Bluebeard

Though she is unnamed, Blue Beard’s wife is the protagonist of this fairy tale. Referred to by various epithets in the text such as “the young bride” (72) and “the poor unhappy girl,” (75) the heroine’s lack of a name underscores her as an archetypical young woman: beautiful, naive, and ultimately in need of rescue. However, she also drives the narrative, with each advancement in the plot resulting from an action the young bride takes. Through this duality, she embodies the theme of Female Agency and vulnerability.

This young woman undergoes the only dynamic arc in “Blue Beard,” beginning as “the younger daughter” (71) who makes the foolish decision to marry a sinister man because he threw an eight-day party. By the climax, she is “the poor woman” (77) whose experience of terror has rendered her “nearly as dead as her husband” (77). She then makes prudent decisions with the wealth she inherits to provide for her family and finds herself a virtuous husband, suggesting she’s gained wisdom from the horror of her first marriage—and perhaps benefited from her pursuit of Transgressive Knowledge.

It is notable that the young bride is only able to achieve maturity thanks to her rescue by her family.