The Bloody Chamber


A bloody chamber is one of the common appearances in “Bluebeard” stories. While the appearance of this room differs in different retellings the purpose remains the same. This room is where the “Bluebeard” figure does his killing and is where he stores all of the bodies of the woman he had killed. In Perrault’s version the bloody chamber is a small room, in which the floor is covered with blood and there are several dead women hung up on the walls. In “Fitcher’s Bird” the bloody chamber is also a small room with a large bloody basin in the middle filled with dead people who had been chopped to pieces. In “Mr Fox” the room is full of bodies and skeletons all stained with blood. No such room is described in “The Robber Bridegroom”, however as these robbers are described as cannibals we can assume that they eat all of the women that they kill and so therefore do not need a room to keep them in. This chamber is seen as the inspiration for so many of the bloody rooms which we see in movies today.
 

(Tatar 2003: 163)

In both Perrault’s “Bluebeard” and the brothers Grimm’s “Fitcher’s Bird” the bloody chamber is forbidden. The “bluebeard” figure prohibits his wife or wife to be, to go into the bloody chamber which the key opens, by warning that if they disobey they will die. In these stories this forbidden bloody chamber represents the secret that the “bluebeard” figure wants to keep from his wife. However, he knows full well that the female will not be able to help herself from going into this forbidden room.

 

The “Mr Fox” story is a bit different. There isn’t a forbidden room in this as such. However, it is implied that the house which Mr Fox lives in is what he wants to keep hidden. In the story “Mr Fox”, Lady Mary is not forbidden to go to Mr Fox’s house, rather she is drawn to it out of the curiosity that he has never asked her to see it. It is while she is in the house that Lady Mary discovers the Bloody Chamber.

  The Bloody Chamber in these story’s represents the horrid nature of these “Bluebeard” figures. In the case of Perrault version it also helps to shows the effects of being too curious and what you can set your self up for by disobeying orders.