The Forbidden Fruit

The “Bloody chamber” by Angele carter tells the story of Bluebeard and his wife from a different perspective that the tradition tale. It’s a tale of the wife to more of less, surrounding around her thoughts and feelings, and showing her progress from the naïve girl to a woman of wealth, but a good one, giving away most of the riches she inherited after in this tale her mother rescued her from her husband’s fury. I feel she learned her lesson not to judge the book by its cover but to look deeper, into the person’s inner soul to find who they truly are. 

“I was seventeen and knew nothing of the world; my Marquis had been married before, more than once, and I remained a little bemused that, after those others, he should now have chosen me. Indeed, was he not still in mourning for his last wife? Tsk tsk, went my old nurse.” (Carter 3) 

That was her clue not to rush into marriage with this intriguing man she had met. But she chose the riches over her inner sense of something being wrong. She was ultimately seduced by the thought of a lavish life, and maybe even a feeling of growing love that she had never known before for a man. Her words in the tale are reflecting the beautiful things she was given and the rich lifestyle she would love to become accustomed to. 

“His wedding gift, clasped round my throat. A choker of rubies, two inches wide, like an extraordinary precious slit throat.” (Carter 4) 

She became more than the innocent girl, protected by her mother in a most sheltered way; she became to see herself as wanted, and she noticed she could like this life. 

The tale with the hidden agenda to bring to life the truth that curiosity will make you overcome the fear of consequences such as happened to Eve in the tale of Adam and Eve. The forbidden fruit is the temptation that both of these ladies could not resist, and the wife almost paid for it with her life.

Bluebeard

The wife of Bluebeard in the folk tale “Bluebeard” by Charles Perrault is an interesting representation of a female character in a folk tale. Her happiness comes to her with many objections from her part in the beginning due the dislike of a man with a blue beard, and the fact that he had married before without a trace of the past wives seen anywhere.

A lady of quality had two daughters who were perfect beauties. He desired of her one of them in marriage, leaving to her choice which of the two she would bestow on him. Neither of them would have him, and they sent him backwards and forwards from one to the other, not being able to bear the thoughts of marrying a man who had a blue beard. Adding to their disgust and aversion was the fact that he already had been married to several wives, and nobody knew what had become of them. (Perrault 1889)

She of course is a beautiful woman who would be desirable to any man, as we have learned almost all the folk/fairy tale female characters are, such as Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood. Due to their beauty they do acquire the man’s affections and will marry them.

Unlike other stories, the wife of a Bluebeard had her fairy tale life only for a brief moment. She was too curious to obey her husband’s wishes, and opened up the door to the forbidden closet despite of his warnings of the consequences. She was expecting of more lavish items, more gold and shiny things, more riches, but was faced with death. Her husband was a murderer, and the tale took another turn from there.

After several goings backwards and forwards, she was forced to bring him the key. Bluebeard, having very attentively considered it, said to his wife, "Why is there blood on the key?" "I do not know," cried the poor woman, paler than death."You do not know!" replied Bluebeard. "I very well know. You went into the closet, did you not? Very well, madam; you shall go back, and take your place among the ladies you saw there."Upon this she threw herself at her husband's feet, and begged his pardon with all the signs of a true repentance, vowing that she would never more be disobedient. She would have melted a rock, so beautiful and sorrowful was she; but Bluebeard had a heart harder than any rock! (Perrault 1889)

She was no longer blinded by his riches, but scared for her life. This realization created the character into something that we often do not see in the folk tales. She became also more intellectual in her ways of finding a way out of certain death. She did need to be rescued but she also was able to divert her husband’s attention for long enough for her brothers to arrive. She deserved to stay alive, and when she did she used her inherited riches for good. A true happy ending!

Hansel and Gretel

The tale by The Brothers Grimm of “Hansel and Gretel” brings us back to the world where the female character is this kind of weak, whiney, scared little girl, and the character needs to be protected and taken care of by her brother. 

“The two children had not been able to fall asleep because of their hunger, and they heard what the stepmother had said to the father.”

“Gretel cried bitter tears and said to Hansel, "It is over with us!"”

"Be quiet, Gretel," said Hansel, "and don't worry. I know what to do."” (Grimm 1857)

In the beginning of the story she is just that, she depends on her brother 100 percent, and has no wit or capabilities to come up with plans to rescue them when being left alone in the forest to die by the parents. She is crying and being comforted by her brother at all times. He is the strong one; she is the one just being able to follow her brother’s lead.

But something happens towards the end of the story, when the children are trapped in the evil witch’s house, and Gretel is forced to feed her brother week after week to fatten him up for the witch to cook and eat him eventually. There is a moment when I saw the scared little girl that Gretel was in another light. When she was called upon by the witch to the fiery oven, another side of Gretel came out: 

"Climb in," said the witch, "and see if it is hot enough to put the bread in yet."

“And when Gretel was inside, she intended to close the oven, and bake her, and eat her as well.”

“But Gretel saw what she had in mind, so she said, "I don't know how to do that. How can I get inside?"

"Stupid goose," said the old woman. "The opening is big enough. See, I myself could get in." And she crawled up stuck her head into the oven. Then Gretel gave her a shove, causing her to fall in. Then she closed the iron door and secured it with a bar.” (Grimm 1857)

Gretel showed that she was clever even smart, and also very brave. She saw the witches plan to kill her in addition to her brother, and decided to outwit her. And she did by pushing the witch into the oven after pretending that she did not know how to climb in. She ended up being the one rescuing her brother, a great way to end the story in the feministic perspective. Compared to other folk and fairy tales we have read, such as “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Snow White”. This is the first one where the female character turns out to be the heroine of the story, saving the day.

Little Red Riding Hood, a sex symbol?

 

      

        The Little Red Riding Hood I know from the childhood fairy tales from such collections as The Brothers Grimm is nothing but a good, sweet, and naïve girl in desperate need for some supervision and protection. The big bad wolf is just that, a wolf. But now another side of the story has become very clear to me, another side of Red, the sexual, seductive and owning a strong will. Angela Carter tells the story of Red as I never read it before, so sexually charged but carrying the main elements from the traditional fairy tale within it, in “The Company of Wolves”. She now carries her red cape as a symbol of her femininity, and to signal she is a full bloomed woman, waiting for that one special man.

A little late-comer, had been indulged by her mother and the grandmother who’d knitted her the red shawl that, today, has the ominous if brilliant look of blood on snow; her breasts have just begun to swell; her hair is like lint, so fair it hardly makes a shadow on her pale forehead; her cheeks are an emblematic scarlet and white and she has just started her woman’s bleeding, the clock inside her that will strike, henceforward, once a month. (Carter 3)

         Carter’s version is a story of Red and the wolf but in this case a werewolf, both a man and a wolf. Red is charmed by the human side of the world she meets in the dark forest while on her way to the grandmother’s. She is not afraid, she is intrigued. She now carries a knife with her to show her independence and ability to protect herself, and she also is well aware not to stray from the path. The whole story of her now can be defined by one sentence: “she knew she was nobody’s meat.” (Carter 6)

         The sexual side of her is shown as she interacts with the wolf at the grandmother’s, after the wolf already killed the grandmother. She still isn’t afraid. “The firelight shone through the edges of her skin; now she was clothed only in her untouched integument9 of flesh. This dazzling, naked she combed out her hair with her fingers; her hair looked white as the snow outside. Then went directly to the man with red eyes in whose unkempt mane the lice moved; she stood up on tiptoe and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt.” (Carter 6) She will face the wolf and despite the danger, she is more curious about the sexual tension between them she is feeling. She will not run, she will not fight, but she will seduce the wolf, and go to bed with that man, and there is the ending. Makes me wonder what happens with Red and her lover next.

       

Bisclavret's wife

The tale of “Bisclavret” by Marie de France tells a story of a werewolf but also a story of a husband, and king’s loyal friend who every week turns into his wolf form leaving his beloved wife home to wonder; where does he go when he leaves her?  It’s a story of a werewolf who gets trapped in lupine form by the treachery of his wife. But for this post I’m concentrating on the wife who is compared to other fairy tale characters we have read about, something different. Her character isn't weak, naive nor vulnerable. After learning about her husband’s scary transformation into a wolf, she seems first terrified and feeling like the only way is to escape because “she didn’t want to ever share his bed.” (France 3) But the conspiring, strong, and almost clever side of her takes over. She realizes she can use her womanly power over another man, a knight, to get rid of Bisclavret for good so that she can live a happy, prosperous life with the knight. 

So soon after, with the knowledge that while in werewolf form Bisclavret needs to hide his clothing in a safe place so he can return to human form, she forms a plan. She conspires with the knight who has loved her for a long time to ban Bisclavret to his wolf form for the rest of his being. The wife sends the knight to steal her husband's clothing. When her husband fails to return to obvious reasons after the wife’s betrayal, she marries the knight. The baron's people search for Bisclavret but finally give up, feeling that he may have disappeared for good. This shows the true characteristics of the wife; she is not sweet nor loyal, faithful to her husband. She uses men to her pleasing just to create a comfortable life for herself. She doesn’t approve any deviations from what she sees normal, human; how could she remain and be the wife of a werewolf? This is total opposite of the sweet, trustworthy characters of Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood. 

I must point out how happy I was in the end of the story when she got what she deserves! Accepted by the king even in his wolf form due to the human like sense of Bisclavret, the king sees that there is some wrong doing that must be corrected when the wolf attacks both the wife and the knight when they come face to face finally. The good characteristics of Bisclavret as the wolf create questions about the wife’s characteristics in a rightful way. She breaks down, and confesses about the betrayal. She is exiled with the knight, and as a punishment from Bisclavret’s part she has no nose, he bit it off. And as a curse that followed her in life afterwards, it is said that many of the wife's female children were born without noses, “and lived denosed. It’s true! It’s so!” (France 9) How fitting was that? She judged her husband on the qualities he cannot control, and didn’t feel that he was worthy of her. She conspired to her own advantage, and in the end lost her beauty as a consequence of her actions.

Red

Little Red riding Hood

Charles Perrault’s tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” (1697) is a view of how children, especially young girls, were viewed in the eyes of adults. It also depicts the traditional view of women as weak, vulnerable and in need of rescuing as we have read in stories such as “Snow White”. The evil mother character from the fairy tale of Snow White has been replaced with an evil male character making the women in the story appear even weaker, defenseless. 

But the most important part of the story isn’t how the women are seen but how they act and how their actions have an imperative effect in their lives. First of all LRRH’s mother seems careless, without any idea how to teach her child the important lessons in life such as do not talk to strangers, because bad things will happen to you. The mother also lets her little girl into the woods alone without any supervision, what kind of mother would ever do that is my question? Her character seems to lack caring, concern and willingness to guide her child in life. The grandmother is the one who is far away, sick; the question would be why is she not living with Red and her mother? She is the one “who adored her even more and made a little red hood for her” (Perrault 1^st paragraph); for someone with so much love for a child she should be there to help in raising her and not letting her either walk around in the woods with evil wolf lurking around.

The most important character, LRRH, is almost too vulnerable and too naïve to ever escape from the wolf after they first meet. “The poor child did not even know that it was dangerous to stop and listen to wolves” (Perrault 3^rd paragraph), and in the end of the story she was clueless that the wolf dressed as her grandmother actually wasn’t her grandmother. Today, if any child would be as careless and unaware of certain dangers in life, they would definitely end up like LRRH, eaten by the wolf. 

The great lesson of being a girl/woman in this story is that not much is expected from you other than acting defenseless, and the male character will come and eat/violate you. So little girls you better watch out for the wolves in disguises all around you.