Kalfor Dejesus
Professor Pastore & Voisard
FIQWS 10005/10105
November 17th, 2022
Behind Closed Doors: Domestic Abuse in Bluebeard
Some relationships seem perfect on the outside, but once you look inside that door, not all is as it seems. People will do anything to hide their true self even if it means hurting others to get what they want. The ending of Bluebeard shares a resemblance with these types of relationships, because after Bluebeard is able to convince his wife she did something wrong, he takes advantage of the situation, telling her that he is going to kill her because she disobeyed him. But luckily, she is saved by her siblings at the last minute. But despite this “happy” ending, we have to ask, what if nobody was there to help Bluebeard’s wife? What if he went on to get another wife, continuing this cycle? In Perrault’s version of “Bluebeard”, it mirrors a real-life domestic abuse scenario.
Perrault’s version of “Bluebeard” tells the story of a girl who is married off to a hideous, older, but wealthy older man with a blue beard, despite his shady past. After living together for a month, Bluebeard leaves on an important business matter and leaves her with the keys to the castle, telling her to not use the smallest one and if she does, he will have to punish her. After he leaves, the wife, now curious with what Bluebeard told her, goes to unlock the door that the smallest key unlocks and finds the mutilated bodies of his previous wives. Frightened by the sight, she drops the key into a pool of blood causing it to leave a stain on it. After his trip, Bluebeard comes back and finds out what she did, he promises to make her like his previous wives she had seen. But in the castle, the wife’s sister was there, and she tells her to signal for their brothers and save her. Stalling for time, she prays to god, allowing for her brothers to be able to get there on time and kill Bluebeard, saving her, allowing her to inherit all of his wealth which she uses to marry a man of true worth.
At the start of Bluebeard, it is revealed that he has a sketchy past that not many know about, and similar to real-life scenarios, he tries to hide his past with the “good” he presents to the people around him, allowing for the cycle of abuse to start. Perrault’s “Bluebeard” states, “What put them off even more was that he had already been married several times, and nobody knew what had become of the wives… younger of the two sisters began to think that their host’s beard was not as blue as it had been, and that he was just what a gentleman should be”. Similar to the “normal” stage of the domestic abuse cycle, the abuser try to act as if nothing happened before and try to flatter the victim (Center for Hope & Safety), similar to how Bluebeard tries to cover up the disappearances of his past wives by distracting them with parties and banquets, allowing for him to get a new wife and start his plan of killing his new wife. Supporting this idea comes from Brigitte Le Juez, an author and academic at Dublin City University with her article, “Curiosity Killed The… Woman: Modern Rewritings of ‘Bluebeard’ in Literary Representations of Marital Abuse” where she states, “Since she is deprived of the choice and knowledge of her spouse, she is placed not only in an inferior position, but also in immediate danger from the person who is supposed to protect her and provide for her”. This cements the idea that through Bluebeard covering up the details of his past, it puts his wife in immediate danger of him and his actions which leads to the next part within the cycle.
After luring a victim into his trap, Bluebeard begins to plan out how he will get his victim to believe that she has done something wrong so that he can release his desires onto her, starting the second part of the cycle. “You may open everything and go everywhere, except for this private room… there is no knowing what I might do, so angry would I be” (Perrault). Using the key and his private room as a ploy to get his wife to do something wrong, it is a clear example of what abusers will do to make their fantasies come true by constantly thinking of scenarios in which they can make the victim believe that they are doing something wrong (Center for Hope & Safety), when in reality, it’s just the abuser wanting to finally show his true self to the victim. This is supported by Lu Juez article, which states “After briefly fulfilling courtship duties and lavishing presents onto his betrothed, the bridegroom shows his real personality, that of an authoritarian and psychotic patriarch”. Once the trap is set, Bluebeard will take his chance to act, leading us to the next part of the cycle seen within the story of Bluebeard.
Once Bluebeard’s wife falls into the trap he placed for her, he takes it as an opportunity to push his hidden desires onto her, revealing who he really is. This starts the last part of the cycle, the abuse. “She threw herself at her husband’s feet, weeping and pleading to be forgiven, and all her actions showed how truly she repented being so disobedient… but Bluebeard’s heart was harder than rock. ‘You must die, madam,’ he said, this very instant” (Perrault). This line within the story proves that all of Bluebeards past actions were to get to this point because if he had not lured his wife’s family in with his riches and convinced her that she had done something wrong when he checked his private room, then he wouldn’t have been able to do what he wanted to do to her. This is supported by a question brought up in Le Juez’s article which states, “Why forbid someone to enter an empty room, if not to exercise excessive power?”. If not to try and make his wife do something, why would Bluebeard even mention the room or give her the keys to the room if he doesn’t want her seeing what’s inside? This proves how all of Bluebeard’s past actions follow the cycle of domestic abuse from start to finish.
While Bluebeard’s wife does escape from him with the help of her family, we still have to ask, how do the events of abuse continue to follow her even after moving on from Bluebeard? Using Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber”, we can see a glimpse of how the aftermath of the events affect her, “I am glad he cannot see it—not for the fear of his revulsion, since I know he sees me clearly with his heart—but, because it spares my shame”. Showing how ashamed she is to show this side to her partner, despite showing her nothing but love shows how the events of abuse affected not only her relationship, but her life going forward. Another piece of evidence supporting this claim is a poem written by Shelby Lynn Shively, who earned her graduates from University of Colorado Colorado Springs called “Bluebeard’s Wives”, which reads, “I escaped before you made visible scars… People like us—escaped or escaping worlds where horror stories are real—always know.” In this poem, Shively shares her own story of abuse and tells us how even now, victims of abuse like Bluebeard’s wife and herself are still trying to run away from their past.
In conclusion, through the iterations of Blueblead told by Perrault and Carter and how they portray the characters in it, it mirrors the unfortunate tale of what people in abusive situations have to go through and how these events will continue to affect them for the rest of their lives. One way we can help those in a similar situation that Bluebeard’s wife is in is by spreading awareness to those who need help to get them out of that situation and those who don’t know so that maybe they can help by continuing to spread awareness or even help someone directly who is in a similar situation.
Works Cited:
Carter, Angela. The Bloody Chamber. Oberon Books, 2008.
Lawyers, CJB. “Understanding the Different Stages of Domestic Violence.” CJB Law, 26 May 2021. https://cjblawyers.com/domestic-violence-stages
Le Juez, Brigitte. “Curiosity Killed The… Woman: Modern Rewritings of ‘Bluebeard’ in Literary Representations of Marital Abuse.” Transcultural Negotiations of Gender, Springer India, 2015, pp. 3–13, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2437-2_1.
Perrault, Charles, and C. J. Betts. The Complete Fairy Tales. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Safety, Center for Hope &. “The Cycle of Domestic Violence.” The Cycle of Domestic Violence | The Cycle of Domestic Violence | Domestic Violence | Center for Hope & Safety, https://hopeandsafety.org/learn-more/the-cycle-of-domestic-violence/.
Shively, S. “Bluebeard’s Wives”. Understanding and Dismantling Privilege, Vol. 5, no. 1, Feb. 2015, https://www.wpcjournal.com/article/view/13490.
