Bluebeard and its multiple layers of meaning

Resumo

This article challenges the position taken by some experts in the field of fairy tales that critics have misinterpreted fairy tales (ZIPES, 2007). I argue that one cannot be sure of the narrator’s intention and that the meanings conveyed by a fairy tale can be constructed in different ways (NODELMAN; REIMER, 2003). Supports for this argument come from the analysis of Bluebeard (PERRAULT, 2002) from different perspectives: historical (ZIPES, 2006), feminist, and Jungian, (e.g., ESTÉS, 1995), Freudianian (e.g., BETTELHEIM, 1977) and Lacanian (HERMANSSON, 2009). Discussions of the various layers of meaning that these approaches might convey are explored. I conclude by showing that Bluebeard, a complex work of art, is remarkable for its contemporaneity.