Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

The story of Bluebeard revolves around a rich man who had been married many times before²⁸, but found a new young and beautiful wife. After the wedding, he announced to his young wife that he had to leave on some business. He gave her the palace keys; she was also told that she could open any room with them, except for an underground chamber. Bluebeard strictly forbade her to enter or she would suffer his wrath. He then went away, leaving the palace and the keys in her hands.

She is eventually overcome with the desire to see what the secret room holds. She discovered that the room was flooded with blood and the murdered corpses of Bluebeard’s previous six wives. They were all hanging on hooks from the walls. Horrified, she dropped the key in the blood and fled from the room. She tried to wipe the blood stain off the key, but the key is magic and the stain cannot be removed from it. Bluebeard unexpectedly returned and found the bloody key. In a blind rage, he threatens to kill his wife on the spot.²⁹

Moral of Bluebeard’s Story

Obviously, the modern-day reader would think that the ‘moral of the story’ is that young women should think twice about marrying rich old men suspected of murdering their previous wives. But perhaps Bluebeard’s story isn’t so much about murderous husbands and murdered wives? The story was written in the seventeenth century when people had different ideas about how women should behave; at this time, “Bluebeard” would be interpreted as a cautionary tale that women should curtail their curiosity and obey their husbands so that no harm would come to them.³⁰

In other words, this follows from the teachings of the Bible. Eve’s curiosity led to sin (Genesis 18:16–33). The Bible also tells us that wives should obey their husbands, just as they obey God.³¹ The Bible reiterates this theme hundreds of times; one should always submit to authority, the authority of husbands, parents, rulers, and so on.

The fact that rulers are sometimes immoral, unethical, or damn right evil and agents of the Devil, is irrelevant according to St. Paul and the Bible. The list of evil Christian rulers is a long one; the most prominent in recent history being Adolf Hitler and his Nazi thugs. In other words, the Bible promotes the abominations of evil governments in the verses of St. Paul.  

²⁸ “La Barbe bleue,” in Charles Perrault’s collection of fairy tales, Contes de ma mère l’oye. 1697 (Tales of Mother Goose). https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bluebeard-literary-character Read: 18 January 2023.

²⁹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard#Plot

³⁰ https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/bluebeard-revisited-knowledge-power#:~:text=Bluebeard%20is%20often%20interpreted%20as,Perrault’s%2017th%20century%20contemporaries. Read: 18 January 2023.

³¹ “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22).