Conversely, the Bluebeard legend (as written by Perrault), hides Bluebeard’s true personality until the end. In the legend, Bluebeard gets described as a wealthy, but ugly man due to his blue beard. He has an eye on two daughters, both of whom reject him for his ugly beard and suspicion behind the disappearances of his past wives. To change this perception, “Blue Beard... took them, with their mother and three or four ladies of their acquaintance, with other young people of the neighborhood, to one of his country houses” (Perrault np). In the original story, Bluebeard tries to bribe the daughters in order to find him desirable for marriage. At this point, his behavior does not appear odd and seems quite generous. This attempt works, as “the
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The heroine quickly comes to like Jean-Yves, the piano tuner the Marquis hires. They bond over their love of music during the Marquis’s absences. After the protagonist finally sees the bodies and proof of the Marquis’s killer tendencies, she encounters him in the music room. For her, “to see him [piano tuner], in his lovely, blind humanity, seemed to hurt me piercingly, somewhere inside my breast:” (Carter 135). Carter contrasts the ugliness of the Marquis’s secret closet to the appearance of the “lovely” piano tuner. The Marquis represents the worst of humanity while Jean-Yves represents the best of it. And then, the Marquis comes home and the tuner realizes the danger the heroine is in. Jean-Yves tells her “‘You have no more time,’ … ‘He is here. I know it. I must stay with you,’” (Carter 136). Jean-Yves cannot do much as a blind man. Yet, he realizes that he can at least comfort the protagonist when the Marquis arrives. The Marquis, on the other hand, has no qualms about terrifying her and even tries to kill her after she finds out about his true identity. In the end, after being saved by her mother, the protagonist “[has] the right to retain sufficient funds to start a little music school here… and we do well enough” (Carter 143). The heroine comes to inherit the Marquis’s wealth and provides for herself, Jean-Yves, and her mother. She crafts her own happy ending by starting a music school, something she and Jean-Yves can do together. This is unconventional as she starts the school with her funds and allows Jean-Yves to come work there alongside her. Even the protagonist’s old nurse “had taken so much secret pleasure in fact that her little girl had become a marquise; and now here I was, scarcely a penny the richer… setting up house with a [blind]
The heroine quickly comes to like Jean-Yves, the piano tuner the Marquis hires. They bond over their love of music during the Marquis’s absences. After the protagonist finally sees the bodies and proof of the Marquis’s killer tendencies, she encounters him in the music room. For her, “to see him [piano tuner], in his lovely, blind humanity, seemed to hurt me piercingly, somewhere inside my breast:” (Carter 135). Carter contrasts the ugliness of the Marquis’s secret closet to the appearance of the “lovely” piano tuner. The Marquis represents the worst of humanity while Jean-Yves represents the best of it. And then, the Marquis comes home and the tuner realizes the danger the heroine is in. Jean-Yves tells her “‘You have no more time,’ … ‘He is here. I know it. I must stay with you,’” (Carter 136). Jean-Yves cannot do much as a blind man. Yet, he realizes that he can at least comfort the protagonist when the Marquis arrives. The Marquis, on the other hand, has no qualms about terrifying her and even tries to kill her after she finds out about his true identity. In the end, after being saved by her mother, the protagonist “[has] the right to retain sufficient funds to start a little music school here… and we do well enough” (Carter 143). The heroine comes to inherit the Marquis’s wealth and provides for herself, Jean-Yves, and her mother. She crafts her own happy ending by starting a music school, something she and Jean-Yves can do together. This is unconventional as she starts the school with her funds and allows Jean-Yves to come work there alongside her. Even the protagonist’s old nurse “had taken so much secret pleasure in fact that her little girl had become a marquise; and now here I was, scarcely a penny the richer… setting up house with a [blind]