Fairy Tales 2010

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

"Sweet love, are you feeling any doubts?"

"The Castle of Murder," while superficially similar to the other Bluebeard stories, is fundamentally different. Like many other Bluebeard tales, it begins with a man who seems to be good. He is a "well-dressed nobleman" who "appeared to be very rich" with "a splendid carriage and servants," and in the fairy tale realm we would assume his innards equate his outer goodness. However, the girl who "gladly agreed to ride off with him" "did feel a certain uneasiness," although this nobleman does not even have a blue beard, immediately different from those of the other Bluebeard stories.
This story appears to be a possible continuation of another Bluebeard tale. It mentions a shoemaker who had three daughters and the protagonist of this story is the third daughter who enters the bloody chamber, noting "one must indeed know that this was the way her two sisters had lost their lives before her." Like the others of this tale type, the girl's curiosity endangers her when, despite her being completely satisfied, she wants more. However, this Bluebeard gives the girl the keys to the entire castle, yet, unlike the others, never tells her that there is any door she cannot open. She therefore never betrays her love because he never restricted her. Her punishment does not arise from disobeying orders and overstepping boundaries, but the simple act of curiosity itself in her asking the old woman what she is doing in front of the cellar door. The old woman vividly tells her that she is scraping intestines and tomorrow she'll be scraping the girl's. Curiously (uh oh), this gruesomeness contrasts with the nonviolent conclusion of the mild and logical imprisonment of Bluebeard. Furthermore, this woman represents another break from typical fairy tale's outer and inner parallelism. Although old, mysterious, and practicing violence, this character aids the protagonist in her escape.

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