was saying something like "you control his every move...you are in control," the boy was making it walk over to the little girl and her dog to scare them. The dog looked scared and she screamed and both little boys thought it was so funny. The boy with the remote who was "in control" knocked the girl's card tower over with the dinosaur and then actually pointed and laughed. What is this teaching our young boys? It may be teaching that you need to dominate women and always make fun of their weaknesses. It is also showing boys that it is okay to scare girls and laugh at them. How can we expect men to ever take us seriously and respect us if we teach them this from early on? In our current fairy tale, "Beauty and the Beast," the beast is scary and intimidating to the girl at first and then she sees him as he is and accepts him. Perhaps men are afraid that if women discover who they really are, they will not accept them. This may be worth pondering for a future blog...
The gender typing in the tv ads really was sad though, and I am going to start noticing them more.

Do Men Identify with the Beast?

"Beauty and the Beast" brings up some interesting issues from a male point of view. While searching for a clip about the use of inanimate objects in the Disney movie, I ran across this clip of Belle and the Beast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SquniIVza0
It shows Belle helping the beast to learn how to be gentle and gentlemanly. He wants to feed the birds like she does, but he is too big and clumsy. As Belle keeps helping him, he is able to feed the birds and they all come to him. Even though he is a large, powerful beast, he looks so humbled and happy that Belle is teaching him to be gentle. The lyrics to the song are very telling. It says "he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined" but now she notices that he is "sweet and almost kind." This makes me wonder if men are supposed to identify with Beast. Men do tend to be coarse and unrefined in many areas. They seem to need women to help them be more refined in the social graces, and learn skills that we would consider gentlemanly. As an example from my personal life, I find it interesting that my husband still asks me for help on how to dress. He will ask me if his shirt goes okay with his pants, or which socks he should wear to match his outfit for work. Sometimes he asks which color shoes he should pick to go with his slacks. He seems to have limited ability on how to match colors or pick out a coordinating outfit. Another example is when he needs to write an email to someone. He asks me to come help him write it, not because I'm an English major but because he knows his writing might be too direct and come out sounding harsh. He wants me to refine and soften the message. These are only two examples, but I think "Beauty and the Beast" makes a good point about the relationship between men and women. I think women do help to refine and civilize their man. Mothers are probably the main ones who teach their boys manners. Women are more likely to fuss at their husband for burping than another man would be. Actually, they would be more likely to have a burping contest. So I think men really can identify with the Beast and it may remind them of their own beastly qualities. In the tale of Beauty and the Beast, she eventually refines him so much that he turns into a handsome prince. I think that is the hope and dream of all women!

Madame de Beaumont's Beauty and Cinderella

While reading the "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale by Madame de Beaumont, it was interesting to compare her tale to the story of Cinderella, particularly the female characters. Both stories start out with a wealthy man that has a very pretty daughter. (Beauty had five other siblings, and her two sisters end up being very much like the two ugly stepsisters in "Cinderella." )
Something happens either to the father's wealth or his life that leaves the family destitute. In both stories, the beautiful daughter makes the best of the situation and keeps a good attitude. Beauty gets up at 4:00 everyday to start making breakfast and cleaning the house. Cinderella also worked all day to keep the house clean and serve her step mother and step sisters. Beauty had two selfish sisters who stay in bed until late and do not help her with the chores. They complain about the loss of their father's wealth and do nothing to help. Cinderella had two mean step sisters who also do nothing to help around the house, but instead they complain and order Cinderella around. During each of these two stories, the pair of sisters or step sisters become very jealous of the beautiful sister and try to undermine her success. In the end, the mean sisters or step sisters get what they seemingly deserve in both tales. In Grimm's version of Cinderella they get their eyes plucked out by birds, in other versions they die. In "Beauty and the Beast" the sisters are turned into statues by the fairy because of the malice that was in their hearts. That is another similarity; both stories have a helpful fairy that can do magical things.
However, even though it is fun to look at all these similarities between the two tales, it is most interesting to realize the possible message sent by these portrayals of women. They may be saying that beauty on the outside equals beauty on the inside, and that you can judge a book by its cover. Further, that selfish, hateful people are generally not attractive and don't succeed in the end. Notice that both of our female heroines in these tales were kind, gentle, hardworking, and good, as well as being very beautiful. This idea of the outside telling you about the inside was prevalent in the Middle Ages. For example, people with leprosy were thought to be bad, immoral people. Since these fairy tales were written down from old oral tradition, they may have been started at a time in history when people held this belief. I do not think this theory is true today when some of the actors and actresses of our time are physically attractive but not necessarily very good people.

"The Tigers Bride" and Use of Inanimate Objects

Since we had a discussion about Disney's use of inanimate objects in their "Beauty and the Beast" story, it reminded me of the strange objects used in Angela Carter's tale, "The Tigers Bride." When the girl gets settled in to the Beast's home, her serving maid is actually a soubrette from an operetta that rolls into her room on wheels. The valet explains to her, "nothing human lives here." This statement not only referred to the maid but also to the Beast himself who she suspected was not human. He wore a mask, meticulously painted with a human face. But back to the creepy serving maid. Unlike Disney's fun, adorable objects that are brought to life, this doll-like helper on wheels carries a looking glass in one hand and a powder puff in the other, and she is always trying to put the powder on the girl's face. The female narrator of the story says something very profound in regards to her maid. She said, "That clockwork girl who powdered my cheeks for me; had I not been allotted only the same kind of life amongst men that the doll-maker had given her?" (Carter 62). The story began with this girl being lost in a card game by her dad. The winner of the card game was the inhuman creature called the Beast. He also objectified her and was only interested in getting to see her body naked. None of the male figures in her life seemed to care about her one bit. She was an object to be won or lost, used and tossed aside, like money or any material good. That's why she compares herself to the doll-servant. She said that among men, she had only been allowed a life like this fake replica of a woman. I wonder if all women feel this way at some time in their life? I had a job years ago in a male-dominated company. I worked hard there and got some big accounts for the company, but the males superior to me took credit for my work. Angela Carter might be making a point here about something that is still prevalent in our society today. Women are still quite often seen as objects and used as if they were serving-dolls. Have you ever been in a restaurant and heard a man call the waitress "honey" or "sweetie"? Ironically, sometimes men even call women "doll", which goes right along with Angela Carter's comment in her story! If we heard a woman call a male waiter by one of these names we would think it was weird, but we put up with this behavior from men. Especially older men, it seems, get away with this! So I think we have to be careful not to allow men to allow us only a doll-like existence. Thankfully, I think the situation is getting better with today's generation of men. At least I hope so...

Disney's Portrayal of Beauty and the Beast

In the class discussion today, we were talking about Disney's use of inanimate objects brought to life to represent the enchanted characters in the story. We were questioning why Disney might have added these characters and used them in the animated version of the tale. Several people in class had a good suggestion that these characters are for the benefit of children, to keep them entertained. I would definitely agree with that. The characters are very cute and funny to watch. They add a certain lightness and comedy relief to a potentially scary situation with the Beast. When Belle finds herself in the huge castle with the Beast she is frightened, but it is the characters portrayed in the form of dancing, singing objects that put her at ease. They also put the audience at ease and provide musical entertainment which is, of course, an integral part of Disney productions. In the song entitled "Be Our Guest", we can see these characters come to life. Go to the link I post here to watch a clip of this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC8xcagMcTY
The characters provide fast action, color, and lively entertainment that kids will really enjoy. However, I'd like to add another theory to this discussion by saying that the inanimate objects also provide adult entertainment. Parents usually have to accompany children to the movies and Disney would not want the adults to be bored. So, Lumiere speaks French and has a love affair going with the French maid, portrayed by the character of Featherduster. During the song, many French words are used that children would probably not know but that would be appealing to adults. Also, the lyrics of the song are quite witty and quick and many young children would not catch them but the adult audience would. For example, Lumiere sings such things as, "life is so unnerving to a servant who's not serving" and "try the gray stuff, it's delicious. Don't believe me? Ask the dishes!" Mrs Potts, the teapot, gaily sings, "While the cups are all soft-shoeing, I'll be bubbling, I'll be brewing!" Children would most likely not know what "soft-shoeing" even is, but adults will enjoy the wittiness and humor.
So, while I agree that these objects brought-to-life are wonderful for the children to watch, I maintain that these characters are also used to entertain the adult audience. Adults will appreciate the wit, rhyming, humor, and even sexual innuendoes brought about by these enchanted characters.

Very Odd Tale from the Brothers Grimm

I can't wait to discuss the versions of Beauty and The Beast in class tomorrow, but meanwhile I'd like to comment on the version from the Brothers Grimm entitled "The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich." The tale was not as good as what I have grown used to reading from the Grimms. It seemed rather disjointed, as if someone kept interrupting them while they wrote it. For example, it begins, "In the olden days, when wishing could help you..." This suggests to the reader that this story is going to include someone making a wish -- perhaps at a wishing well or to some magical fairy. But there didn't seem to be any wishing going on in the tale. The frog struck up a direct bargain with the daughter, but no wishing. Also, the daughter was very beautiful, and this is always a good thing to have in a fairy tale. But the Grimms usually associate beauty in a character with good qualities and kindness. This beautiful sister was a spoiled little wretch! She moaned and wailed when her toy went in the water, then she made a deal with the frog that she did not intend to keep, then ran off and left him which broke her promise, then treated him rudely when he came to the house, then threw him against the wall. But after that, he turned in to a handsome and wonderful prince that she got to marry. This does not seem very fairy-tale-like. It may sound silly, but in fairy tales --especially ones written down by the Grimms-- I have come to expect that the good characters will win in the end and the naughty, hateful people will fail. In the Beauty and the Beast versions of the tales, usually it is the beautiful girl's acceptance of the beastly character and her realization that he is a good person that enables her to "get" him in the end and transform him into a gorgeous hunk, right? But here we have a girl crying and pitching a fit, throwing him against a wall, and calling him "disgusting" (Grimm pg 49-50). Right at that point in the tale, he transforms into a handsome prince. This seemed very odd! But the tale then gets stranger, because we suddenly get a new character named "Faithful Heinrich." Heinrich had been the prince's servant and had been so saddened by him being turned into a frog that he had three hoops around his heart to keep it from bursting. The reader gets the feeling here that a new plot is starting, and maybe there will be an exciting twist to the tale. But the ending of the story only talks about Heinrich's hoops breaking off his heart as he drove the prince and the girl back to his kingdom. Then it is over. The introduction of the Heinrich character was brief and seemed out of place, even though the tale is partially named for him. It was as if the Grimms had to add extra lines so they just stuck something at the end. I'm becoming an avid fairy tale reader, but this froggy one left me a little cold! It will be interesting to see what others in the class thought about this one.

The Robber Bridegroom and Women's Intuition

I have focused my writing on the Perrault version of Bluebeard and the Grimms version called "Fitchers Bird." But the Grimms had another Bluebeard-type tale called "The Robber Bridegroom" that deserves some discussion. In this story, the young bride faces the horrible possibility of being murdered by the husband but this time he is a cannibal! He and his friends live in a house together where apparently they cut young maidens into little pieces and eat them. I looked up images online to go with this fairy tale and found this one...
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/bluebeard/images/stratton_robberbride1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/bluebeard/strattonrobber.html&usg
What disturbs me about this picture is the way the men look. I pictured them to be big, scruffy tough-looking guys, but in this picture they look like nice country gentlemen. None of the men are making a scary or mean face. They look pleasant and happy right before they are going to kill the young girl and eat her. Even the man holding her looks calm and friendly. I guess I pictured cannibals to look a bit more scary and brutish. These men are drinking wine out of stemmed glassware! Just thought the artist's rendition was interesting.
My main thought on "The Robber Bridegroom" was the excellent intuition of the woman as opposed to the ignorance of the dad. The story says that the father picked this man to marry his daughter, and "could find nothing wrong with him" (Grimm 151). But the girl did not trust the suitor from the beginning. Whenever she looked at him "her heart filled with dread." It does not say why she felt this way, but I think we can chalk it up to women's intuition. She later finds out that he lived in the middle of the dark forest. This was another red flag to the intuitive girl, and she wisely placed peas on the path when she had to go to his house so that she could find her way back. Her suspicions were proven correct when she met the old woman who told that the men were cannibals and helped her escape. The girl was also very smart to keep the finger that flew into her lap as evidence to expose the robber bridegroom. I think I would have screamed and thrown it away from me and ruined everything! Thank goodness that these days our father does not pick out our husband for us and force us to marry someone we hate. But I think back then as well as now, women's intuition reigns supreme.

Bluebeard and Men's Fear of Women

When we discussed "Little Red Riding Hood" in class, it was very interesting to see that the story may have contained some hidden fears that men have toward women and their own sexuality. I wondered if "Bluebeard" contained similar male issues of fear, and I think it might. Here are some ideas.
The Bluebeard tale may start out with an example of men's fear of rejection by women. After all, Bluebeard was rejected by women because he did not live up to their standards of physical attractiveness. Since his beard was blue, women found him to be ugly and ran away from him. This illustrates a basic male fear that they may not be good-looking enough to attract a female. We may think of this as mainly a female problem, that we worry about not looking good enough for men. The old joke about "does this make my butt look too big?" is placed upon women and never men. But I think men do have to worry about their physique and whether they can compete with other males in the attractiveness arena. If the beard was a sign of masculinity, Bluebeard was really in trouble because his symbol of virility was turning off the women.
Another fear brought out by this story is the male fear of an unfaithful, untrustworthy female. Bluebeard seems to set up a test for his new wife to see how trustworthy she will be. If they proved to be unfaithful to his word, they were killed! This seems to be a reflection of an age-old fear that men had about women being sexually promiscuous. In the 17th century, they seemed to have more of a fear of public ridicule or tainting of the family bloodlines than a fear that the woman didn't love them enough. Since the Bluebeard fairy tale was written before we had companionate marriage (as we learned in class), love was probably not his concern regarding his wife's faithfulness.
But this brings us to another, more subtle fear; the fear that the woman will be insubordinate and may take over or gain too much power. The whole story centers around the fact that she was disobedient to her husband. It even seems to suggest that the problem was her disobedience, not his murderous ways! This was supposed to be a "moral lesson" for women of that time -- not to be too curious and never to disobey your husband. Phooey on that.
A final thought on man's fear being brought out in the story of Bluebeard is that women may be marrying you only for your money. In both the Perrault version of the story and the Grimm's version the Bluebeard character was wealthy. In Perrault's tale, he threw a big week-long party for the sisters and it was this extravagance and show of wealth that eventually won over the younger sister. In the Grimm's tale he was a sorcerer who stole women. But once he got them back to his home he wooed them with his splendid belongings and "he gave the girl everything she wanted (Grimm 148)." This sure makes women sound materialistic and shallow. But we must remember once again that these were written or told at a time when women married for very different reasons than we have now. They did marry for financial support and status, not love. Thank goodness we can earn our own money these days and don't have to marry some guy with a blue beard. (Unless we're a punk rocker and like that sort of thing...)

Interesting Male Viewpoint on Bluebeard

Since I am a female, I notice things in the versions of "Bluebeard" that most women notice -- the man was a murderer, the wife discovered his gruesome secret in the forbidden room, Bluebeard was terrrifying, she must get away from him or she will also be murdered. The focus of the story is on Bluebeard, and how crazy and dangerous he was. But one of the guys in our class had a different perspective that I thought was intriguing. He said that the women were only out for Bluebeard's money, and said this as if the wives were in the wrong and maybe even deserved what they got. Instead of disliking Bluebeard and worrying about the wife's safety as most females who read this tale will do, he was concerned about Bluebeard being the victim of gold-diggers! Men seem to be touchy about this subject. I saw an interesting discussion on Oprah back in the summer about gender roles and sexuality. To show how women feel about a man's financial situation, they told about the following experiment. A group of women were shown three pictures of three different guys and asked to rate them in order of attractiveness. This they did, based solely on the guys' looks. Then they (and I think a control group who had not seen the pictures yet) were told what each man did for a living and how much money he made. When the average-looking guy was suddenly a record exec making a six figure income, his attractiveness rating went up. When the physically appealing guy who had rated tops in the beginning was just a store clerk making a bit above minimum wage, his attractiveness to the women in both groups dropped. The guest on Oprah explained that women throughout the ages have looked for the mate that can be the best provider for her offspring. She said that even back in caveman times, the woman would want the highest ranking male who could bring home the biggest piece of meat to feed the family. It is not that women are being mean to think this way, it is programmed into us to desire a man who can be a strong and good provider. It sounds horribly anti-feminist, but I think I agree with this theory presented on Oprah. Even if a man is very good-looking, if I were to find out that he is uneducated and works at a low-paying job, I probably wouldn't be very attracted to him, just based on his looks. But looking back at the Bluebeard story, the woman even found Bluebeard to be very ugly until she started looking at his riches. Then she accepted him. She may have been a bit of a golddigger, because most women would not want a man that they found unattractive, even if he did have money. The guys in the class can rest assured that most women are not out just for their money -- they have to be intelligent, nice, and handsome too. Oh dear, this might make them more worried! But it was interesting to note that the male perspective of the Bluebeard story was quite different.
Next blog I will talk about how the story may point out other male fears.

Symbolism in "Bluebeard" and "Fitcher's Bird"

Some interesting symbolism was used in the Bluebeard tales by Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. In Perrault's version, he did literally have a blue beard. I agree with the student in our class who said that the color blue may have been used to portray a cold, hateful personality. The color blue is a cold color, and when people have no friendly or loving qualities, we often say that they are "cold." Blue is also a color associated with death, which Bluebeard knew all about. So, we could say that he was a cold-blooded killer.
The fact that it was his beard that was blue may also be symbolic. In some cultures, the beard is a symbol of male virility and masculinity. In the Bible, there are stories about them cutting off the men's beards to humiliate them or to show that they were captured. In some cultures, all the older men keep full beards to show their masculinity. Growing facial hair is something that separates men from women, so I guess it was a sign of dominance and manliness. So, it is interesting in this fairy tale that his beard was blue and this made him ugly to women. They rejected him because of his blue beard. His identity as a man was compromised. Perhaps his ability to be a virile lover was cold and impotent. The color red is associated with passion and heat and his beard was blue--thus cold and indifferent. Though I could not find a good artist's representation of the blue beard, I did find a couple of good pictures of Bluebeard at this link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard
In the top picture, his eyes are really freaky and bulging. I wonder if the artist wanted to make him look a bit crazy. Also in this picture, we see how anxiously she seems to be reaching for the keys. This may be depicting the woman as grasping and conniving--she wants his money and yes, she will search out all his secrets. The key is another symbol and it is used in both tales. We often say that something is the "key" if it is the most important part or clue. Bluebeard used the key as the most important element in his little test. The key had to be used to get in the room, and in Perrault's tale it even becomes blood stained to clue him in to the fact that she disobeyed. If she had not used the key in both tales, we get the impression that he would not have killed her. Thus maybe it was like the "key to his heart."
In the Grimm's version, the key was important to open the door, but the item that got blood-stained was the egg that he made her carry. The egg was another symbol. An egg is a sign of female fertility, and she was to carry hers around and keep it pure. When the first two sisters let it get stained with blood, he knew that they were disobedient and unfaithful. Thus the egg was symbolic of female fidelity. The last sister kept her egg "pure" by trickery!
I have discussed several of the symbols in the Bluebeard tales...these tales are so complex that I'm sure there were many more!

Is There a Moral to Bluebeard?

We all seem to think that fairy tales should have a moral lesson to be learned, or at least a warning about the consequences of improper human behavior. Is there any lesson to be learned in the tale of Bluebeard? It is a rather grotesque tale, with its mutilated dead bodies of Bluebeard's former wives. It is also a rather scary tale, since the new wife realizes that she will be his next victim as soon as he learns that she has looked into the secret room. We seemed to agree in class that surely it is not a tale suitable to tell to children. So then is the lesson aimed at women? Some say that it teaches women to be obedient. The husband is head of the household and must be respected and obeyed. The wife in the story was disobedient and thus, she had to be killed. But it makes one wonder what would have happened if she had been obedient. Perhaps he would never have killed her and he would have treated her with love and kindness for the rest of her life. But would you want to be in ignorance about a husband who murdered his previous wives and stashed their dead bodies in a little room in your house? Wouldn't it start to stink? I've had a small mouse die in our house before, and the way we found out about it was the unbearably bad smell. Women have a very keen sense of smell--much better than a man's--so I'm betting that the woman would have discovered the problem eventually. But I digress from the real discussion! Anyway, even if she had been obedient, I doubt such an evil murderer would have made a good and loving husband. Something bad would happen to her at some point in the marriage. If he got mad for any reason he might just slice her up!
Another possible lesson to be learned from Bluebeard is not to give in to your curiosity. Some critics think that the woman was overly curious and that made her a bad person. I think that most humans have a curious nature. My mom used to tell us that many car accidents are caused by people trying to look at an accident on the other side of the road, because we are all so curious and want to know what happened. We especially want to know what is going on if something is made out to be a secret. The Bluebeard character forbade her to go look in the little room, but gave her the key. Just because she was curious, like most people would be, she wasn't a bad person and she certainly did not deserve to die for her curiosity. Even if the room had been empty, I still would not think she was a bad or evil person--just a curious one.
So if neither of those "lessons" really make sense, what could be the lesson of this tale? When you consider the whole entire story and how it ended, the real moral could be the following one, aimed directly at men: Don't try to murder your wife, no matter how disobedient she is, because she may find a way to murder you!