Wednesday, March 17, 2010
The Fitcher's Bird: morals and vitrues
After reading the Fitcher's Bird, I feel the story is laced with several morals and virtues. First off, the sorcerer gave the first two daughters any and everything that they wanted. He only asked for them to exercise obedience in not opening one door of his house and protecting his egg. He even gave them the keys to everything. This was a test of morality, temptation, and trust. These were shown through the fact that he gave them everything they asked for and the keys, so he was trying to see if they possessed greed in their hearts to the point that they had to have everything. The trial of temptation was incorporated to show whether or not they possessed restraint. The trial of trust was incorporated through the fact that he gave them the keys and an egg symbolizing his trust and his heart that they needed to protect. When they willingly accepted everything but did not obey his only wish, they had to pay the piper. I feel this is a lesson to not take on a responsibility that you aren't strong enough to see through. The fact that the sorcerer, his family, and his friends were burned alive is incorporated to show that two wrongs don't make a right. He took lives so he had to pay with his own.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is a very interesting response and I can see what you mean. If we take your response to have some truth to it, she really did cause her own death. Perhaps if she did not disobey and let curiousity get the best of her, the story would have been absent of murder. Not just as a story decision, but it's as if when she opened the door, she has invited violence into the tale. You could even imagine murder/violence magically appearing as the door knob turned, without it previously occupying the space behind the door. The maiden herself produced it, and the sorcerer may be in the clear.
ReplyDeleteI know this was a post from four years ago but I'm really shocked at this response. I'm sorry but did you actually read the tale? It's quite clear what the tale is really about.
DeleteFirst, the key element is that the two daughters were kidnapped. Kidnapped. they were taken agaisnt their will. And look at the language in which he adresses them: it's forceful. It's heavily implied they have no option to leave.
Then he has them undergo a test of their fidelity to him. The egg he gives her is such an obvious symbol it's insulting. Essentially he's saying this represents what you are worth and without it you are nothing. And the bloody chamber in his eyes represents the same as in Bluebeard: an adultrous act (why there is so much blood) while in her eyes it's the dark truth behind the sorcerors view.
This is why the hero acts the way she does. she puts the egg away because she recognizes it for what it is and that it is just a symbol of no true worth. she saves herself and her sisters by using the sorcerors own values against him and mocks him in return by donning the bird guise thus representing her realisation of her power over the monster.
Greed has little to nothing to do with it except on the part of the sorceror who believed he could take what and do he wanted with no consequences. And even then it wasn't actually greed he was testing but faithfulness and fidelity. I could understand this responce if it was to Bluebeard but it simply does not fit with Fitcher's Bird.