Nice to see you managed the deadline...great going there!

Assignment 8 Cont.

In the Grimm's The Robber Bridegroom, the heroine is presented in an interesting light. First, once she enters the murderers' home, it is the older woman and not her who comes up with the plan to hide behind the barrel. The old woman also saves her when she is about to be discovered. Furthermore, she could not even come up with an interesting story to tell at her own wedding at first questioning. "The bride remained still and did not utter a word." (144) Upon further prodding from her new husband, she tells the tale of her adventure to the house in the woods. The guests come to her rescue and all of the murderers are executed. With this conclusion of her wedding, it can only be assumed that she now can live happily ever after as a pleasant and dutiful wife.

Assignment 8

One thing about the violence in the tales that I found interesting was the connection with family. For example, in Fitcher's Bird, the brothers come to the rescue to kill and burn down the house of the sorcerer. Brothers were also the murderers of Bluebeard in France and Thackery's version. Although these tales are somewhat shocking with their bloody violence, these associations with family seem to soften the sense of guilt for the audience. Because these characters are acting with a sense of loyalty and devotion, it seems less concerning than an individual act of violence.

Horror Part 2

The Grimms' The Robber Bridegroom the young girl (heroine) devolves from a clever girl who "filled both her pockets with peas and lentils to mark the way." (p.151) She is then represented as disobedient when she ignores the warnings of a caged bird who tells her to "turn back" (p. 152) over and over again. She shows up again as a clever girl when she divulges her bridegrooms secret and how she saves the ring finger as a proof.

Horror Part One

The main focus of horror in the various versions of Bluebeard is symbolized by the forbidden room that the husband/man tells his wife/woman not to enter. But as Pandora with her box, the women always open the room to discover corpses or in the case of Grimm's version an actual murder. The room does not push the plot but rather serves as a conduit for the female to further the story.

Prompt 8 - Question 2: Cleverness

In the Grimm's "Fitcher's Bird," after two wives from one family are killed, it seems as though the main point might be to teach females a lesson to never disobey males. However, when the third daughter turns out to be a heroine, themes of self-preservation and cleverness are apparent. She starts out by "[putting] the egg in a safe place," which is a smart action to take, in and of itself (149). Then, when she finds her sisters all cut up in the forbidden room, instead of panicking, she puts them back together and brings them back to life. When the sorcerer returns and he thinks she hasn't been in the room because she's clever and tricked him, "he no longer had any power over her and had to do her bidding" (150). This line is imperative in seeing the hand off of power and how the wife used her cleverness and strength to give herself the upper hand. From here, the "sorcerer" is referred to as the "bridegroom," and he does exactly as he is told. In some versions, the bride is rescued by her brothers, but in this Grimm's version, she disguises herself as "a strange bird that not a soul would recognize," and gets herself out of that dreadful house (150). Her clever idea shows some parallels with power again because in the beginning, when he is the tricky one, the sorcerer disguises "himself as a poor man" (148). Clearly, this version of Bluebeard is one that delivers a reading of powerful, smart women.

Prompt 8 - Question 1: Horror

I noticed that the elements of horror in most of these versions of Bluebeard were somewhat similar and helped the story be more exciting. Blood and gore, the unexpected, suspense, and realism are the aspects that stood out for me. First, the fact that this sort of horrific chain of events could potentially happen to anyone is scary. Humans do certain tings all the time because of curiosity and temptation. Another common aspect of the stories involves either someone's finger being chopped off, or walking into a room full of blood and dead women. This just adds to the intensity of how bad the consequences of your actions can be and adds detail to the story. Also, nobody expects the blood to stay on the egg or key. When a ring doesn't come off right away, today, people would use lotion to remove it, so the sword was quite a surprise. The unexpected is horrific and seems to be used to keep the attention of the audience. Finally, the element of suspense is also used to keep the audience reading. This is seen when the wife is buying minutes of time so that she can live, but the audience is at the edge of theire seats because Bluebeard could kill her at any point in time. Another example of suspense is when the girls iding in "The Robber Bridegroom" and "Mr. Fox" could be discovered and murdered at any time. In gereal, these four main elements of horror inhance these versions of Bluebeard in similar ways.

Assignment 8 - 24. March 2009

Hi Mallory, Keith, Anna and Erica,

For this week, please complete two separate posts.

Question 1: Compare the elements of horror in the various versions of Bluebeard that you read for today. Please name the elements you are comparing and discuss how they function in the story. Do they help move the plot along? Elaborate the story? Startle the audience? etc.

Question 2: Tatar offers two readings of the heroine's character: either as a celebration of self-preservation and cleverness or as a disobedient female. Using a version other than the Perrault, consider how the heroine gets presented. Use quotes to support your reading.


DEADLINE for Posts: Midnight on Tuesday

DEADLINE for Comments on atleast two other posts: Midnight on Wednesday

Again, please post two separate entries!

Ann