English course FutureLearn British Council online
“Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages and Morals”
“FutureLearn’s purpose is to transform access to education”
In August –September 2019 I decided to take part in interesting literary English course on the theme: “Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages and Morals” from the University of Newcastle, Australia. FutureLearn is set to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The University of Newcastle are based in Australian Eastern Standart Time (AEST).
Our Lead Educator was Caroline Webb, an Associate professor at the University of Newcastle ( Australia), who have prepared all the materials to watch and read in this course. Caroline Webb grew up in Sydney, Australia, and attended the University of Sydney, before going to Cornell University in the US to do her PhD. She taught at Wellesley College for a number of years before coming back to Australia to work at the University of Newcastle. Her early passion was for Modernist writers , like T.S.Eliot, James Joyce, and especially Virginia Woolf, but she became fascinated with later writers, particularly women, have drawn on and rewritten older stories in thinking about women’s lives. These days her main research is into fantasy literature, especially children’s fantasy, and she teaches cources in fantasy and science fiction.
Our Course Facilitator, Naomi Fraser who kept an eye on things and contributing to discussion time to time to help us along. Naomi is a casual academic at the University of Newcastle who graduated with her PhD in 2018. She gerw up in Newcastle and after studying a Bachelor of Arts combined with law decided to abandon the Law Degree in favour of English Honours and eventually a PhD in science fiction and fantasy.
Naomi enjoys all sorts of engaging literature including poetry. Her favourite authors are contemporary author Brandon Sanderson and the classic detective writer Agatha Christie. In terms of research Naomi is fascinated with with the statistics behind language use and particularly how we can study literature language.
Week №1
What is fairy tales?
A fairy tale is a story, often intended for children, that features fanciful and wondrous characters such as elves, goblins, wizards, and even, but not necessarily, fairies. The term “fairy” tale seems to refer more to the fantastic and magical settings or magical influences within a story, rather than the presence of the character of a fairy within that story. Fairy tales are often traditional; many were passed down from story-teller to story-teller before being recorded in books.
In Week 1 “Reading “Little Red Riding Hood” we welcomed to this course and met the storyteller. We started to explore how fairy tales have been told and what those tellings –conveyed about the cultural values and assumptions underlying there. We focused specifically on the well-known story of Little red Riding Hood, which has come down to us in many versions and is familia to us.
Each course is broken up into weeks and within each week there are a number of steps. Each step gave us the opportunity to mark it off as complete. Each step provided us with some clear instructions. We might find an article about an article about a particular topic, post our thoughts on a specific debate or provide some comments on a discussion question.
The idea of fairy-tales
People think of fairy tales as somehow universal. There’s a princess in a castle, or a tower, who is manaced by a witch and rescued by a handsome prince or a young boy who thought poor through magical means achieves success. Those kinds of stories are indeed very widespread, and not only found in European based countries. However, the stories themselves aren’t actually universal. The famous fairy-tale scholar Jack Zips said that “we think of fairy tales as magical, universal, and timeless. As Zipes points out that writing and telling of given story are really important for understanding how that fairy tale works, what its values are. We also think of fairy tales as “folk tales” stories told orally by ordinary people in daily life. Each fairy-taller chooses to tell a certain story for their own purposes. We think about both the ideas underlying the plot of the fairy tale, and the values emphasized by its telling in this specific way.
Most of us are different in the various of the story . Many authors, illustrators, and even screen writers have put their own spin on the story of “Red Riding Hood”.
One of the earliest written versions of “Red Riding Hood”
This version of the tale was penned by the French author Charles Rerrault and published in 1697 in a collection of fairy tales titled “Histories et contes du demps passé avec des moralites. Cortes de ma mer’. Which means “Tales and stories of the past with Morals. Tales of Mother Goose”.
We could download an illustrated version of “The Blue Fairy Book” by Andrew Lang in 1889. We could express our surprise about this version of the story and make of the ending. There have been debates about the origin of the tale we now know as “Little Red Riding Hood”.
The story of a girl, usually with a red hood or other red clothing who encounters a wolf can be found in many cultures, and has been traced as an 11-th century French poem written in latin, and connected with a story called “The Grandmother’s tale’ or” The Paths of Neddles and Pins” in which the girl meets a wolf (or werewolf) who offers her the choice between taking the path of needless or the path of pins to her grandmother’s cottage.
The earliest written version of the story was written by Charles Perrault in 1697. Since his publication of the story it has been translated into many languages and adapted. A picture printed in London where thw story is given in English rhyme and the heroine is named Biddy ( a short “Bridget” of the English or Irish name). Then we are asked if we have read or seen a version of” The Grandmother’s Tale or another story in which a wolf attempts to deceive same one. We could recall stories from other cultures with similar themes. I chose the tale
“The wolf and the 7 little goats”
There was once an old goat who had 7 little goats and she was fond of them. One day she had to go into the wood to fetch food for them. The wolf knocked at the door. But the little kids knew it was the wolf by their mother’s voice. And they cried they won’t open the door.
The most interesting thing for me was “ Back to nature” , the video when we discussed the idea of the forest or woods as a dangerous space.
What idea do we have of the forest, woods, or bush? How do people now think about the untamed natural environment?
My answer: “ Woods and forests describe similar natural areas full of trees, but woods are smaller and has less density of trees that a forest. Forest, wood, bush, jungle are scores of trees in a natural setting. Forests are larger in size, where the lands are full of trees and other flora. A wood is also an area in the wild area is covered with trees, but it is much smaller than a forest. We go into the woods and not into the forest. In my childhood I lived not far from a forest or a wood. I don’t know even now. I often went for a walk there for mushrooms and berries, nuts etc.
During this English Course I remembered new words: 1. Bushes-кустарники; 2.viburnum – калина; 3. Elder – бузина; 4. Hazel- орешник; 5. Gooseberry- крыжовник; 6. Raspberries- малина; 7. Buckthorn- крушина.
1.10 Perrault shows how Red Riding Hood leaves the safety of her mother’s house, her engaging in childish activities – gathering nuts and flowers, chasing butterflies. Perrault has known upper-class children who did enjoy this classic images of well-bred children might do well into the 20-th century. Perrault describes and the moral he draws is that illustrators and others have found it hard to decide how old Little Red Riding Hood actually is a toddler (малышка), just 3 or 4 years old, others suggest that she may be in her early teens.
Then the educator asked the question: “ How old was Little Red Riding Hood?”
Then we watched the video where we mentioned Perrault’s morals to each of his fairy tales. It’s interesting that in this one he seems to tale it for granted that “girl meets wolf” should be read as “ girl meets dangerous man” – and his idea of “most dangerous” is a polite and unassuming man who can pursue young women at home and in the streets. And then we should answer the questions: was Red Riding Hood foolish for talking to the wolf because he was a stranger or just because was a wolf? And must young girls always beware of strange men?
Approaches to fairy tales
Zipes’s approach may be called “sociocultural” and represents one of the major contemporary approaches to fairy tale.
Another significant approach to fairy tale taken by scholars of the past century may be termed “structural”. This goes back to the work of Vladimir Prop in Russia. Propp analysed Russian folk tales in his book “Morphology of the Folktale, identifying a number of steps of the fairy tale hero. Other scholars have also focused on what fairy tales have in common , rather than what locates them in a specific culture, grouping them according to the nature of the protagonist. The scholar Bruno Bettelheim led a 3-d approach to folk and fairy tale. Bettelheim saw the purpose of every folktale as being to assist the child listeners to develop emotional resitience to face their lives. This approach may be termed “psychoanalytic”. Bettelheim believed that Perrault distorted the original story of “Little Red Riding Hood”, changing it from a story about a child in danger who is rescued.
Story Time: The Grimms’ “Little Red-Cap”
We could read the Grimm’s story in late 19-th century English translation for ourselves in PDF. The Grimms version is the one that Bettleheim thinks of as “original”. The Grimm brothers collected tales well over a century later than Perrault and published this version of the story in 1812. Unlike Perrault’s, the Grimms’ purpose writing stories was to highlight German culture by bringing together as many folktales of all kinds (including jokes). They talked to peasants like Red-Cap’s grandmother, young middle-class girls and their nurses. So the Grimms received the story as an oral telling, an oral folktale. We see this in our own time as stories are adapted on film, or cartoon, or TV stories.
We were asked: Have we seen film or other video versions of this story? And how did they represent its main characters?
In the video I pointed out the emphasis in the 1-st part of the Grimms’ story on good behavior and especially good manners. The Little Red Cap like little Red Riding Hood is very polite when she meets the wolf – she doesn’t scream and run away.
And in the course we must think: Are little Red-Cap’s main problems in dealing with the wolf? Was she too polite?
In the Grimms’ version of the story they go into a lot of details. “Little Red-Cap locates the cottage carefully, Perrault’s orientation by village is short and practical. The Grimms’ wolf offers the temptation of the senses , but in” Little Red Riding Hood” the wolf offers a simple challenge. So the Grimms’ are presenting Red-Cap as dealing with a moral temptation rather than a moral as Perrault’s does.
Then we must answer the question: Do we find the Grimms’ version more or less effective than Perraults’ in the wolf’s thread to the girl?
The rescuer in Perrault’s story is a woodcutter. The Grimms say he is a huntman, so someone with a weapon, a gun. In Christian theology – these tales are based on a historically Christian culture – animals cannot sin, but if it is a wolf , he can be judged.
Then we must answer the questions: How important is magic in solving problems in fairy-tale? Will this story work for a child who can’t acceptable impossible?
Feminist scholars of the 1970s used to complain that girls in fairy tales were always victims in need of rescue by a male, but there are a lot of European tales in which the girls solved their own problems.
Then we must answer the questions: What messages do we associate with fairy tales about girls? Are they usually active heroines or just princesses waiting for the handsome prince?
In the more famous ending of “Little Red-Cap” the huntman has the reward of the wolf, grandmother has her food and wine; the Little Red-Cap has her lesson; not to leave the path.
Learning one’s lesson is a major goal of many folk-and fairy tales.
This Week №1 we had explored 2 versions of the famous story of “Little Red Riding Hood”, and observed how not only the plot of the narrative but details. We had seen that that both Perrault and the Grimms make assumptions about the habits and the values of their characters and we had also reflected on the different possible ways of thinking about fairy tales themselves.
Week №2
This week we examined Beaumont’s 18-th century “Beauty and the Beast” («Красавица и Чудовище») and observed the language she used to convey her values.
The idea of beauty
We started looking at the story of “Beauty and the Beast”, and considered how the beast had been imagined. We watched an illustration of the beast by Walter Crane from the George Routledge and Sons 1875 translation “of de Beamont’s Belle et la bête. This week we looked at the story of “Beauty and the Beast” with its historical origins as a plot and how it has been adapted on the version written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in the 18-th Century.
Then we had the opportunity to write our own description of the Beast and shared ideas of what the ideal lover should look like. To begin with, we should read Beamont’s version of “Beauty and the Beast”. In the downloads section at the bottom of this step, there was a link to an illustrated PDF of the 1-st English version of the story, which she wrote originally in French.
Then we must answer the question: What did we think of the story?
“Beauty and the Beast” written by Jeanne –Marie le Prince de Beaumont illustrated by Peter Lawrence. From “The Young Misses Magazine “, translated from “Le Magasin des enfants”, on dialogues entre une sage Gouvernante et plusieurs de ses Eleves (1756), London 1761.
In the video I surveyed the range of stories with plots similar to “Beauty and the Beast” that go back in European culture for thousand of years.
Then we must answer the questions: “Have we read or seen a version of the story of “Beauty and the Beast”? Do we know other versions besides the ones I mentioned? Perhaps we can describe a very similar story that comes from our corner of the world?”
In the case of Beauty we know she’s very beautiful and we can fill in for ourselves what the ideal beautiful girl looks like.
But what does the Beast look like in the 1-st part of the story?
He’s obviously a scary figure who frightens Beauty’s father at sight and Beaumont refers to him as an ugly monster, but she doesn’t give any other details.
In the “Cupid and Psyche” story (история «Купидон и Психея» the girl’s sisters refer to her partner as a monster, and Beamont uses the phrase “frequently”. Illustrators have imagined the monstrous Beast in all sorts of ways, but have generally drawn on ideas of the animal. So, for instance, the Beast has been pictured as lion- like , or as an ogre ((oger) – великан-людоед, or even as a wild boar (pig), as well as some imagined hybrid creature
Then we must answer the question: What do you think the Beast looks like?
Then there was a little creative writing exercise: to write a short description of the Beast and post it so that others can read and respond to it too. We might be surprised at how others imagine the Beast.
My answer was: A Beast is an unbridled monster, full of fury and hate. A demon with many heads and a tale. ( Synonymes: terrible, awful, dreadful, horrible, appaling, dire.)
Which versions?
In looking at “Little Red Riding Hood” we noted that there are a number of quite distinct versions of what is the Red Riding Hood story.
I’ve mentioned related versions of the “Beauty and the Beast “plot.
We were asked the questions: Do we know different versions of the “Beauty and the Beast” story? What is different about them-differenties in characters, plot, ending?
I answered: «Красавица и чудовище», «Красавица и уродина» (“The Hottie and the Mottie”
“Beauty and the Beast in the 18-th century
An illustration of Beauty by Walter Crane, the George Routledge and Sons 1875 translation of de Beaumont’s Belle et la bête.
The story “La Belle et la Bete” (“The Beauty and the Beast”) was 1-st written and published by the author madame de Villeneuve in 1740, in an elaborate novel-length version. Madame Leprince de Beaumont published a much abridged version of the story in a magazine “Le magazine des enfants” ( “The children’s collection”).
Earlier fairy tale writers
Earlir fairy tale writers such as Charles Perrault and Madame d’Aulnoy also wrote to educate their readers, but most of the French fairy tales written at the end of the 17-th century were written by adult aristocrats for each other.
Beamont was writing for young girls of the upper classes, as they have a governess private teacher.
In d’Aulnoy’s “Le serpentin vert” (“The Green Snake” the emphasis is on the value of civilite in men and women: sincerity, politeness, decorum, constancy.
Beauty is confronted with the need for self-sacrifice.
Beamont also emphasizes self-sacrifice, but her story invokes other values and ideals for girls.
Beauty learns respect for the worth of the Beast.
Then we must answer the question: As we read the story, what did we see its main message?
In the video I pointed out Beaumont’s emphasis, her good behaviour, her modesty, general niceness around her seem most to value. Her sisters are pretentious and snobbish, jealous, but they are also less beautiful than Beauty is. Physical beauty is a desirable, quality in a woman. It’s also interesting that Beauty’s sisters laugh at her for reading good books. She read books with strong moral values, probably including religious works. But Beauty’s (Belle’s) preference for reading as showing intellect and imagination.
Then we asked to answer the question: Do we find Beaumont’s Beauty an attractive character in the early stages of the story? Which of her qualities is most important for me?
Ordinary life
Beauty’s sisters have absurb ambitions: they plan to marry very high up the social scale, even though their father is only a merchant without a title.
The merchant class in France and England was growing powerful in the 18-th century. The sisters spent their time in leisure activities , they stay at parties very late at night and wake late in the morning, as aristocrats of the period did.
The moral emphasis
Beauty is changing her lifestile, and enjoying, she can reading, playing the harpsichord (клавесин) and singing while she is hard to work spinning wool into yarn ( пряжа) for weaving cloth.
Beauty has made the choice to stay with her father and help him in his new life.
Beauty is such a charming, polite, and generous person. But Beauty refuses to marry, putting her father’s needs before her own.
Then we must answer the question:
What do we think of life in 18-th century France as , Beaumont depicts it?
Do you find Beauty’s behavior wholly admirable or does her goodness seem a title over the top?
Hospitality
The 2-nd part of the story deals with the father’s adventure which film makes have a lot of fun with: he is entertained by magic. The theme is generosity. Latin word “hospes” means both “host” and “guest”. The ancient Romans saw this as a reciprocal relationship.
The Beast valued roses so highly. So the Beast proposes a transaction. But Beauty expresses herself very happy thinking that her death will save her father’s life. Beauty declares her willingness to sacrifice for her father.
Then we must answer the question: Do we think the merchant’s behaviour was wrong, as the Beast does? How do we think about responses to hospitality?
Self-sacrifice, courtesy and thruth
( самопожертвование,обходительность и учтивость)
In the video I remarked on beauty’s eagerness to sacrifice herself not just physically but emotionally: she is determined to conceal a grief that may upset her family. By contrast, her sisters run their eyes with onions, producing a show of emotion that in fact they don’t feel.
Then we must answer the question: What do we think Beamont is suggesting about the expression of emotion in this part of the story?
Gaston or no Gaston?
Several film-makers, including Jean Conteau with the character Avenant ( in the 1946 film “La Belle et la bête) and most famously Disney with Gaston, have thought it desirable to represent Beauty’s /Belle’s suitors as a significant character. In particular, Gaston in the Disney films is depicted not as a gentleman who Beauty might want to marry, if she weren’t committed to her father who doesn’t understand Belle at all - just as her father fails to understand the Beast. He remains a significant presence across the narrative choose the statement that best fits your view of Gaston as a character in the narrative.
Yes, I know you might believe more than one of those.
He represents Belle’s Jack of options
He replaces the 2 sisters bad husbands
He is a great contrast to the Beast
He’s just a distraction from the story (отвлечение)
Show-pony and smart ass
In the video , I highlighted how Beamont uses the sisters’ choices of husband o show her young readers how not to pick a husband. The implication is that these were the main ways (apart the course from high status that young girls in her time either were thinking , or were being encouraged to think, about their future husbands. Desirable qualities were good looks and cleverness - both qualities the Beast explicity states he is lacking though Beauty manages to say he’s not really stupid.
Then we must answer the question: What qualities do we think Beaumont really wants her readers to seek out in a husband? Does Beast actually come off as an attractive character?
Measuring up
My assignment
Beaumont shows us what Beauty’s sisters and other girls of the time wanted in a husband , and also shows us Beauty making a different choice.
Have values changed in modern times? What do we look for in a partner – good looks good figure, good income, good sense of humour?
Then we must write a short paragraph , describing our ideal partner (whether we are met him/her/them or not in the style of a personal diary entry (but not too personal) for a bit of fun. Read one other person’s description of their ideal partner and give them feedback. Remember to be respectful of other people’s values.
Also I wrote my assignment “My ideal partner”.
The sister’s fate
At the end of the story Beauty’s sisters are condemned for their malice. They are proud, selfish, and jealous of her throughout, but they become actively malicious. When they are unhappy, and she is not, planning to trap her by making her produce a situation where the Beast will eat her up. The good fairy who magically appears to wrap up punishes them.
Modern versions of the story often omit Beauty’s siblings. The Disney version does provide her with jealous neighbour girls.
This is one of the elements of Beaumont’s story that is often reproduce in later versions.
Then we must answer the questions: What effect do we think is created by Beaumont’s inclusion of the sisters’ punishment? How does it affect the happy ending?
The reward of virtue (награда за добродетель)
Although Beauty affirms her love for the Beast at a point where he seems the opposite of her sister’s ideals, the fairy tells her that she’s going to get a husband , who possesses these qualities as well as a reward.
Beaumont cuts an element present in Villeneuve’s ending that does not appear in later versions of the story: a detailed explanation for the Beast.
Then we must answer the questions: Do we think the fairy “reward” to Beauty undercuts Beaumont’s lesson about what girls should look for in a husband? Why do we suppose she doesn’t bother to explain why a fairy enchanted the Beast in the 1-st place?
This week №2 we’ve examined Beaumont’s story of “Beauty and the Beast, considering its place in a long tradition of stories of transformation in which a girl must learn to engage with an invisible or monstrous partner.
Week №3
The enigma of “Blue Beard” riddle (Загадка «Синей Бороды»)
We looked at a character who made a horribyingly wrong choice! It was a time to study Perrault’s “Blue Beard”.
At week 3 we were looking further at the history of the literary of the literary fairy tale in Western Europe, observing the many different writers of fairy tales.
We also analysed a rather peculiar (своеобразную) story: Charles Perrault’s “Blue Beard”, which is much less straight forward in its marriage than “Little Red Riding Hood” or Beauty and the Beast”.
The literary fairy tale
The literary fairy tale as we know now it really took off as a genre at the end of the 17-th century, in France, when the aristocrats used to play word games and tell stories or poems to each other as part of their entertainment in their salons.
We have some earlier Italian collections of fairy tales: Straparola’s Piacevoli Notti (“pleasant nights”, 1550) and Basile’s Pentamerone (“5 days”, 1634-36) an old literary device of 14-th century Italian author Boccaccio’s “Decameron” (“10 days)
English poet Geoffrey Chaucer followed Boccaccio’s example in the Canterbury tales. But neither Boccaccio’s stories nor Chaucer’s include what we think of as fairy tales.
At the end of the 17-th century, a number of French writers published collections of fairy tales, most of these were women:
Mademoiselle I’Heritier Oeuvres meslees, 1696
Mademoiselle la Force, les Contes des contes, 1697
Charles Perrault, Histoires ou contos du temps passé 1697
Madame d’Aulnoy, les Contes des Fees, 1697-98
Chesalier de mailly, Les Illustres Fees, 1698
Madame de Murat, Contes de Fees, 1698
Jean de Prechac, Contes moins contes que les aultres, 1698.
Then we must answer the questions: Have we heard of any of these besides Perrault and d’Aulnoy, whom I’ve mentioned in previous week? Why do we think usually women might have found the fairy tales genre?
Some important later writers
We have already thought about Madame de Villeneuve and especially Madame Leprince de Beaumont, the 18-th century authors of “Beauty and the Beast”. However, the fairy tale haven’t been as popular as it had been a little earlier.
In 1812, the brothers Grimm published their 1-st collection of 49 tales, kinder and Hausmarchen ( “ Children and Houseold tales ) known as the Olenberg manuscript. The Grimms collected not only fairy tales, but legends, fables, and jokes. Their collection quickly became popular, and expand it across the next 50 years ( to 211 tales).
In 1825 they published their “Kleine Ausgabe” ( Small Edition, or selection), which included mostly the magic fairy tales. These became as well as popular, inspiring writers across Europe to write literary fairy tales. The most famous of these is the Danish Hans Christian Andersen, who published his 1-st volume of “Eventyr” (“fantastic tales”) starting in 1835.
In England, writers included the Christian allegorical writer George MacDonald; Ms Ewing and Mrs Molesworth, who both wrote didactic fairy tales for children; and Oscar Wilde, the playwright, who wrote fairy tales including “The Happy Prince”. Most of these stories carried strong religious and/or moral messages, like Perrault’s.
The Grimms’ example also inspired others to collect fairy tales.Joseph Jacobs, like the Grimms, focused on national tales, collecting English and Celtic stories ( starting with English fairy tales, 1890), white the folklorist Andrew Lang put together a long series of Coloured Fairy Books that included stories from around the world, starting with the “Blue Fairy Book” (1889) – which among other stories included “Blue Beard”. These were immensely popular.
Then we must answer the questions: Have we read fairy tales by Andersen or later writes? How would we describe the general atmosphere of the stories? Are they similar to the French tales we’ve been reading?
Charles Perrault’s Mother Goose Tales
An illustreation of “Mother Goose” by Gustave Dore from “Fairy real”. A collection of the favourite old tales (1866), which were widely circulated in following years:
“Sleeping Beauty”
“Little Red Riding Hood”
“Blue Beard”
“Puss in Boots”
“Cinderella”
“Ricky with the Tuft”
“The Fairies”
“Hop o’My Thumb”
Many of these became popular not only as stories told to children , but, in Britain, as pantomimes, with traditional costumes and stereotyped characters. Pantomimes had been popular theoretical entertainment for several centuries, and continued to be performed as family entertainment , especially at Christmas, well into the 20-th century.
They, along with the Coloured Fairy Books, shaped the associations many children had with fairy tales prior to Disney.
Then we must answer the question:
What kinds of messages do we associate with them?
A woodcut illustration of “Barbe Bleue” (Blue beard), by Gustave Dore (1832-1883). A composition copied many times by other artists, but first published in “Les Contes de Perrault”, 1862.
Then we must answer the questions:
Have you ever heard of the story “Blue beard”? What about your friends and your family?
Before you read the story, find someone who has heard of this fairy tale. Don’t forget up until you’ve asked 5 people.
What was their guess at the story if they hadn’t heard of it? How about you? Have you ever come across this story? What comes to mind when you hear the name “Blue Beard” ( or “Bluebeard”)?Who is this man?
In the video that I downloaded and mentioned that the story has been classified as one of the “Maider killer” stories, ATU 312. These involve a woman needing rescue from a dangerous abductor or husband.
There are many such tales worldwide: in ATU 312 stories her brothers rescues the wife. But in the ATU 312 stories often known as “Fitcher’s Bird” after a Grimm story she rescues herself, and this is also true in the similar Robber Bridegroom stories.
Feminist scholar Heidi Heiner says that the Maiden-Killer stories are the most disturbing, because here the woman is most helpless, depending on other for her rescue.
Before I go further, I should read “Blue Beard” myself. There’s a PDF of the story at the page.
Then we must answer the questions:
Do we think the woman in this story has no agency?
What do we make of her choice at the beginning of the story?
Here’s the key to…
As I remarked at the video, Blue Beard seems to supply more detail about this key. His wife reacts by going into a spin.
The idea of civilite , a major concern of the French upper classes in the time of Perrault and noted that the girl has decided Blue Beard is a very civil gentleman , so meeting the standards of society.
Then we must answer the question:
Why do we suppose the wife in this story is so excited by the idea of the little key?
Then we chose our own adventure and made test.
The frightful discovery
The story has been realistic: the aristocratic woman with her daughters to be married off; the mysterious but attractively wealthy man.
But all this time, it seems, Blue Beard kept his wife’s bodies in his closet, with the floor clotted with blood.
Then we must answer the questions:
Can we think of practical problems with keeping the bodies in a little closet?
Can we think of any possible reasons why Blue Beard might have developed the habit of keeping his wives in this way?
A symbolic key
In this story , whatever we think about the closet of dead wives, the key that cannot be cleaned is clearly such a magical feature: Samber’s translation calls it a “fairy”, a magical creature.
In the video, I suggested that the moment of magic in a fairy tale (Zaubermarchen, the German word for fairy-tale, literary means “magic tale”) is usually especially significant, and noted the possible psychoanalytic interpretation that this is in some way about the bride discovering the reality of her sexual relationship with her husband.
Then we must answer the questions:
Why do we suppose this image appears in relation to the wife discovering that her husband has murdered his wives?
What does this suggest to us about marriage as shown in the story at this point?
In the rewriting time
We must answer the following questions:
What do we think the main message of Perrault’s story is?
We must write a short version of it just a paragraph or two bringing it into our own time if we like, that makes that message clear.
My assignment
I consider that the story was written clearly. The main message of this story is identifiable in the original Blue Beard. This version of the story has more relevant and appeal to a modern-day audience. This man had a blue beard, which made him so ugly and so terrible that all the women and girls ran away from her.
Same moral, different story
Then we are suggested to take the time to use the same guidelines to evaluate the work of two of our peers.
Moral or Immoral
There are the 2 moralities Perrault himself appended to his story.
Moral: However attractive it is, curiosity all too often results in regret. We see thousands of examples every day!
Other moral: Even if we hardly know anything about the world, we can readily tell that is a story of the past.
I suggested in the video that there’s something a bit odd about Perrault’s story and his morals to it.
Then we must answer the questions:
What do we make of Perrault’s morals? Do they bear and relation to our own interpretation of the story’s message?
Quiz “Were we paying attention?”
Which fairy tale defention is the most occurate in relation to the tales we have read?
2.Which of these statements best describes the sociocultural approach to fairy tales?
3. A major difference between Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood” and the Grimm’s “Little Red Cap” is…
4. A feature of Beamont’s “Beauty” and the “Beast” that is often omitted in modern versions is…
5. Charles Perrault states that the moral of “Bluebeard” is…
Conclusion
In the past 3 weeks we have been studying 3 European fairy tales, and observing the different strategies they use to engage readers and convey particular ideas.
I’ve pointed out 3 major approaches to fairy tales: 1. Sociocultural; 2. Structural and 3. Psychological. The structural focuses on what different stories have in common, grouping them by plot, while the psychological looks at the effects they have on readers ; it can include psychoanalytic interpretation of the imagery of the story, such as the closet of blood in “Blue Beard”.
The sociological approach, which is what we’ve mostly been practicing in the past 3 weeks, looks at the differencies between stories told at different times in different cultures .
It’s arguable that Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood” and the Grimms “Little Red Cap” send quite different messages to their readers because of the narrative emphasis on different issues across the story.
Then we must answer the question:
What do we feel we have learned from this course?
We made nice job and devoured 3 weeks of some challenging material.
The team at the University of Newcastle had a lot of fun putting this course together for us and we’ll have the opportunity to come and visit one of the beautiful campuses in Australia in person one day.
Three weeks went quickly and I’ve enjoyed them.
Sites:
[email protected]
http://www.futurelearn.com
http://about.futurelearn.com/about/faq
http://futurelearn.zendesk.com
[email protected]
14
2 900
16 485 
