Question 1 Response: Elements of Horror

The most obvious and common element of horror found within the Bluebeard stories that we were assigned to read for class is that of the murder of young, beautiful, rich women-- women with any sort of power over men during those times. One does see variations between each version, though. For example, in the Grimm’s The Robber Bridegroom, the bridegroom or Bluebeard character finds women, murders them, and then eats them. The element of cannibalism is also included in this version, which changes one’s perception of the Bluebeard character. In other versions, such as the Grimm’s Fitcher’s Bird, Perrault’s Bluebeard, and Joseph Jacobs’s Mr. Fox, for example the wife or fiancé is murdered as a result of her own curiosity and disobedience. In The Robber Bridegroom, on the other hand, the female fiancé is completely innocent and would have been killed (although she wasn’t in the end) solely as a result of her bridegroom’s human blood lust. This changes the traditional Bluebeard story in that it eliminates any blame that might be directed onto the main female character within the story, and directs all on the cannibalistic men.

Another element within the various versions, that can be interpreted as horror by many women today—and clearly back then as well, since it is such a reoccurring theme-- is the idea of marrying a man that you do not love, or wish to marry. One sees this in the Grimm’s The Robber Bridegroom and Fitcher’s Bird, and also initially in Perrault’s Bluebeard. The only two that do not contain such a theme are Jacob’s Mr. Fox (1890) and Atwood’s Bluebeard’s Egg (1983). The most obvious reason why this theme may not be present in these two versions, especially in Atwood’s version, is the time during which it was written. Atwood’s version was written much later on, when marrying a man you do not wish to marry is not nearly as common as it was years ago (rising in social status and arranged marriages). This element of horror does change the perception of the main female character in the Bluebeard stories, in that when the female does not want to marry the Bluebeard character, it gives her, her intuition, her opinion, etc more credit.