Bluebeard's Heroine

In the Brothers Grimm version of Bluebeard, "Fitcher's Bird," the first women the reader encounter's is not presented with any hint of personality or character. When she goes to the door and "was about to hand him a piece of bread, he just touched her and she jumped into his basket." The same description is given of the second daughter and both of them meet the same fate. The third daughter, however, is a much more dynamic character. She is even described as "clever and cunning." And she even "put the egg in a safe place." She definitely celebrates the self-preservation and cunning aspects of femininity. She succeeds is putting her sisters back together, quite literally, and bringing them back to life. She also forges a plan to get them home safely. After the third daughter has set the precedent for being cunning and clever, the first and second daughters follow suit. They trick the sorcerer while he is on his way to her house by crying from the basket as if they are the third daughter. When they are all together in the end, they orchestrate for their brothers and relatives to "set fire to [the house] so that the sorcerer and his crew burned to death." In the end, feminine cunning wins and curiosity indirectly kills the sorcerer instead of the cat.