Versions of Bluebeard

A “Bluebeard” story possesses three distinctive characteristics (Tatar 1999: 138). Firstly they have some sort of forbidden chamber which is out of bounds from a certain character. Secondly, there is someone who enforces the ban from the forbidden chamber and dishes out punishments. And thirdly, there is someone who breaks the ban. Many traditional as well as modern stories still follow a “Bluebeard” storyline. Stories such as the Brother Grimms “Fitcher’s bird” and Joseph Jacob’s “Mr Fox” along with modern stories such as “Bluebeard’s Egg” by Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter’s  “The Bloody Chamber” all posses aspects and characteristic which relate them to Perrault’s “Bluebeard” story.