Bluebeard

The primary power of “Blue Beard” resides in its use of symbolism, which means imbuing specific elements in a piece of art with additional ideas and meanings. Perrault effectively deploys precise visual imagery that is simple and striking, such as The Blue Beard, the key stained with blood, and the slit throats of the wives. Such uncomplicated and visceral pictures tap into deep human fears around the unnatural and the violent, allowing for multi-faceted interpretations of the meaning of the text. The morals at the end of “Blue Beard” illuminate the centrality of symbolism to this fairy tale, the first by stating “every day a thousand examples appear” (77), highlighting that this particular gory example was chosen for a reason. The second archly suggests that “if one takes a sensible point of view” (78), the story will feel distant and irrelevant to modern life—emphasizing that the staying power of “Blue Beard” relies on the fact that readers do not experience it with their sensible minds but with their embodied emotions.